Medical Can you shorten the names of awards in primary app?

[Catalystik]

Hello, while they are small, local scholarships that are exclusive to my undergraduate institution, I believe my anonymity may be at risk if I gave the full name of the scholarship. It isn't any national scholarships or high honor or anything like that. I also didn't include any monetary value or description for these awards (because again they were not prestigious scholarships, I mainly just put them down to say "also, here's all the awards/scholarships I have won"). Specifically, in the EC area, I just said
"I have achieved the following awards that were based on merit: AAAAA award; BBBBBB award; CCCCCCC award; DDDDDD award."

Also, I didn't abbreviate the name of the award, I shortened it. For example, if I won the made-up award "AMCAS's Memorial for the Medical and Surgical Contributions Made by Dr. XYZ Scholarship", I would have written it down as "Dr. XYZ award" (again, this scholarship is limited only to my school and not nationwide or anything like that). In other words, for the awards that I have won with extremely long names, I just shortened it to say XXXXXX award (where XXXXXX is the noun, or what the award is commemorating, does that make sense?).

Is this something I should update all of my schools about?

Merit awards with no explanation about their selectivity, criteria, or award amount that no one outside your school will understand are unlikely to have any impact on your med school candidacy. I don't feel you need to provide an explanation unless asked about it at an interview, in which case, I hope you know all the information I've alluded to.

Who did you use as a Contact?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Catalystik]

I used the contact for the most "prestigious award" I had won, but I made it clear that the awards afterwards were different. Again, I have proof of the awards, I have some certificates and I feel like I could always ask the financial aid office for proof as well, so I'm not worried about proving that I won them. Also, I understand that these awards will have little (if any) positive impact on my application, however, my main worry is this:

The fact that I shortened the scholarship names using the method I mentioned above, could that cause me to appear fraudulent or is a possible reason to have my acceptance rescinded if found out later? Again, I essentially just wrote [name of institution or person that is giving or is commemorated for the scholarship] Award, even if that was not the actual scholarship's full name.

And if brought up in an interview, how would you recommend I explain this? I don't want to be seen making excuses, but it was a completely honest mistake. Thanks very much for your advice as always Catalystik

If you shortened the name so that it was mistaken for another type of award or scholarship that is widely known, I can see where you'd be worried. For example, if you said "I won a Goldwater," when the name of the award is The Goldwater Gomez Patel Grant for Campus Cleanup Initiative, you'd have some 'splaining to do.'

Aside from that extreme example, I think it would be excusable to shorten a name to whatever it's commonly known by on your campus, especially when you are faced with an application's severe character limitations.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Are the descriptions for such awards publicly accessible (that is to say, online)? If so, can you include a link?

 

[Catalystik]

And I honestly don't know any prestigious awards to compare the ones I have written down with, but I would assume that if I did accidentally write down a highly sought after award, adcoms will figure out it isn't the national award given that I put down no description for it and instead put down a description for a lesser award at my university?

Then don't worry about it. Just be prepared for questions as I outlined above (which I doubt will be asked).

Long publication titles are often truncated due to space limitations, so doing the same with award titles can be understood.