AMCAS- coming summer activities?

[qtrlifecrisis]

I will be applying this coming cycle, and have a bunch of clinical opportunities lined up for the summer. Since I plan to submit my application in June (before I embark on said opportunities) I was wondering whether most people include summer-of-applying activities on the AMCAS primary, or alternatively, save them for secondaries.
Thanks!

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[mongrel]

Ditto this question!

 

[tdd340]

AMCAS doesn't want future activities listed in the activities section, although if you have started it by the time you submit by all means list it along with the start date and when you plan to finish. If you will be starting it after you submit AMCAS save it for secondaries or updates depending on the school.

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

I included one activity that I was starting about the time that I send in my primary.

When doing your primary, I would focus first on work/activities that you've spent significant time doing or that were important to your decision to apply to medical school. If, after that, you still have room, then include the summer stuff.

I don't think there's any reason to wait until secondaries

 

[HumbleMD]

Only talk about activities you are currently engaged in at time of submitting your primary, or have already passed (in your college career, not high school). Activities done later can be included on a secondary or update letter. One wouldn't want to list an acitivity, have it fall through, and then have an interviewer ask about it in an interview. I mean, when I listed that I was going to "end health disparities worldwide" I felt silly when my interviewer asked how that turned out...

 

[AnEyeLikeMars]

Only talk about activities you are currently engaged in at time of submitting your primary, or have already passed (in your college career, not high school). Activities done later can be included on a secondary or update letter. One wouldn't want to list an acitivity, have it fall through, and then have an interviewer ask about it in an interview. I mean, when I listed that I was going to "end health disparities worldwide" I felt silly my interviewer asked how that turned out...

That's a good point. Now I feel like maybe you should wait. You should have enough activities for the primary by this point anyway.

 

[foofish]

Only talk about activities you are currently engaged in at time of submitting your primary, or have already passed (in your college career, not high school). Activities done later can be included on a secondary or update letter. One wouldn't want to list an acitivity, have it fall through, and then have an interviewer ask about it in an interview. I mean, when I listed that I was going to "end health disparities worldwide" I felt silly when my interviewer asked how that turned out...

I agree for the most part, although if something is a done deal that you're starting asap, I think it's fair game...especially for those of us who have finished school by the point they're applying. When I submitted my secondary I had just finished school and had already been hired to work full-time for a year in a neuro lab...so I certainly put my job down even though it was a few weeks before my start date. I figured it a) would be weirder *not* to include anything about what I was now doing with myself, and b) as a full-time job it clearly was going to be a significant "activity" in my life.

But you get the picture: anything not set in stone, or something that clearly is not an important part of your life (or will be), I agree, belongs in the secondary or an update letter.

 

[Disinence2]

I had a "Future Activities" Activity on my AMCAS. But I only put down the things i was already committed too. Didn't get asked about any of them on any of my interviews.

 

[TheAmazingGOB]

I would only list them if you have actually started the activity. I started volunteering in a hospital ICU in early July and submitted my AMCAS roughly two weeks later. I was asked about this experience in EVERY interview I had (maybe because the most recent activity is what's listed first on the AMCAS). That being said, I would wait a week or two to submit AMCAS in order to be able to add new activities (early on in the process, definately not in August). If I were you I would try my best to have the activity in the AMCAS app because not all schools have additional information areas on their secondaries and who knows if they actually put update letters in your file or consider them during the screening process.

 

[bozz]

How are update letters perceived? to update schools with summer activities