Choosing fewer than 3 activities as most meaningful?

[saxophone4]

Will choosing only two activities as most meaningful hurt my chances at all? I have about 4 meaningful activities, but was able to talk about 2 of the research ones in a lot of depth in my PS, so I feel no need to repeat information/dilute my app. 2 of my meaningful activities I can easily write about how I made an impact and how I grew as a person. I wrote a third summary for a third meaningful activity, but I know it's not as strong as the other two and repeats information. What should I do?

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[mauberley]

Will choosing only two activities as most meaningful hurt my chances at all? I have about 4 meaningful activities, but was able to talk about 2 of the research ones in a lot of depth in my PS, so I feel no need to repeat information/dilute my app. 2 of my meaningful activities I can easily write about how I made an impact and how I grew as a person. I wrote a third summary for a third meaningful activity, but I know it's not as strong as the other two and repeats information. What should I do?

This is the first year applicants have to indicate their most meaningful activities, so no one knows how this information is going to be used by admissions committees. Do whatever you feel is best.

My personal opinion: just as you don't have to list 15 activities, nor do you have to list three as the most meaningful.

 

[NYBills987]

This is the first year applicants have to indicate their most meaningful activities, so no one knows how this information is going to be used by admissions committees. Do whatever you feel is best.

My personal opinion: just as you don't have to list 15 activities, nor do you have to list three as the most meaningful.

I actually think that, with such limited contact with the adcom, you should maximize your activities.. If you don't want to talk about the research again, can you discuss something else? Supposing that they only look at these 'meaningful' ones first, only listing two might be a disadvantage.. I would do 3 somehow, but thats just me.

 

[Gnomes]

I listed only activities that I thought were at least somewhat meaningful, rather than trying to pad my list out to 15, listing a total of ten or so. Of these, I selected one as the most meaningful.

My philosophy in writing essays, choosing activities, etc, has been that the adcom has thousands of these to read, and will appreciate it if I am as succinct as possible without omitting important things. We'll see how it goes, though... hard to do solid research on this.

 

[hmockingbird]

I had my top three picked out and realised I had talked extensively about one in my PS (shadowing - I honestly loved the doctor I shadowed, so I had a lot to talk about). I ended up picking something else so I would have three, even though it wasn't the first thing I thought of for most meaningful, it was something I could write about and I figured I would just take advantage of being able to elaborate more. I ended up picking research, one volunteer activity, and studying abroad. Personally I would probably pick something else even if it wasn't as meaningful to you as research, like others have said, to maximize the opportunities you have to make an impression in your application.

 

[Seven of Nine]

this doesn't make sense to me.

i think you can only list < 3 meaningful activities if you only list < 3 activities on your amcas. if you can't don't value a third activity why is it even on the amcas to begin with? if you list 10 activities, you should be able to rank them 1 through 10 in how much you benefited/found most important.

 

[mauberley]

this doesn't make sense to me.

i think you can only list < 3 meaningful activities if you only list < 3 activities on your amcas. if you can't don't value a third activity why is it even on the amcas to begin with? if you list 10 activities, you should be able to rank them 1 through 10 in how much you benefited/found most important.

Hypothetically speaking, I could list more than three activities as a non-traditional student to account for my time after graduation. Perhaps some of those activities were not meaningful to me as far as they relate to my desire to pursue medicine, or they were not meaningful in that they provided personal satisfaction (perhaps they only provided a paycheck).

 

[mauberley]

I actually think that, with such limited contact with the adcom, you should maximize your activities.. If you don't want to talk about the research again, can you discuss something else? Supposing that they only look at these 'meaningful' ones first, only listing two might be a disadvantage.. I would do 3 somehow, but thats just me.

Just as stretching to fill all 15 slots can look like padding/fluff, so could stretching to mark three activities as "most meaningful" if you can't actually convincingly describe how they were meaningful.

 

[kautionwirez]

I listed 1 as my MOST meaningful experience.

I could have done 2 but I totally forgot...

I don't think it will hurt me.

 

[doctorshateher]

I chose one that was clinical, one that was research and one that was unique and involved a lot of leadership.

Kind of a safe approach, but it also correlated with the ones I really did think were most meaningful.

I've been told by both Wayne State and Michigan State adcom members that if 1 of your top three activities is not clinical/medically related, in their words "there is something wrong." Thats just 2 schools though, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.

 

[DNAdude120]

I chose one that was clinical, one that was research and one that was unique and involved a lot of leadership.

Kind of a safe approach, but it also correlated with the ones I really did think were most meaningful.

I've been told by both Wayne State and Michigan State adcom members that if 1 of your top three activities is not clinical/medically related, in their words "there is something wrong." Thats just 2 schools though, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.

Hmm...None of the meaninfull experiences I chose were clinically/medically related. Guess I will see how this turns out.

None of the medical experiences I had were able to top the three that I marked as meaninfull, however, it was their cumulative effect that drove me to medicine. I left this discussion for my PS.

 

[golgiapparatus88]

I chose one that was clinical, one that was research and one that was unique and involved a lot of leadership.

Kind of a safe approach, but it also correlated with the ones I really did think were most meaningful.

I've been told by both Wayne State and Michigan State adcom members that if 1 of your top three activities is not clinical/medically related, in their words "there is something wrong." Thats just 2 schools though, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.

I did exactly the same thing. My third was my own private drum lessons that I began giving in high school. I was able to relate it to how much I love teaching and how important it has been in my educational activities as well as being a physician.

 

[nysw]

Whew! Good to know that I wasn't the only one that just picked one.

All of my activities meant a lot to me, but not to the point where I'd be willing to write ~1300 chars after already describing the activity. :/

 

[kpcrew]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=813591

From what I've picked up from this thread, it seems that brevity and usefulness are key. I chose my research as most meaningful and talked about two other things in my PS.

 

[NYBills987]

Just as stretching to fill all 15 slots can look like padding/fluff, so could stretching to mark three activities as "most meaningful" if you can't actually convincingly describe how they were meaningful.

I agree with you about the 15 activities, but that is a lot. When you are only talking about 3, most competitive applicants will have more than 3 strong ECs to talk about so it might stand out in a bad way... I don't think all that many have 15 very strong activities to talk about.

 

[Snuke]

I used all three slots for 'Most Meaningful' because I had three distinct meaningful activities that showed three different qualities/sides.

Padding will probably be very obvious, but if you can do all three reasonably, I say go for it.

 

[mauberley]

I agree with you about the 15 activities, but that is a lot. When you are only talking about 3, most competitive applicants will have more than 3 strong ECs to talk about so it might stand out in a bad way... I don't think all that many have 15 very strong activities to talk about.

As I pointed out before, this is the first time such a field has been available in the application, so we don't know how it'll be used. I understand you said "might," but it still doesn't justify stretching if one does not truly feel comfortable doing so.

 

[Schrdngrs Ct]

So what's the new verdict to this year old question?

Reapplying this year but feel like only doing 2 meaningful exp out of the 14 exp I have listed -- feel like what I would write about for a third meaningful exp is just too tacky, especially when its implied in the description.

 

[pfaction]

I have 3 and 15: Medical, nonclinical, and research.

 

[LondonBridge]

So what's the new verdict to this year old question?

Reapplying this year but feel like only doing 2 meaningful exp out of the 14 exp I have listed -- feel like what I would write about for a third meaningful exp is just too tacky, especially when its implied in the description.

I chose two meaningful experiences and I was fine.

 

[jHustle]

This doesn't make sense to me either. You're not picking 3 activities that were tied for first place for most meaningful. You're picking 3 of them that were more meaningful than the others. You want to show them why you want to be a doctor. If you want to be a doctor, you should honestly have 2 or 3 activities that contribute to that (hopefully strong) desire. It's a long and difficult journey and there are a few that don't make it to the end - those seem like the people that weren't really totally motivated from the beginning. Adcoms are looking to make sure that their school's investment in your education doesn't go to waste.

That's what your Personal Statement is for. And how do you know what the adcoms want when you just graduated high school a few days ago? Please direct me to your 8-ball

 

[hiyaman]

If your third meaningful experience sucks then don't put it in. Fortunately I had 3 experiences that I could elaborate on and further show my traits/qualities/motivation. Having 3 meaningful experiences just maximizes your input on your application which is a good thing. You want your whole application to answer: why medicine, and why you? If you can accomplish that with 2 meaningful experiences then you've accomplished your goal.

 

[lifeis42]

I think probably the most important thing is to pick activities that you are comfortable discussing, and showing admission committees that you have done other things besides your academic coursework that will allow you to be a good doctor. So if you don't have 3, I think many committees won't see that as a bad thing - especially if you were really committed to those 2 activities.

And besides, if you list 15 activities or something like that, how committed could you really be to those activities? If you did have that many activities, you probably didn't spend much time on any of them. It's better to be an expert in one field, than be jack of all trades.

 

[semicharmed]

This doesn't make sense to me either. You're not picking 3 activities that were tied for first place for most meaningful. You're picking 3 of them that were more meaningful than the others. You want to show them why you want to be a doctor. If you want to be a doctor, you should honestly have 2 or 3 activities that contribute to that (hopefully strong) desire. It's a long and difficult journey and there are a few that don't make it to the end - those seem like the people that weren't really totally motivated from the beginning. Adcoms are looking to make sure that their school's investment in your education doesn't go to waste.

I completely agree. You do yourself a disservice by not using EVERY opportunity to illustrate the best aspects of your candidacy.

 

[Schrdngrs Ct]

I completely agree. You do yourself a disservice by not using EVERY opportunity to illustrate the best aspects of your candidacy.

That makes sense too... but there are also activities that I do, not for the sake of becoming a better doctor, but because they mean a lot to me. In my case - I elaborated on being an civics and ESL teacher as one meaningful activity since both my parents struggled with english... etc. and another was about becoming a mentor in college since I had wished I had one in college to help me.

I have medical mission trips, shadowing, research, hospice experiences, etc. but it just sounds so tacky to elaborate on them when its obvious they contribute to better understanding the healthcare issues faced around the world, the suffering that exists in our community etc - and to say oh it meant so much to me to be able to be there for the last moments of a person's life... or leading new means of providing care is important to me because it helps people... that seems obvious and to state that seems like you're trying to convince the reader not based on their own intuition but by force feeding them yourself... and I figure sharing anecdotes are for the interview right?..

Lol I'm still so torn at this. think I'll just settle my third on being a logger and say that I really want to be an orthopedic surgeon and this experience really helped me master my sawing skills for those future total knee artho's I'll want to be doing.

P.S. Thanks I really do appreciate all the feedback!!

 

[MT Headed]

14 activites I thought were worth mentioning, 2 were most meaningful (the ones I did full time for over 5 years). One of my most meaningful was a non medically related job. The other was my sailboat trip, which was a chance to demonstrate my fierce independence.

I got interviews at 1/3 of my applications, so I think it's fine to only have 2 meaningful experiences and even have them be non medical.

 

[semicharmed]

That makes sense too... but there are also activities that I do, not for the sake of becoming a better doctor, but because they mean a lot to me. In my case - I elaborated on being an civics and ESL teacher as one meaningful activity since both my parents struggled with english... etc. and another was about becoming a mentor in college since I had wished I had one in college to help me.

I have medical mission trips, shadowing, research, hospice experiences, etc. but it just sounds so tacky to elaborate on them when its obvious they contribute to better understanding the healthcare issues faced around the world, the suffering that exists in our community etc - and to say oh it meant so much to me to be able to be there for the last moments of a person's life... or leading new means of providing care is important to me because it helps people... that seems obvious and to state that seems like you're trying to convince the reader not based on their own intuition but by force feeding them yourself... and I figure sharing anecdotes are for the interview right?..

Lol I'm still so torn at this. think I'll just settle my third on being a logger and say that I really want to be an orthopedic surgeon and this experience really helped me master my sawing skills for those future total knee artho's I'll want to be doing.

P.S. Thanks I really do appreciate all the feedback!!

I think you're thinking about this in the right way, and I empathize because I also had a moment where I was sitting down thinking "I did all of these things because I ENJOYED them, not because I had ulterior motives for med school or even because they had to do with science."

I would challenge you to look deeper. Look at all of the things you did and see trends in your personality, your interests. There is a common theme in the activities you pursue that resonates beyond the details of the service, research, etc. What makes you excited? What does your past tell you about where you want to go for your future? I found that my political experiences (which I thought had NOTHING to do with medicine) actually tied in quite well with why I wanted to be a doctor, and my PS reviewers thought it made my application a little more unique to read as a consequence.

It's really amazing to look over your CV, build your application and realize something about yourself that you didn't know before. This is how great applications are built-by understanding yourself as a complex, unique individual with a unique story. Don't stress about making your application more complicated than it needs to be, but also don't ignore the activities that make you different. I promise you they'll fit in somewhere-otherwise you wouldn't have done them to begin with!

 

[Schrdngrs Ct]

I think you're thinking ....somewhere-otherwise you wouldn't have done them to begin with!

Well put- this was the direction I was looking for 👍 Thanks for taking the time to post it!!