AMCAS Application Experience help!

[mizbez]

Hi guys, I went to my pre-med advisor today... and it totally wasn't helpful! They weren't able to answer some of my AMCAS experience questions so maybe someone who sees this might be able to help out

• I have one course that I took that had me interning in an emergency room for 150 hours, where I got to be hands on with the staff in providing care to patients. This was technically an internship school course so I was wondering what category this would go under if put on the application? My advisor didn't know. I'd like it to count as medical somehow since I was in the ER doing the work alongside the techs and nurses and able to interact with any patients in the department.
• I also volunteered at a non-profit in their Women's Health department where I helped with set up and take notes during women's health courses for refugees from all over the world. This would be considered non-medical correct?
• I volunteered as an ultrasound model at the local med school for a third year medical student course and for a three day college of emergency physicians symposium for about 30 hours total. It was such an immense learning experience and I had a really great time there learning along with the students and physicians. Would this be an appropriate experience to include on my AMCAS?

Thanks for your time! I always feel as though I'm SOL with the pre-med advisors at my school

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[El-Rami]

1. Depends. Was this paid or just credit received?
2. This might be clinical. Refer to LizzyM's "If you can smell patients, it is clinical experience."
3. Sure, why not? I would list it if you learned from it somehow.

At the end of the day, you have human beings reading your application. AMCAS will not return an application because you entered something incorrectly in the Work/Activities section. Use your best judgement and be sure to describe the experience.

 

[mizbez]

Thanks for your reply! It was unpaid just for credit received for the ER course. And I definitely agree with how you put the third one My advisor said it sounded like I was just looking for padding in my experiences with the ultrasound things at the med school, but I thought that was a really superficial analysis. It was a genuine learning experience not only about the technology but also to see what physicians from everywhere knew as their standards of care in the ER - most were older and/or rural area physicians and had never even been around an ultrasound machine before so I got to help teach them what to look for in a patient and it was super fun!

 

[El-Rami]

Thanks for your reply! It was unpaid just for credit received for the ER course. And I definitely agree with how you put the third one My advisor said it sounded like I was just looking for padding in my experiences with the ultrasound things at the med school, but I thought that was a really superficial analysis. It was a genuine learning experience not only about the technology but also to see what physicians from everywhere knew as their standards of care in the ER - most were older and/or rural area physicians and had never even been around an ultrasound machine before so I got to help teach them what to look for in a patient and it was super fun!

To be honest, I wouldn't listen to everything an adviser says, unless it comes straight from a medical school deans office. If you learned from it and grew somehow as a result, it is worthy of placement. I had tons of things I listed on AMCAS, and the challenge was condensing it.

It is also dependent on how you spin it. You can sometimes make an experience sound boring/uninteresting or you can make the same experience sound interesting with a convincing explanation of how it transformed you as a person. Of course, people can smell bull, but many times experiences come across a certain way by how you explain it. If you truly feel like it was a learning experience, list it. If not, then it is just padding.

 

[blueharbor]

Hi guys, I went to my pre-med advisor today... and it totally wasn't helpful! They weren't able to answer some of my AMCAS experience questions so maybe someone who sees this might be able to help out

• I have one course that I took that had me interning in an emergency room for 150 hours, where I got to be hands on with the staff in providing care to patients. This was technically an internship school course so I was wondering what category this would go under if put on the application? My advisor didn't know. I'd like it to count as medical somehow since I was in the ER doing the work alongside the techs and nurses and able to interact with any patients in the department.
• I also volunteered at a non-profit in their Women's Health department where I helped with set up and take notes during women's health courses for refugees from all over the world. This would be considered non-medical correct?
• I volunteered as an ultrasound model at the local med school for a third year medical student course and for a three day college of emergency physicians symposium for about 30 hours total. It was such an immense learning experience and I had a really great time there learning along with the students and physicians. Would this be an appropriate experience to include on my AMCAS?

Thanks for your time! I always feel as though I'm SOL with the pre-med advisors at my school

The ER hands-on experience would go best under "Community Service/Volunteer - Medical/Clinical." Whatever category you choose, it will be regarded as clinical experience.

The non-profit experience would be "Community Service/Volunteer - Not Medical/Clinical" because the refugees were not patients in that setting.

The ultrasound experience would be fine to include since it had such an impact on you.

I'm using the category names from the 2014-2015 application (I don't know if they've changed anything since then).