AMCAS question for the 05ers

[wendywellesley]

there is some discussion on the AMCAS 2006 thread about what to put in the activities section. Did anyone just write what they did without including what they gained from each experience? I don't know, saying what I learned from each experience sounds kind of contrived... but i could be wrong and that might be the way to go about it. I just don't think adcoms read these too closely and just want to get a sense of what you are up to. I was thinking I would include specifics in my secondaries or if they ask during the interviews.

Thanks!

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[wendywellesley]

nevermind. i did a search. there seemed to be mixed reviews on this one.

 

[CarleneM]

there is some discussion on the AMCAS 2006 thread about what to put in the activities section. Did anyone just write what they did without including what they gained from each experience? I don't know, saying what I learned from each experience sounds kind of contrived... but i could be wrong and that might be the way to go about it. I just don't think adcoms read these too closely and just want to get a sense of what you are up to. I was thinking I would include specifics in my secondaries or if they ask during the interviews.

Thanks!

I don't remember having enough space to do that as well as adequately explain my responsibilities in the organization and what the organization was about. So, I'm pretty sure all mine were just descriptions, no mention of what I learned. That's what the PS was for. I mean your descriptions can be rich enough to convey what type of experience it was and what you were exposed to without the cheesiness of saying "I learned that..."

 

[wendywellesley]

I don't remember having enough space to do that as well as adequately explain my responsibilities in the organization and what the organization was about. So, I'm pretty sure all mine were just descriptions, no mention of what I learned. That's what the PS was for. I mean your descriptions can be rich enough to convey what type of experience it was and what you were exposed to without the cheesiness of saying "I learned that..."

thanks carlene!

 

[Scrub MD]

Wendy,
What are you going to do? I agree with you about just putting descriptions but I don't want to seem like I didn't learn everything if everyone else is making it like an additional PS. I really want to keep mine concise because they do read thousands and might not read it at all if it is 1300 characters.

 

[BaylorGuy]

I'm a reapplicant, and last years amcas only gave us like 300 characters worth or something like that. Something really short....pretty much used only to explain what the activity was and that was all.

 

[wendywellesley]

Wendy,
What are you going to do? I agree with you about just putting descriptions but I don't want to seem like I didn't learn everything if everyone else is making it like an additional PS. I really want to keep mine concise because they do read thousands and might not read it at all if it is 1300 characters.

I'm not sure yet. I think I'll flesh out what I did for the important activities hoping to make it obvious what I gained from each experience. At the same time, I can see using words like "gained appreciation for" or "unique experience" for some of them. But I'll try to make as concise as possible.

 

[waterlily]

why did amcas have to expand their max characters? It just makes our lives even harder and have us put even more work in...grrr

 

[wendywellesley]

why did amcas have to expand their max characters? It just makes our lives even harder and have us put even more work in...grrr

I agree it is frustrating. Even in the instructions they don't give us a clue as to how important these blurbs are. For the PS they tell us that adcoms look at these carefully but they don't say the same for work/activities.

 

[QofQuimica]

My take on it is that I'm writing as much as I think the topic requires. Some are longer and some are shorter; it depends on the activity. And if the adcom thinks my app is too long, they can always not read the explanations.

 

[cardsurgguy]

why did amcas have to expand their max characters? It just makes our lives even harder and have us put even more work in...grrr

just because there's more room to write doesn't mean you have to fill it, content counts, regardless of how much you write

I would argue to get the content in there in the shortest possible length, since they have to read so many

 

[gujuDoc]

just because there's more room to write doesn't mean you have to fill it, content counts, regardless of how much you write

I would argue to get the content in there in the shortest possible length, since they have to read so many

This is exactly what I was going to post. If you don't need the whole amount of characters to explain yourself, then don't use it. But it is there just in case 510 isn't enough number of characters to accurately reflect what you want to say. 510 by the way is the correct number on the old AMCAS. I filled it out but never submitted it because I wasn't happy with my MCAT scores and decided that I wanted to wait to do a masters anyhow.

 

[willthatsall]

I'm not writing more than a couple sentences for each. ADCOMs should be able to figure out some stuff on there own. If not, they can go to hell. Ok, I just wanted to sound tough.

 

[beep]

for things that were going to be "impressive" anyway and where the impact on me was fairly obvious (e.g. publications, awards, health-related jobs) i stated the facts as concisely as possible. for things that were personally important but not as obvious (e.g. reading, traveling, tutoring math), i explained what i'd gotten out of them.

 

[indo]

They're charging you about 100 dollars to read your application. I suggest you fill that thing up so that it requires at least 4 hours to read.







"brief description"

 

[QofQuimica]

They're charging you about 100 dollars to read your application. I suggest you fill that thing up so that it requires at least 4 hours to read.

I reckon that $25/hour is a fair price to pay them to read the app.