Church Mission and AMCAS?

[admitER]

So, I know I am supposed to stray away from religious and political activities on my AMCAS.... but I went on two manual labor missions trips (building houses, etc) and one medical mission to central america - all three of which happened to be associated with religion in a way. That is, the "orginization" is one that is obviously religious in nature.

The medical mission one is easier to skirt around the religious issue, as it was through a national orginization only affiliated with church. However, the other two were through my campus' student association.

My question is, include it or not? I feel like these mission trips are really important to my app, as they show my commitment to humanitarian efforts in central america - but I don't want religious bias to interfere. Any words of wisdom greatly appreciated!

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[Twiigg]

I say of course include it. It's humanitarian work. You weren't really proselytizing, were you?

 

[admitER]

You weren't really proselytizing, were you?

Hahahaha no.

Okay thank you - I had planned on including it, but when I got to "organization name" the alarm bells went off.

thanks again for the reassurance

 

[HumidBeing]

Yes, include those. Those are charitable activities. There is nothing 'wrong' with the activities being sponsored by a religious organization. Having them on there isn't going to make anyone worried that you will spend all of your time trying to convert them instead of studying medicine. 😉 They'll understand them for what they are - charitable volunteer work.

 

[paradocs we are]

My entire PS discussed two mission trips that I went on with my church. Now, I didn't mention that it was a church-run thing in my PS but I did mention the organization's name under the "activities" section. It was obvious that it was religious in nature simply because my entire app didn't hide the fact that I'm heavily involved in church activities. Having said that, religion wasn't brought up in 5 of my 6 interviews. The one interview where it was brought up I got rejected. But really, I don't regret mentioning it on my app. I think it made me stand out as an applicant and certainly it shaped my desire for medicine.

 

[Caesar]

Include them, the first amendment extends to your med applications as well. 🙂

 

[Character]

i think its a great idea