if say you worked retail, like i did, while going to school and it was just an average job with no connection to medicine - should you exempt it from your app completely?
completely avoid mentioning your job on app?
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Why not? You were in school and working - good to show. Retail shows that you have good costumer communication abilities - hopefully. I would say it's a plus to include it.
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I'm a copy cat.
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You should include it. A job implies many things: time commitment, ability to work in an environment with responsibilities, and many traits and experiences that come with a job. Pretty much anything that you have a major time commitment should be included (I'm assuming you worked part time, so at least 10 hours/week).
Some schools even have you create a timeline (University of Wisconsin comes to mind) of all your activities, to see how your years are spread out. It would be silly to have a random unexplained big gap of free time.
Most people aren't going to get real jobs related to medicine in college, due to scope of practices and lack of training/education.
To summarize, include your experiences, but make sure to phrase them appropriately.
Some schools even have you create a timeline (University of Wisconsin comes to mind) of all your activities, to see how your years are spread out. It would be silly to have a random unexplained big gap of free time.
Most people aren't going to get real jobs related to medicine in college, due to scope of practices and lack of training/education.
To summarize, include your experiences, but make sure to phrase them appropriately.
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definitely include it. it demonstrates maturity and a sense of managing priorities. no one expects you to have been working at Google while enrolled fulltime.
resist, however, any temptation to include a LOR from your supervisor there.
resist, however, any temptation to include a LOR from your supervisor there.
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Absolutely include it. Adcom members that I have spoken to have all said that work, even unrelated to medicine, should always be included.
It shows time management skills and other skills. It could also explain why you might not have been able to be as involved with ECs, because you had to be working those hours instead of volunteering, doing research, etc.
Also, if you worked full-time or near full-time in the summer and you don't report it or anything else for that summer, adcoms are going to be wondering why it appears that you sat around doing absolutely nothing for 3 months.
It shows time management skills and other skills. It could also explain why you might not have been able to be as involved with ECs, because you had to be working those hours instead of volunteering, doing research, etc.
Also, if you worked full-time or near full-time in the summer and you don't report it or anything else for that summer, adcoms are going to be wondering why it appears that you sat around doing absolutely nothing for 3 months.
Wow, I didn't know that. Can you elaborate?
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I don't know about UW, but Vandy and (I think) TMDSAS create graphical timelines based on the information you provide in the application. I'm not sure if the adcoms actually see these timelines, but it's an interesting way to see your activities. It really brings out the length of involvement and simultaneous involvement in a variety of activities.
Thank you for that! That must be pretty cool, I never thought of my activities as a timeline. Maybe I'll put one together for myself to see what it looks like
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I was actually able to log in to my Vandy secondary and check the timeline out. Here's what it looks like if you're curious:
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Well now I'm curious about this timeline - do adcoms generally assume that some ECs don't actually occur during the summer?
Most of my ECs and on-campus jobs started sophomore year and continued all of them through graduation, but if they map it out like that I'm going to have some very busy looking summers...
Most of my ECs and on-campus jobs started sophomore year and continued all of them through graduation, but if they map it out like that I'm going to have some very busy looking summers...
I was actually able to log in to my Vandy secondary and check the timeline out. Here's what it looks like if you're curious:
This is why you are awesome! THANK YOU SO MUCH
