Examples of well written work and activities section

[foodie08]

Any accepted or current medical student willing to give an example of a well crafted W & A description.

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[infectiousdisease101]

Google it.

 

[gyngyn]

Look here: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2017-2018*~*~*~*

 

[DoctorSnow]

Any accepted or current medical student willing to comment on what makes a good work and activities section and maybe possibly give an example?

What I did was create a google excel sheet and organized everything into the 10 headings that I am going to use. So it looks like this:

• Clinical Work/Paid
  • Nurse Assistant
    • 1200 hours
    • Stuff like contact information and description if needed

 

[foodie08]

My question was more of I wanted to see an example of a well written W & A description. I have taken a look at teh various posts devoted to this on SDN and done my fair share of googling but didn't find a well written example. So I apologize if my question came off as a dumb question.

 

[foodie08]

What I did was create a google excel sheet and organized everything into the 10 headings that I am going to use. So it looks like this:

• Clinical Work/Paid
  • Nurse Assistant
    • 1200 hours
    • Stuff like contact information and description if needed

I have actually done the same, with time frames included as well. It was helpful to have it in one place.

 

[pewpew95]

"I joined X club while I was a freshman because Y attracted me to it. After getting involved with the organization as a general member, I became passionate about their activities. These activities included P, L, and Z. In my sophomore year, I was elected as A on the executive board, and in my junior year I was elected as B. Through my experiences as A and B, I accomplished C, D, and E. Finally, my experiences on the executive board taught me J, K, and L and as a result I gained valuable leadership skills that will be useful for me across diverse settings in the future."

That's how I wrote one of my experiences section (not word for word) about a club I had been involved with for 3 years.

But I'm not an accepted or current student so please also see the attached file

 

[asrw77]

Google it.

You really need to chill with the unhelpful and condescending comments

 

[DameJulie]

I think this varies among applicants and who reads your application. Some people say that a simple description of your duties will suffice. But some people (source: my school's advisor) said adcoms want to see reflections and deeper explanations of how your experience would make you a good physician. Think about it as PS 2.0

Personally, I think chances are the adcoms won't even read your description especially if it's a common experience (e.g. scribe). They probably will put more weight on your PS and secondary essays. Although idk if I am underestimating the power of experience description (especially the significant ones)

I am still puzzled and hope to hear some successful examples. What exactly are Adcoms looking for here?

 

[infectiousdisease101]

You really need to chill with the unhelpful and condescending comments

No condescending intended this time around. Just out of curiosity, how does 2 words telling people where to go to find their answer condescending? If I meant to be condescending, I would have added a snarky comment. Shouldn't assume things.

EDIT: You can also run it by your school's Career Center. Trust me when I say I cannot thank my career specialist enough for helping my hone my professional essay skills. It's okay to go in with bad professional essays. Why? To get to the top, you gotta start from the bottom.

 

[freedoctor17]

No condescending intended this time around. Just out of curiosity, how does 2 words telling people where to go to find their answer condescending? If I meant to be condescending, I would have added a snarky comment. Shouldn't assume things.

I think telling them to Google it was kinda snarky 😛

But yeah that work activities thread gives a really nice outline of the possible ways to fill it out. An example from a successful applicant would still be nice though to see how they decided to do it considering there were a couple different ways to go with.

Mainly I'm interested in hearing from anyone who's successfully used bullet points. That's how I'd like to list mine but feels too unofficial.

 

[infectiousdisease101]

If that sounded snarky, sorry. I am taking a break from 7 hours (with a half hour break half-way through) of studying for my MCAT. So if anything sounded snarky, it is not intended.

EDIT: not taking a break, just got out of. My brain's dead I can't even express my thoughts properly.

 

[freedoctor17]

If that sounded snarky, sorry. I am taking a break from 7 hours (with a half hour break half-way through) of studying for my MCAT. So if anything sounded snarky, it is not intended.

I feel ya, I remember those long days of MCAT studying, definitely wasn't fun. Good luck!

 

[infectiousdisease101]

I feel ya, I remember those long days of MCAT studying, definitely wasn't fun. Good luck!

You're not out of the woods yet. You still got the Steps 1 and 2 exams. From what I know from talking to physicians, as long as you start residency right away, the Step 3 exam is not much of an issue because you're in residency so you only need to pass it, which is like the 2nd percentile. 1 and 2 however, you need competitive scores. Have fun! I'll be joining you shortly.

 

[freedoctor17]

You're not out of the woods yet. You still got the Steps 1 and 2 exams. From what I know from talking to physicians, as long as you start residency right away, the Step 3 exam is not much of an issue because you're in residency so you only need to pass it, which is like the 2nd percentile. 1 and 2 however, you need competitive scores. Have fun! I'll be joining you shortly.

I'll worry about those once I'm actually in medical school haha, still much too early for me to worry about that now.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

But some people (source: my school's advisor) said adcoms want to see reflections and deeper explanations of how your experience would make you a good physician.

Another reason advisors are idiots. It is not necessary to relate every experience to how it will make you a good doctor. Adcoms on this board have said not to do that. Please don’t try to make your postage stamp collection or your parkour competition about medicine. The point of letting you put hobbies and interests is so you can show them you are a human being with interests outside of medicine—something very important in preventing burnout—and not a premed automaton.

 

[Catalystik]

Any accepted or current medical student willing to give an example of a well crafted W & A description.

From the thread that @gyngyn linked to earlier in the thread, here is a link to a post that gives further links to two examples provided by members NickNaylor and DAPI:. *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2017-2018*~*~*~*

Edit: it looks like DAPI removed his essays, but Nick's are still available.

 

[Barbitaa]

Hello all! Although I realize this thread has been quiet for a couple of months, I was wondering if there was anyone willing to read through my work/activities section?!? The pre-med advisor at my university went away for maternity leave so I have not gone through these with anyone yet and they need a lot of work 🙁

 

[boogiecousins94]

Hello all! Although I realize this thread has been quiet for a couple of months, I was wondering if there was anyone willing to read through my work/activities section?!? The pre-med advisor at my university went away for maternity leave so I have not gone through these with anyone yet and they need a lot of work 🙁

If you pm me and send as a doc I can do the "review" function on word and go through/leave comments, I did this for someone the other day as well

I like reading thorough work activities much more than PS haha

 

[fourandtwo]

What I did was create a google excel sheet and organized everything into the 10 headings that I am going to use. So it looks like this:

• Clinical Work/Paid
  • Nurse Assistant
    • 1200 hours
    • Stuff like contact information and description if needed

I think the experiences section is much more important than the personal statement. As such, I'd recommend writing a few sentences on how that experience impacted you. Lots of people volunteer at hospitals, but how did it affect your narrative?

 

[deleted600623]

I think the experiences section is much more important than the personal statement. As such, I'd recommend writing a few sentences on how that experience impacted you. Lots of people volunteer at hospitals, but how did it affect your narrative?

My advisor has given me similar advice of not describing the activity but talking about how it impacted you as a person. How was it transformative? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? Almost every one has the same experiences unless you've done something crazy like start your own business etc. ADCOMs know what a CNA, MA, scribe do. They know that you do basic lab research. They know what you do as a volunteer and what you do when shadowing. How did it impact you?

 

[DoctorSnow]

I think the experiences section is much more important than the personal statement. As such, I'd recommend writing a few sentences on how that experience impacted you. Lots of people volunteer at hospitals, but how did it affect your narrative?

Don't worry. I used the description a lot more. I was just simplifying the organization 🙂

 

[jd989898]

The Premed Years podcast helped me a lot with this.