Double dipping for work/activities and PS

[lac5678]

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[mcatjelly]

Double-dipping is unavoidable. Provided you discussed different aspects of your activities in your PS vs. your activities section (as you said you did), you're fine! I know in my app, my 3 most-meaningful activities were also featured heavily in my PS but I made sure to change up the focus between them.

 

[Catalystik]

Is it ok to double dip for work/activities and your PS? My PS mainly talks about how by shadowing, research, and clinical volunteering I discovered that I want to be a doctor, but those are like half of my ECs. The only other ECs I have include the non-profit I started, my intercollegiate athletics, and the part time job I have, so I wrote about my shadowing, research, and clinical volunteering for my work/activities. With all of these included I only have 7 work/activities. Should I add that I was on the deans list or that I am apart of a neuroscience society thing (I never get involved with it though lol) or are these 7 enough?

Do you guys think this is okay? I wrote about shadowing, research, and clinical work in a different way for my PS and work/activities. For example for my PS I wrote about what impact they had on me and how they showed me I loved science and I love working with people. But for my work/activities, I wrote about stuff that I didnt have in my PS that just described what I did and what my specific job was for each thing was.



Although I made sure I picked the 501c3 non-profit I started as my most meaningful, and one of my clinical experiences as the most meaningful. For the most meaningful clinical experience I talked about an unique interaction I had with a PT that I didn't bring up in my PS.

Thank you!!!

Don't forget Hobbies and/or Artistic Endeavors in which you've been involved. Adcomms like to know you have stress-relieving, leisuretime activities.

Deans List is widely listed, which is pretty useless since your transcript speaks for itself and the criteria vary from school to school. Clubs in which you had no leadership or volunteer involvement need not be listed as they aren't going to enhance your candidacy. If you rarely even showed up for meetings, for sure don't bother using a space.

You didn't mention nonclinical community service. If you don't have that, avoid applying to the service-oriented med schools.

 

[Catalystik]

My leisure activities inlcluse my athletics though. 1) Well, I also play guitar, meditate daily and enjoy yoga, do you think I should put that?

2) And I do have non clinical service! I started a non profit LGBT powerlifting club where I help people who normally wouldn’t be introduced to powerlifting learn the sport to gain mental and physical strength.

3) We also help raise money by hosting events to raise awareness and funds for homeless, LGBT youth....wouldn’t that be non clinical volunteer? I mean i don’t get paid haha


4) Me and another member of this club actually got asked to compete in the LGBT international powerlifting championships in London this summer to represent the US. I have it written into the description of the nonprofit powerlifting club, but do you think I should make it a separate thing?

1) Yes.

2) Will you list it as Leadership or Community Service?

3) Yes. For how many separate hours were you involved in planning and implementing this effort?

4) I'd assume you were involved with powerlifting before starting an organization. Was it a hobby, an extracurricular club sport, or what? Since the invitation was personal, I'd put it with an entry where you discuss your own involvement with the sport, rather than with your discussion of the club.

 

[Catalystik]

1) Do I include it all under one thing? Or separate them out? I'm guessing separate...

2) Right now it's all (the club, the raising money/awareness, and competing in london) lumped together under "other." Do you think I should just list the club as leadership? and then do the raising money as community service?

3)It's been a year in the making; we started talking about it last summer. It's called Pulled for Pride. its a national deadlift event to raise awareness and money for under-represented people in powerlifting (LGBTQIA, women, etc..), but our proceeds are going to help locally (the kids) and not nationally. But we didn't really put it into motion until about April. We've been raising money steadily, and the event is in June

4)Yes, I got involved in powerlifting through my school, and I have my school powerlifting club already listed. So right now I have the non-profit (all lumped) and my school PL club. I will split the IPC in London out and make it it's own

1) One space.

2) List founding the organization as Leadership and the philanthropy as Community Service.

4) The London competition invitation can go with your Extracurricular College Lifting group. If you did it and have won, it could go in Awards/Honors Instead.

 

[Catalystik]

Ok awesome thank you! Can I also send you a personal message about something else? I'd really appreciate your opinion. I am new to this site and it's saying I can't send you anything.

Sorry, my PM box is closed. I am however willing to anonymize a delicate question in my quote, and you can delete the query after it's answered.

 

[lac5678]

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[Catalystik]

Hi, thank you so much for your help with my PS and work/activities! I really appreciate it, especially because I don't really have anyone else to give me good advice on what I should do.

I was also wondering if I could also get you input on something regarding my med school app and if it would affect my chances. [deleted]

What do you think my chances are of getting in somewhere? My friend tells me to try to apply to top 10 and 20 schools, but I'm slightly worried my past will bring me down and I am not sure I will get in anywhere. [deleted]

I share your worry about the effect these events will have on your application cycle. No one of them is an issue, but that there were three is a concern. Since time has passed, I would hope that your superlative record and stats since will encourage some schools to take a chance on you. I can't be completely reassuring, and though I think you can reasonably apply to top schools, I would intuit that less-selective schools are the more likely to reach out to you, so don't eliminate them from your list. Many adcomms do believe in redemption and I think you've made the right moves to earn their consideration.

 

[bbdylan87]

Ok! The message I tried to send lol...I just copied and pasted

Hi, thank you so much for your help with my PS and work/activities! I really appreciate it, especially because I don't really have anyone else to give me good advice on what I should do.

I was also wondering if I could also get you input on something regarding my med school app and if it would affect my chances. I was arrested 3 times my freshman year of college (all misdemeanor). 2 poss of MJ and 1 DUI (2012). I was suspended in school because I was arrested in the dorms for weed, and had to serve some jail time for the DUI, but I entered into a rehab and I have been sober ever since. I went back to school at another university at 2014, and I have made straight A's ever since. I've also worked really hard to volunteer and do research. (I describe this in my application and a little in my PS)

Do you think this will definitely affect my chances at getting into a good school? My friend, who is faculty at Emory told me no, it won't affect me because it's been so long ago and I have done alot to show that I have bounced back and that I want to be a doctor.

To add, I have a 3.96 sGPA, i got a 518 on my mcat and I have research and clinical experience. I worked in a animal neuro lab for a year at my school (georgia state). I then went to volunteer for the Grady Trauma Project at Emory School of Medicine as a patient recruiter/interviewer for a PTSD study (so both research/clinical work), and I was then promoted to work as a research assistant and PT recruiter in another part of GTP working in the ED at Grady for a national study called the Aurora project (combined I have 700 hours of this clinical research that I've been doing for a year). I also have 60 hours of shadowing including following an ID consult service, primary care physician, and cardiovascular surgeon. I have all my other ECs including the LGBT non-profit and stuff as well...



What do you think my chances are of getting in somewhere? My friend tells me to try to apply to top 10 and 20 schools, but I'm slightly worried my past will bring me down and I am not sure I will get in anywhere. Personally, I don't blame myself for anything in the past; I was going through a rough patch accepting my sexuality, got involved with wrong people, etc. and I hope the adcoms see that I was on the wrong direction but I've found my path now.

Your stats aren't very extra-ordinary and in fact are average when you're applying to top 20's. Why would they choose you when there's hundreds of applicants with better GPA/MCAT/EC (me for example) who have never gotten in trouble with either the school (IA) or the law (misdemeanors, felonies, etc.), which in your case you have both. It not only affects your chances at top 20s, but all medical schools. It sucks that all that time/energy that went into that GPA/MCAT/EC may have been wasted.

EDIT: PS you probably are going to want to delete your message. I also think the majority of your school list is completely unrealistic

 

[Potentia Virtus]

Talking about the same thing in your PS and in your activities is not usually what people mean by double dipping. When people say double dipping, they mean counting one activity as more than one category- for example, one activity being listed as both leadership and volunteer experience.
List all (15) of your experiences in your activities section. Craft a narrative in your PS. Some overlap as far as the topic goes is unavoidable, however, the way the info is presented is different.

 

[bbdylan87]

Dude, your post is rude and offers nothing constructive, in addition to the fact that you just blatantly ignored the OPs obvious feelings over not having his personal information shared (he only posted it for @Catalystik to see it an respond, and then he deleted it). I would strongly encourage you to delete your post.

Constructive criticism: OP should partake in commendable acts of service for a while, such as service for our country, peace corps, etc. From what I've heard, IA and criminal records take more than three years to "restore". Based off of the posts on SDN on IA's alone, this process takes 5-10 years. I'm not someone who sugar coats what I understand, so that's my opinion in this matter. OP can choose to listen to what I've said or ignore it, but it was not rude, and I was the one who informed OP to delete his post (which he coincidentally has done within 5 minutes of me posting my reply), so I've actually done something more productive than you sir.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all that too! I know it was a lot. And I feel the same way as you; I guess the only thing that I can do right now is apply and wait to find out.

Here is where I am applying. Do you think I should change or alter anything? (GA resident)
Emory
Morehouse
Medical College of GA
Zofstra
Dartmouth
Mt Sinai
Keck (USC)
Temple
Loyola
Northwestern
Oregon Uni
UVA
Tulane
Tufts
Stanford
Vanderbilt

You might reconsider Oregon, Morehouse, and Loyola.

 

[bbdylan87]

No worries guys! Thank you hawkenthesky, I appreciate you taking my feelings into regard. And bbdylan, I appreciate your honest response. Also, would you mind deleting that quote of my post? I would appreciate it!

now....

I understand how my past might look, and I have heard a bunch of different opinions so far. I've had people share bbdylan's opinion and tell me to not apply at all, I have had people that say maybe it might matter or it might not, and I have had people who tell me that it is actually a benefit to my application because people like underdogs and it shows I have the resilience to come back from a set-back.

Who knows what the adcoms will think, but I do know that I would regret not trying at all. Doing all the research and ECs and studying for the MCAT was definitely not a waste of time though. I have built a lot of self esteem and confidence in who I am, my abilities, and the things I don't like through my experiences. So that's the only part I wholeheartedly disagree with you on bbdylan.

I'm not saying not to apply, but I feel that you just need more service towards others, especially since (based off of your post), you don't have much volunteer work to serve others to begin with. Also, by applying this longitudinally, it shows that you have the traits of a doctor and clearly have learned from your mistakes (does doing research/getting good grades/mcat show this? I personally don't think so). I also think you should apply broadly/intellectually, your school list is very small and a large majority of those schools are top 20. And sorry, I did not mean to suggest your entire pre-med career was a waste of time, but it most certainly would be if you do not apply at the right time, apply broadly, and smartly. Take that how you will, just know that that is the game all premeds are in, and everyone is in a different boat based off of the judgement they have made throughout their entire academic/personal careers. Undoubtedly some people who aspire to be doctors do waste a large chunk of time only to realize that they will not be doctors due solely to not playing the game right.

 

[Catalystik]

Do you have some schools that I should apply to instead of those?

Those seeking school selection advice are invited to post in the WAMC forum at: What Are My Chances?

 

[lac5678]

Those seeking school selection advice are invited to post in the WAMC forum at: What Are My Chances?

Ok thank you for all your help again!

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

Don't forget Hobbies and/or Artistic Endeavors in which you've been involved. Adcomms like to know you have stress-relieving, leisuretime activities.

Deans List is widely listed, which is pretty useless since your transcript speaks for itself and the criteria vary from school to school. Clubs in which you had no leadership or volunteer involvement need not be listed as they aren't going to enhance your candidacy. If you rarely even showed up for meetings, for sure don't bother using a space.

You didn't mention nonclinical community service. If you don't have that, avoid applying to the service-oriented med schools.

What would you say is the percentage breakdown of schools that
1) Don’t care for non clinical volunteering 2) Regard it as low priority
3)Care for it considerably
4) Probably won’t admit someone without it