EC on AMCAS

[sportsfreak]

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I am a little confused on what to include and what not to include in the EC section of AMCAS so I though I would ask around:

In college I was a member of the chess club, but we didn't have a team that competed against other universities so we would just meet and play each other every week. But I have been playing chess competitively since I was 5 years old back in Armenia and continued to play in US when moved here. I was captain of my HS chess team and had success both as a team and individually. Team won couple of league titles, 2nd in a state tourney, I myself had 2nd in state and went undefeated in couple of leagues in the city, so I have been involved with chess for a long time and have put a lot of time and effort in becoming a good player but because my college didn't really have a team I didn't play much competitively in college.
So now I don't know if I should go into my earlier chess experiences because my college adviser is saying that med schools are interested in what I did while in college and I am wasting their time by including stuff from HS and before.

So what should I include?

 

[scattun]

Yeah, I think you can include it. Just make the title either Chess or Chess Club and briefly go through your history with the game leading up to your recreational play in college.

 

[BlueElmo]

Yeah I would include as well. Write about your involvement and stuff,

 

[Mattabet]

Right, agree, include it.

Your advisor is referring to stuff that happened before college, not necessarily the things that started before college and continued through it. So, he'd be right about an Alternative Spring Break that you did senior year of high school. But for the kinds of hobby EC's like you're describing, it makes it more three-dimensional to talk about how it's been with you your entire life. Go with it!

 

[sportsfreak]

well there isn't much that I will be to say about chess experience in college so my fear is that Adcom might think that am just filling in space in the application

 

[sportsfreak]

I think you misunderstood me...I didn't start a club, the club was already there...what we didn't have was a team so we didn't go to competitions...so while I have trained by myself, I didn't compete in college since we didn't have a team

 

[LizzyM]

List chess as a hobby or advocation (that's one of the categories). Give the start date as when you were 5 and the end date as present. Detail your activities in Armenia and the US culminating with the chess club in college.

 

[sportsfreak]

Thank you

 

[sportsfreak]

yeap all were helpful...thank you all

 

[Eilat87]

How long were your descriptions? A paragraphs worth of words?

 

[sportsfreak]

well it depends on the actual activity...I have some which are less then a paragraph and others which are longer...I try to make them as short as possible while getting the message across