AMCAS work/activities question

[scooter02]

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I've worked as a student assistant and a research scientist in a couple different labs and I am not sure what category of "experience type" to put that in to... because it was both "Paid employment - not military" AND "Research/Lab". When I applied a few years ago I had it as "paid employment", but I don't remember there being a "research/lab" option at that time. Anyways I'm not even sure how much the category thing will matter, but I'd appreciate any opinions!! THANKS!!

 

[Captain Fantastic]

I'd put research/lab since it is much more descriptive of the type of work you did. Getting paid for it is not the important part to the adcom -- the research experiences are what you want to highlight. They've got hundreds if not thousands of applications to go through, make it easy on them to mark the "research" box for you.

 

[trpng0bily]

When filling out the Contact fields, should I expect the adcom to get in touch with the person I list? I'd like to know whether I should put down my immediate supervisor, who will know me well, or the head of the program, whose name carries a lot of weight but who will not know me nearly as well and may be unable to speak about me if contacted.

 

[RxnMan]

I've worked as a student assistant and a research scientist in a couple different labs and I am not sure what category of "experience type" to put that in to... because it was both "Paid employment - not military" AND "Research/Lab". When I applied a few years ago I had it as "paid employment", but I don't remember there being a "research/lab" option at that time. Anyways I'm not even sure how much the category thing will matter, but I'd appreciate any opinions!! THANKS!!

I'd put it into whichever category that you have the least of. Once you get the important categories covered (clinical exp., research, community service, teaching?), then look to spread the rest of your ECs spread as evenly as you can. You want to look like your a balanced individual with diverse interests outside of medicine.

Here's another way to think of it. With thousands of applications to go through, the ADCOMs hire non-technical folks to filter them. They will read and score each of your ECs as good/bad/whatever across a range of ECs. You want to score well on all of them. Conversely, if you are the 100% great researcher, you'll be outstanding in one way, but have nothing in any other category.

 

[RxnMan]

When filling out the Contact fields, should I expect the adcom to get in touch with the person I list? I'd like to know whether I should put down my immediate supervisor, who will know me well, or the head of the program, whose name carries a lot of weight but who will not know me nearly as well and may be unable to speak about me if contacted.

If you got a LOR from this position, then I'd list whomever wrote your LOR as the contact.

Otherwise, your immediate supervisor. If I was investigating someone, I'd only want to hear glowing reccommendations about them.