Describing as "Prestigious"

[FCBarca1990]

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Just wondering, for medical school applications, how many of you feel comfortable describing an activity or award as "prestigious", or likewise, "competitive", such as an internship, if the activity/award is only known to be such locally (such as at your university)?

Am I having trouble selling myself, or would writing such words make me come off as being a bit snobby or seemingly self-important?

 

[mauberley]

Just wondering, for medical school applications, how many of you feel comfortable describing an activity or award as "prestigious", or likewise, "competitive", such as an internship, if the activity/award is only known to be such locally (such as at your university)?

Am I having trouble selling myself, or would writing such words make me come off as being a bit snobby or seemingly self-important?

Purely my opinion, but I feel that using those words carry little weight without backing them up somehow. "Competitive": how many people apply versus how many are selected? "Prestigious": what benefits does the award confer?

 

[n3xa]

purely my opinion, but i feel that using those words carry little weight without backing them up somehow. "competitive": How many people apply versus how many are selected? "prestigious": What benefits does the award confer?

+12345

 

[FCBarca1990]

So would it be appropriate to say x number of students out of y pool? I also feel that saying such might be emphasizing the wrong thing when it came to describing the activity...

 

[mauberley]

So would it be appropriate to say x number of students out of y pool? I also feel that saying such might be emphasizing the wrong thing when it came to describing the activity...

Why would it be "wrong" to communicate to someone not familiar with the award or activity the amount of work required to attain it or its significance?

 

[FCBarca1990]

Hmm....perhaps let me rephrase: are adcoms more interested in the relative prestige of activities, or would such space for descriptions better be spent on describing what was done, gained or learned from the activity?

 

[Torr]

So would it be appropriate to say x number of students out of y pool? I also feel that saying such might be emphasizing the wrong thing when it came to describing the activity...

Yes, I agree that hearing HOW selective this activity was is much better than simply hearing that it is selective...unless it's already widely recognized to be very competitive.

I'd just much rather see numbers than read the word "competitive". That's just me.

 

[FCBarca1990]

Thanks everyone for the advice...I will work on my application!

Also, would say 30 out of 150 be worth mentioning, or is such selectivity generally typically for internships/other opportunities that it would be assumed?

 

[NickNaylor]

Thanks everyone for the advice...I will work on my application!

Also, would say 30 out of 150 be worth mentioning, or is such selectivity generally typically for internships/other opportunities that it would be assumed?

If it's for an internship, then no, I wouldn't list it. If it's an award, I would.

 

[eli20]

I didn't describe anything as prestigious/selective/competitive etc. because I think it sounds snotty. However I did mention the scope of the applicant pool and if it was a very small group - how many were selected; i.e. "One of 19 students selected nationally for... blah"

My impression is that adcoms care more about what you did than the selectivity of said activity.

 

[Tapepsi]

I'd say no b/c it makes it sound like you care about prestige. I won an award that only 1 other person in my class received. Did I say that? No. I just explained the award and why it was meaningful to me.

 

[FattySlug]

I think the word prestige and competitive should be left to the adcom to decide. You saying it can sometimes stroke people the wrong way. A balance of confidence and humility is always good.

 

[Atlas Shrugged]

If something is prestigious you should not have to say so; focus on writing about your experiences.

 

[chronicidal]

I was advised not to write fluffy BS sentences about why something was important to me, and just to stick to objective description.