AMCAS Activities

[hopefuldoctorz]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

I have a couple of questions regarding categorizing my experiences. I have read the official activities threat, but I am still somewhat questioning.
1. I started a student chapter of a non-profit, which I have served as President for as three years. I currently have this listed as leadership, though almost all of my non-clinical volunteering has been done through this. If I do not list this as non-clinical volunteering (about 300 hours), then I only have 100 other hours from another organization in this category. I know adcoms can see that things are easily cross categorized, but I worry that if they sort the entries, they may not see my other volunteering.
2. I served as a TA for three semesters, one of which I was lead TA. Currently, I only have this experience listed under teaching, but should I make a separate leadership entry for the Lead TA role?

 

[chaim123]

I have a couple of questions regarding categorizing my experiences. I have read the official activities threat, but I am still somewhat questioning.
1. I started a student chapter of a non-profit, which I have served as President for as three years. I currently have this listed as leadership, though almost all of my non-clinical volunteering has been done through this. If I do not list this as non-clinical volunteering (about 300 hours), then I only have 100 other hours from another organization in this category. I know adcoms can see that things are easily cross categorized, but I worry that if they sort the entries, they may not see my other volunteering.
2. I served as a TA for three semesters, one of which I was lead TA. Currently, I only have this experience listed under teaching, but should I make a separate leadership entry for the Lead TA role?

Have faith that they will read your app, and know that a TA teaches, and that your non-profit work is volunteer. I don't believe it is that computerized that you should be worried about it.

 

[theKingLT]

I have a couple of questions regarding categorizing my experiences. I have read the official activities threat, but I am still somewhat questioning.
1. I started a student chapter of a non-profit, which I have served as President for as three years. I currently have this listed as leadership, though almost all of my non-clinical volunteering has been done through this. If I do not list this as non-clinical volunteering (about 300 hours), then I only have 100 other hours from another organization in this category. I know adcoms can see that things are easily cross categorized, but I worry that if they sort the entries, they may not see my other volunteering.
2. I served as a TA for three semesters, one of which I was lead TA. Currently, I only have this experience listed under teaching, but should I make a separate leadership entry for the Lead TA role?

In the future you can just post your questions in this thread *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2018-2019*~*~*~*

The answer to both your questions lies in how many hours you spend doing actual leadership type stuff vs. volunteering/teaching. Example 1: I am in the same situation as you for a non-profit with about 200 hours volunteering and another 200 of leadership type stuff as I run the org. Since both parts were of adequate hours and I also wanted to list the leadership stuff as MM, I made 2 entries, one as leadership and one as volunteering. 2nd example: I have a paid job which includes supervisor responsibilities after I was promoted; however the supervisor responsibilities are only a small part of what I do and not sufficient for its own entry. Therefore I listed the job as one paid-clinical entry and in the title listed said "[job] + shift supervisor". then in the description how long I had also been supervisor and what responsibilities that entailed.

Have faith that they will read your app, and know that a TA teaches, and that your non-profit work is volunteer. I don't believe it is that computerized that you should be worried about it.

From what I've heard this can be hit or miss because not everyone will read thoroughly through all activities, and as a result it's best for activities that cross groupings to emphasize the other aspect in the title. @Catalystik has been very helpful on this stuff and may have something to add.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

You can list the club as non-clinical volunteering and list it as most meaningful. In your narrative, you can clearly indicate that you were president and also make sure to write a paragraph about the service itself.

 

[hopefuldoctorz]

Thanks for the responses so far, everybody. Since I know you are both adcom members, would @Goro or @LizzyM have anything to add regarding my original post.

 

[Goro]

The non-profit sure seems like leadership.

 

[hopefuldoctorz]

The non-profit sure seems like leadership.

So to be clear, if I leave it as leadership, then that would probably be the best heading. I was just worried that adcoms were counting hours and they went straight to certain categories rather than evaluate each individual listing.