Application Questions for vets

[esob]

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So, my medals and service ribbons have no date assigned to them on my DD214. I honestly don't remember the dates of most of them. Is it OK to just guestimate or is there some other way to find the date they were awarded?

Also, I seem to remember at some point reading in one of the past cycles that the way to list awards if you have multiples is to simply list the highest? For example in marksmanship.

 

[CajunMedic]

I don't remember needing dates for my awards when I applied. I don't even think USUHS wanted dates. I had one that wasn't on my DD-214, but I had the award paperwork. Which app is this for?

 

[esob]

I don't remember needing dates for my awards when I applied. I don't even think USUHS wanted dates. I had one that wasn't on my DD-214, but I had the award paperwork. Which app is this for?

TMDSAS, I am putting them under "non-academic" awards and it asks for date and city and reason, etc.

 

[CajunMedic]

TMDSAS, I am putting them under "non-academic" awards and it asks for date and city and reason, etc.

Ah, gotcha. Didn't apply to any Texas schools. I would hazard a guess and say a guesstimation would be OK

 

[ZX10R]

Your awards wont be brought up during interviews, so you can guess-timate. If they're on your DD214, no one will care. I would just put your most important ones, bronze star, CIB, ARCOMs and why you got them.

 

[MusicDOc124]

I'd probably skip on marksmanship and put the ones that have much more meaning. Marksmanship doesn't say anything about you, and although there are different levels, everyone still gets one (at least in the Marines). An achievement medal, anything with a valor device, even a good conduct medal or a meritorious mast could/should be listed. And as others said, too, guesstimating should be fine. If you have the paper award that is often presented with various medals and such should have the specific date listed for you though.

 

[esob]

How about unit citations (having actually been a member of the unit during the period of service for which it was issued)? I definitely busted my *** during the period for which we received it and can honestly say I contributed to the mission.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

How about unit citations (having actually been a member of the unit during the period of service for which it was issued)? I definitely busted my *** during the period for which we received it and can honestly say I contributed to the mission.

I only put my NAMs, my MOVSM, and my good conduct medals. I was going to leave off the good conduct ones, but I didn’t want someone in the know to think I was a ****bag or something. I left off all my unit deployment and marksmanship ribbons, despite busting my ass for some of them.

Also, I only have amcas so I can’t really help you with tmdsas, but I just listed them all in the description with the years next to them in parentheses.

 

[MusicDOc124]

How about unit citations (having actually been a member of the unit during the period of service for which it was issued)? I definitely busted my *** during the period for which we received it and can honestly say I contributed to the mission.

Are you referring to the list of awards portion, or in the experiences part, to be clear? If listing it in awards part, then sure.

If putting it in experiences or something that isn't just in the list, then everyone arguably contributes to a mission and you technically can list it, but its a unit citation, not an individual citation. It's better to put the individual things that make you stand out. If you don't have any, then sure list it, but I wouldn't list more than one because then it becomes a little redundant, and it doesn't speak for you, it speaks for your unit. Again, I'd probably only list that if I didnt have a personal award of some sort so that something could be listed. That's just me though.

 

[MusicDOc124]

You have to remember what you're apply to/trying to do. Look at it like a CV compared to a resume. A CV basically contains everything and you've done and is multiple pages, while a resume is a single page and focuses in on what's at hand. For instance, if you have 30 X things and 15 Y things that you've done, and the job you're applying to wants or focuses on Y.... you're not going to list 45 things to include X and Y, nor are you going to list just 30 X... you're going to list either the 15 Y things that apply, or maybe even just 3-4 of those that are the most recent.

A unit award is well... a unit, not just you, and it pertains to military operations, not medicine or volunteering, or leadership, etc, so why should it be listed? It could be on the CV, but probably shouldn't be on the resume.

Did the metaphor make any sense? I dont even know... I'm tired from studying for step 1 lol

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

A unit award is well... a unit, not just you, and it pertains to military operations, not medicine or volunteering, or leadership, etc, so why should it be listed? It could be on the CV, but probably shouldn't be on the resume.

I agree with your sentiment, but I will say that not everything needs to relate to medicine. They have a place to list hobbies and **** for a reason. They want to see who you are as a person, not a premed robot.

That said, I’d still leave the unit awards off. But that’s just me.

 

[MusicDOc124]

I agree with your sentiment, but I will say that not everything needs to relate to medicine. They have a place to list hobbies and **** for a reason. They want to see who you are as a person, not a premed robot.

That said, I’d still leave the unit awards off. But that’s just me.

Not meant to suggest related everything to medicine (even though looking back I can see how it might suggest that lol), but rather meant to suggest put things that either apply or make you stand out (regardless of what it is... which a unit award doesnt make an individual stand out, nor does it relate to medicine). Plus my brain is fried.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Not meant to suggest related everything to medicine (even though looking back I can see how it might suggest that lol), but rather meant to suggest put things that either apply or make you stand out (regardless of what it is... which a unit award doesnt make an individual stand out, nor does it relate to medicine). Plus my brain is fried.

Agreed.

 

[esob]

Well the unit award was a medical unit, does that complicate the question? lol. I was talking of listing it in awards section but I will probably just leave it off, especially b/c by doing a quick search I wasn't readily able to find the order authorizing it. Not a big deal, I was just mainly thinking of "stuff I wore" on dress blues thinking that if it was important enough to be on a uniform, it probably was important enough to list. I also had a master fitness patch but I figured I'd leave that off even though I was enough of a dbag to wear it on my PT's at the time 😀

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Well the unit award was a medical unit, does that complicate the question? lol. I was talking of listing it in awards section but I will probably just leave it off, especially b/c by doing a quick search I wasn't readily able to find the order authorizing it. Not a big deal, I was just mainly thinking of "stuff I wore" on dress blues thinking that if it was important enough to be on a uniform, it probably was important enough to list. I also had a master fitness patch but I figured I'd leave that off even though I was enough of a dbag to wear it on my PT's at the time 😀

I left off two rows of ribbons from my dress blues lol. Just because it's a medical unit award doesn't mean it's relevant. You can list it if you want. The only way it might bite you is if you happen to get someone who is a vet who knows what the awards are. They might take issue with listing a gimme unit award, which is exactly why I left mine off. Presumably you talked about your experiences with the medical unit elsewhere in your app. If you really want to list the award, you could always mention it there.

 

[HopefulPilot]

I used a single section labeled Military Awards and Honors.

Write-up included this format for each: 20xx: Name of Award - 5 to 10 words explaining what it was for.

e.g. 2010: Army Commendation Medal - For commendable dancing skills at the unit talent show.

I would leave off the unit awards and marksman. If you have military specific application questions, feel free to shoot me a DM.

 

[esob]

Thanks for the help everyone. I'll leave off the unit/marksmanship stuff. @HopefulPilot did you use that format for TMDSAS? The TMDSAS application is pretty specific about date, city, etc so I'm not sure if that formatting would be good for them.

 

[HopefulPilot]

@esob that was for AMCAS. I'm not sure what TMDSAS looks like but I would just try and pick the closest month you remember, use the first of the month, and the city/state of the base you were at. e.g. 1/1/2010 Fort Polk, LA

 

[esob]

@esob that was for AMCAS. I'm not sure what TMDSAS looks like but I would just try and pick the closest month you remember, use the first of the month, and the city/state of the base you were at. e.g. 1/1/2010 Fort Polk, LA

Yep, that's what I did, thanks!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I used a single section labeled Military Awards and Honors.

Write-up included this format for each: 20xx: Name of Award - 5 to 10 words explaining what it was for.

e.g. 2010: Army Commendation Medal - For commendable dancing skills at the unit talent show.

I would leave off the unit awards and marksman. If you have military specific application questions, feel free to shoot me a DM.

That’s what I did, but I left out the description. Is it worth putting it in?

 

[esob]

That’s what I did, but I left out the description. Is it worth putting it in?

on TMDSAS there is an area where you have to fill in a description.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

on TMDSAS there is an area where you have to fill in a description.

Yeah there is on AMCAS too, but it's a bit different I think. In the description for AMCAS, I just listed all the awards and what year I got them in. I didn't describe why I got them. Maybe I should.

 

[esob]

Yeah there is on AMCAS too, but it's a bit different I think. In the description for AMCAS, I just listed all the awards and what year I got them in. I didn't describe why I got them. Maybe I should.

I just put in the reasons I found on wikipedia, lol. Personally,I consider my military career rather unremarkable, at least in comparison to my father/grandfather and the numerous actual bad-a's that I grew up around while hanging out with the old man at the VFW, so I feel a bit silly about listing any of my military awards. But at the same time I know it would be weird not to list anything, so I figured I would just put what was on my DD-214 and call it a day (though I'm leaving off the marksmanship badges as suggested). There isn't much b/c I wasn't in for very long but on the bright side it didn't take me a lot of time to put everything in 😀

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I just put in the reasons I found on wikipedia, lol. Personally,I consider my military career rather unremarkable, at least in comparison to my father/grandfather and the numerous actual bad-a's that I grew up around while hanging out with the old man at the VFW, so I feel a bit silly about listing any of my military awards. But at the same time I know it would be weird not to list anything, so I figured I would just put what was on my DD-214 and call it a day (though I'm leaving off the marksmanship badges as suggested). There isn't much b/c I wasn't in for very long but on the bright side it didn't take me a lot of time to put everything in 😀

We get the award with like an entire paragraph description of why we're getting it lol. Way too much info to put into AMCAS. I'm just going to summarize with a small sentence.

Edit: I'm glad I didn't include the unit or marksmanship awards. Just the 5 I included used up the entire character count with descriptions, and I only used a short sentence for all of them.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Random question: is it worth it to put my warfare pin? I didn’t include it because it’s not technically an award, but it was difficult to get, and it is a piece of eye candy on my uniform (and part of my official Navy title). I would include it with my ribbons that I listed.

 

[MusicDOc124]

Maybe you could write about that in some sort of memorable experiences of sorts? Were you an FMF corpsman? If you, I'd list it under something like memorable or whatever the category was and let this demonstrate a few things... 1) your experience overall, 2) the difficulty in obtaining it, and 3) a way to talk about your service. I wouldn't list it necessarily as an 'award' though, even though it could be listed as such in the military.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Maybe you could write about that in some sort of memorable experiences of sorts? Were you an FMF corpsman? If you, I'd list it under something like memorable or whatever the category was and let this demonstrate a few things... 1) your experience overall, 2) the difficulty in obtaining it, and 3) a way to talk about your service. I wouldn't list it necessarily as an 'award' though, even though it could be listed as such in the military.

Yeah, I could list it in one of my other military experiences. Good idea!