AMCAS Work/Activity Section

[Live4Life]

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Do most people fill the 15 alloted spaces or is it common to only fill 10? I am just trying to gain a sense of how many most successful applicants complete.

 

[bluesTank]

I did all 15, but I have been told by advisor that it is quality over quantity

 

[wizenedone]

Yes, it is definitely quality over quantity. List as many as you think are worth listing.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

I did all 15, but I have been told by advisor that it is quality over quantity

+1

 

[Live4Life]

+1

+1????

 

[wizenedone]

+1????

+1 means that he/she agrees.

 

[Live4Life]

Thanks

 

[Catalystik]

It is common to group some activities that are of similiar type in a single spot, like A) Dean's List, James Scholar, merit scholarships, Phi Beta Kappa, etc., or B) multiple shorter-term volunteer gigs. Don't list activities unless they are significant. You don't want to bore the Adcomm person who is reviewing your application with minutia. Most people do not fill up all the spaces.

 

[wizenedone]

It is common to group some activities that are of similiar type in a single spot, like A) Dean's List, James Scholar, merit scholarships, Phi Beta Kappa, etc., or B) multiple shorter-term volunteer gigs. Don't list activities unless they are significant. You don't want to bore the Adcomm person who is reviewing your application with minutia. Most people do not fill up all the spaces.

What if someone volunteered in the ER department in three separate stints? For example, two summers with 50 hours each and then another stint for 1.5 years with close to 1000 hours? Would you group all of these three stints together or just group the two short summer stints together and enter the longer commitment separately? All of these were at same exact place though.

 

[tdsbird2]

SEARCH!!! it has been covered many times

 

[Catalystik]

What if someone volunteered in the ER department in three separate stints? For example, two summers with 50 hours each and then another stint for 1.5 years with close to 1000 hours? Would you group all of these three stints together or just group the two short summer stints together and enter the longer commitment separately? All of these were at same exact place though.

I'd suggest you group them, list the dates for each stint, and total the hours. The contact person you'd list who'd be able to confirm this would likely be the same for all three (volunteer coordinator?).

 

[wizenedone]

I'd suggest you group them, list the dates for each stint, and total the hours. The contact person you'd list who'd be able to confirm this would likely be the same for all three (volunteer coordinator?).

Yes, it'll be the same volunteer coordinator. She agreed to write me an LOR come application time. Do we total the hours and list them? I thought it was only hours/week that we list?

 

[Mobius1985]

SEARCH!!! it has been covered many times

I think he/she is referring to this excellent thread (among others): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=202513

 

[Mobius1985]

Yes, it'll be the same volunteer coordinator. She agreed to write me an LOR come application time. Do we total the hours and list them? I thought it was only hours/week that we list?

Whatever works out best is fine. I doubt that everyone works exactly the same number of hours every week. I see on this forum that most seem to refer to total number of hours overall.

 

[daaarn]

It is common to group some activities that are of similiar type in a single spot, like A) Dean's List, James Scholar, merit scholarships, Phi Beta Kappa, etc., or B) multiple shorter-term volunteer gigs. Don't list activities unless they are significant. You don't want to bore the Adcomm person who is reviewing your application with minutia. Most people do not fill up all the spaces.

For listing the scholarship part, is it okay to list scholarships that you received from schools you did not attend? Like, when I applied to grad school, I received quite a few school-specific scholarships (including some full-rides), but since I decided to do med school instead, I didn't enroll in grad school.

 

[Live4Life]

I think he/she is referring to this excellent thread (among others): http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=202513

Thanks for the link, I tried searching for some threads but I wasn't very successful.

 

[wizenedone]

Whatever works out best is fine. I doubt that everyone works exactly the same number of hours every week. I see on this forum that most seem to refer to total number of hours overall.

Yes, exactly. I was wondering that too since everyone probably does not work exact number of hours per week. AMCAS asks for hours/week though.

 

[copperfrog09]

For listing the scholarship part, is it okay to list scholarships that you received from schools you did not attend? Like, when I applied to grad school, I received quite a few school-specific scholarships (including some full-rides), but since I decided to do med school instead, I didn't enroll in grad school.

I wouldn't think they would really care too much about that, would they? Is it common to put scholarships received for undergrad on the application? It seems like they can already see that your grades are good, etc., but I suppose it is the same thing with the Dean's List, which I never saw the purpose of putting on the application either.

 

[Mobius1985]

Yes, exactly. I was wondering that too since everyone probably does not work exact number of hours per week. AMCAS asks for hours/week though.

The way AMCAS wants you to fill in the pre-set blanks can make it difficult to be accurate. I had some overseas experiences that were 40 hours per week for two weeks during the summer for two years. I grouped the two experiences, but put in just the most recent dates so as not to infer it was a 2 year long experience at 40 hour/week. Then I entered both date ranges and gave the total hours in the descriptive portion.

You have to put an average in the pre-set blank, but in the narrative be more precise.

 

[daaarn]

The way AMCAS wants you to fill in the pre-set blanks can make it difficult to be accurate. I had some overseas experiences that were 40 hours per week for two weeks during the summer for two years. I grouped the two experiences, but put in just the most recent dates so as not to infer it was a 2 year long experience at 40 hour/week. Then I entered both date ranges and gave the total hours in the descriptive portion.

You have to put an average in the pre-set blank, but in the narrative be more precise.

How would you enter like a lot of miscellaneous volunteer activities? I mean like one-and-done, Race-for-the-Cure setup type things? Just group them all together into "Miscellaneous Volunteering" or not mention it at all? I've done a lot of those either individually or w/ my school's community service club.

 

[Mobius1985]

How would you enter like a lot of miscellaneous volunteer activities? I mean like one-and-done, Race-for-the-Cure setup type things? Just group them all together into "Miscellaneous Volunteering" or not mention it at all? I've done a lot of those either individually or w/ my school's community service club.

Hmmm. I just had a few of those and didn't bother to enter them. But if you have a goodly list of "significant" short-term volunteering (like Race For The Cure), I like the idea of entering a category of "Miscellaneous Volunteering" (under 'Experience Name'), then listing each by date and hours spent, with a short description. The problem with them is: AMCAS still forces you to put 'Hours per Week'. You would have to enter 1 hour/week, as I recall it was the minimum. The narrative you enter is printed out below that, so a reader would immediately see there was a lot of detail to peruse. If you only have maybe three significant entries totaling 7 hours, it might look sorta desperate that you included it at all. We can hope that AMCAS might make next year's form more flexible for this type of entry.

 

[amph119]

I thought to myself, wow not another one of these threads...

then I remembered I started one of my own like a month ago. haha 🙂