Filling out all 15 spots of the Work/Activities section?!?

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Lifeman

Lifeman

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Well, I am beginning my 3rd year and was just thinking about what my situation will be when I apply next year. I do some hospital volunteering, research, and hopefully volunteer at a clinic this year...but I don't think I'll have more than 6 or 7 things by the time I apply. Do most people fill out all 15 spots? Will it look bad if I only have half of them filled out? I'm just trying to get a accurate grip on things so I can get more involved before it gets too late. Thanks!
 
Lifeman said:
Well, I am beginning my 3rd year and was just thinking about what my situation will be when I apply next year. I do some hospital volunteering, research, and hopefully volunteer at a clinic this year...but I don't think I'll have more than 6 or 7 things by the time I apply. Do most people fill out all 15 spots? Will it look bad if I only have half of them filled out? I'm just trying to get a accurate grip on things so I can get more involved before it gets too late. Thanks!
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Its a bad bad idea to try to fill them out just to have them all filled.

6 I hear is the minimum. Remember you can do a hobbies one to give you a bit more flesh to it. But don't try to fluff up or spread things out unnecessarily. If you've shown genuine commitment to several things of worthy importance then that is what matters, not how many /15 you have.
 
True, but it has been my experience in education that often times teachers will say they prefer quality over quantity but then either subconsciously or by choice, let quantity influence how they grade. (when glancing over homework, grading essays, etc)
 
Lifeman said:
True, but it has been my experience in education that often times teachers will say they prefer quality over quantity but then either subconsciously or by choice, let quantity influence how they grade. (when glancing over homework, grading essays, etc)
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I agree. That is why I would say shoot for 9-10 quality experiences. But there is a risk in my saying that because ECs are already cookie cutter-prone enough without us cookie cutting the very boxes they're put in. Just be involved in quality shadowing, clinical volunteering, nonclinical volunteering, and research and whatever else you have time and interest for and things will naturally sort themselves out.
 
Quantity is not as important as quality in this case --how long you did them for and how meaningful the activities were. it is more compelling to see someone volunteer at an organization for say 3 yrs than 5 different places for only a few months each. plus you will have much more to say about it
My list comprised mainly of research, volunteering, work, honor society. But remember that you can also include honors/awards/recognitions, publications, and extracurriculars like hobbies or sports as activities.
 
those with low GPA and MCAT will try to have all 15 spots filled up. its a trap. dont fall for it.
 
I know they say they want quality OVER quantity. But honestly the truth is probably that they want quantity AND quality.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
those with low GPA and MCAT will try to have all 15 spots filled up. its a trap. dont fall for it.
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that's not necessarily true. i was ready with 15 activities/experiences because my pre-med committee prepared me for those sections. i have decent gpa and mcat scores. what i wasn't ready for was how i would have to write more about an experience after i ticked the "most meaningful" box.
 
If you have it, you have it. If you don't, don't over-represent or over-extend yourself and present yourself as somebody you're not.

Not all applications are made equal, so forget about what everybody else does and focus on yourself.
 
Soon enough this will turn into the third stat:

GPA, MCAT, # of ECs

sdn and its application trivialities are driving me nuts
 
zipnogg said:
that's not necessarily true. i was ready with 15 activities/experiences because my pre-med committee prepared me for those sections. i have decent gpa and mcat scores. what i wasn't ready for was how i would have to write more about an experience after i ticked the "most meaningful" box.
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thats good for you. but, if one of those activities is like for treasurer for some college social club, im just gonna have to do an eye roll, because, really, nobody cares about that.

but im sure you will have more substantive activities listed.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
thats good for you. but, if one of those activities is like for treasurer for some college social club, im just gonna have to do an eye roll, because, really, nobody cares about that.

but im sure you will have more substantive activities listed.
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it really is about what you learned from the activities that you participated in for any substantive period of time. neither you nor i can say whether or not an activity is something anyone would care about as long as the person is able to take something away from it and make it relevant to why he/she would make a good physician.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
thats good for you. but, if one of those activities is like for treasurer for some college social club, im just gonna have to do an eye roll, because, really, nobody cares about that.

but im sure you will have more substantive activities listed.
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What is so bad about being treasurer? There can be a lot of work involved.

I'm about to give everyone on SDN an eye roll.
 
Think of it as if you were an adcom looking at apps. You'd be able to spot bs wouldn't you? They aren't stupid and have looked at hundreds of applications. Just put down all of the stuff you did and what you actually got from it. Don't over exaggerate and add fluff and you should be fine.
 
ShenanigansMD said:
What is so bad about being treasurer? There can be a lot of work involved.

I'm about to give everyone on SDN an eye roll.
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hahaha he's just flaunting his immaturity. everybody's so impressed. (im talkin about kdavid, of course)
 
i think he was being sarcastic. no immaturity here. if youve ever worked a real job where someone actually pays you, money, then, you will see where im coming from.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
i think he was being sarcastic. no immaturity here. if youve ever worked a real job where someone actually pays you, money, then, you will see where im coming from.
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oh yea, been there done that mate. but i still don't see why you think you can evaluate whose personal experience is worth more than another's
 
but thats the whole point of admissions, isnt it, judging and being judged.plus, im judging you for using the word 'mate'
 
I have all 15 filled out and am doing quite well. Clearly they favor all 15.

Feed the neurotics.
 
I remember reading on SDN when I applied, "Put your top 15 experiences. You don't have room to put everything, so prioritize!" Suddenly I felt like a dweeb with like 6 activities.

And yes, my app went over like a lead balloon. Don't buy into the people saying, "just do a few and make them count." I worked like a dog as the sports editor of the college daily with the second highest circulation in the US. No one at my two interviews asked about it.
 
VisionaryTics said:
I remember reading on SDN when I applied, "Put your top 15 experiences. You don't have room to put everything, so prioritize!" Suddenly I felt like a dweeb with like 6 activities.

And yes, my app went over like a lead balloon. Don't buy into the people saying, "just do a few and make them count." I worked like a dog as the sports editor of the college daily with the second highest circulation in the US. No one at my two interviews asked about it.
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I think this is less of an issue with the advent of the "most meaningful" designation for activities. Still agree with your point though... banking on 2-3 very involved activities with nothing else to support them is a risky idea at best.

(sent from my phone)
 
I filled out 9. Quality>Quantity. If you have good, meaningful things than less than 15 is fine!
 
kdavidlee25 said:
but thats the whole point of admissions, isnt it, judging and being judged.plus, im judging you for using the word 'mate'
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yea, except their judgment of you counts a hell of a lot more than your judgment of them, mate.
 
Just a specific question, If I volunteered in two different parts of the hospitals should I give them each their own box or list it all under something like "Hospital Volunteering". Same thing if I shadowed multiple doctors?
 
Lifeman said:
Just a specific question, If I volunteered in two different parts of the hospitals should I give them each their own box or list it all under something like "Hospital Volunteering". Same thing if I shadowed multiple doctors?
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If you have enough slots, yes you can separate the two just so you can be more specific about each one of them. It's quite nice especially if you have a lot to say about each experience.

If you do not have enough slots, then I'd bundle those two up though (unfortunately) you might need to sacrifice being able to write in detail about your experiences.
 
Lifeman said:
Just a specific question, If I volunteered in two different parts of the hospitals should I give them each their own box or list it all under something like "Hospital Volunteering". Same thing if I shadowed multiple doctors?
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Unless you did something absolutely mind blowing at one gig that requires more elaboration (which almost certainly isn't the case), I would group them all together under one slot.

(sent from my phone)
 
well ok mate. Let's have SDN compare our activities and see who is the better judge. My 5-6 activities to your 15 major contributions to human society. Truth-telling time. For me, 2010, I worked as an EMT at a major college football stadium for the full football season. Your turn...and don't lie.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
well ok mate. Let's have SDN compare our activities and see who is the better judge. My 5-6 activities to your 15 major contributions to human society. Truth-telling time. For me, 2010, I worked as an EMT at a major college football stadium for the full football season. Your turn...and don't lie.
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There's always the dare option too you know.
 
VisionaryTics said:
And yes, my app went over like a lead balloon. Don't buy into the people saying, "just do a few and make them count." I worked like a dog as the sports editor of the college daily with the second highest circulation in the US. No one at my two interviews asked about it.
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NickNaylor said:
I think this is less of an issue with the advent of the "most meaningful" designation for activities. Still agree with your point though... banking on 2-3 very involved activities with nothing else to support them is a risky idea at best.
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Only n=4, but I haven't had a single interviewer ask me about my research or any of my "most meaningful" activities--which together made up 8 spots on my AMCAS. Maybe I wrote such wonderful descriptions they didn't feel the need for me to elaborate. :meanie:

OP, I don't think you should try to fill all 15 slots if you can't write something meaningful. Quality does matter. That said, I do think that interviewers prefer chatting about activities that interest them, so odds of you having an AMCAS activity that match with their interests will be increased just by having more slots filled up with different activities. This probably also applies to adcoms who are reviewing your app for an interview spot.
 
I don't believe this minimum or maximum thing...just be honest and fill out how many ECs you honestly did. I think I filled out 6 of them, 2 of them were hobbies, and I even consolidated a couple. Just do whatever you think portrays you in the best light, but don't fill up EC spots just to fill them up.
 
well ok mate. Let's have SDN compare our activities and see who is the better judge. My 5-6 activities to your 15 major contributions to human society. Truth-telling time. For me, 2010, I worked as an EMT at a major college football stadium for the full football season. Your turn...and don't lie.
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Hahahahaha

Okay. first off, I never said that what I did was any major contribution to the society. I did what I could to try to make myself a more appealing applicant, and I tried to learn as much as I could from each activity.

You're just one of those people who think that you're better than so many others, and you attempt to prove that by always trying to one-up those around you. It's pretty juvenile. It's a competition, yes, not always butterflies and rainbows, but we're all in it to succeed together, so get off your high horse and stop wanting people to recognize you for what you did.

I'll just list everything that I did here that way I won't be in the same sad, pathetic boat that you're in, wringing my hands to see if I have something that's better than yours. And no, I don't like to lie about the things that I did on med school applications. There's always that chance that they'll ask me about those things, you know?

(1) Shadowing three D.O. physicians, 2 PCP and 1 gen. surg. I got to shadow the surgeon for almost a year; that was pretty cool.
(2) A Downtown Spoakane homeless outreach program for ~5-6 months, I think?
(3) YMCA camp counselor every summer (paid and volunteer, but mostly volunteer) for the past 6 years or so.
(4) Lifeguard
(5) EMT training
(6) Research on beer over a summer (full time ~45 hrs/week)
(7) Medical service trips to Haiti and Guatemala (7-10 days each)
(8) Chemistry tutor at my school for ~2 years
(9) Peer advisor to freshmen for a semester
(10) Mentor-Mentee program coordinator and volunteer for ~3 yrs
(11) Leadership position on campus for a year
(12) YMCA Youth & Gov't co-advisor for a year
(13) A children's hospital volunteer for ~1.5 yr/hospital volunteer over a summer
(14) Research presentation at 3 different conferences
(15)... 2 hobbies/leisure activities

Some of them had to be bundled up for the AMCAS (AACOMAS has a much better application format, I think), but you get the gist.
 
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The Dean of Loyola says to fill out all 15 sections, there is no excuse. Everyone has had 15 life experiences that had shaped them in one way or another. Personally, I could have used more sections. Then again, I'm nontrad.
 
BiologyNerd said:
The Dean of Loyola says to fill out all 15 sections, there is no excuse. Everyone has had 15 life experiences that had shaped them in one way or another. Personally, I could have used more sections. Then again, I'm nontrad.
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True that. I just think that it helps to have solid activities that have been pretty substantial to your life, but if you don't have 15 (because of your school work/job, etc.), it's really not the end of the world.
 
BiologyNerd said:
The Dean of Loyola says to fill out all 15 sections, there is no excuse. Everyone has had 15 life experiences that had shaped them in one way or another. Personally, I could have used more sections. Then again, I'm nontrad.
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I got an II at Loyola. I did not fill out all the sections. This is obviously not a hard and fast rule
 
BiologyNerd said:
The Dean of Loyola says to fill out all 15 sections, there is no excuse. Everyone has had 15 life experiences that had shaped them in one way or another. Personally, I could have used more sections. Then again, I'm nontrad.
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I don't know about that man...A. I did not include anything before college, and B. I don't think posting "life experiences" that have no bearing to medicine is a good idea at all. I have plenty of life experiences, way more than 15, but not enough that related to medicine and also were worth writing about. On the contrary, my advisors said it is better to commit and contribute to one or two activities regularly for many years than to sporadically do 15 activities once or occasionally over the course of undergrad.
 
Geebeejay said:
I don't know about that man...A. I did not include anything before college, and B. I don't think posting "life experiences" that have no bearing to medicine is a good idea at all. I have plenty of life experiences, way more than 15, but not enough that related to medicine and also were worth writing about. On the contrary, my advisors said it is better to commit and contribute to one or two activities regularly for many years than to sporadically do 15 activities once or occasionally over the course of undergrad.
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but keep in mind that not all of your activities have to be medicine-related... like altruistic/volunteer activities that are not medical do wonders to boost your application.

And you're right; anything that you did during high school would not count.. unless you continued doing the activity through college as well (then you can say how many years you've been doin it)
 
I'm just adding to the knowledge here on SDN. This is what I was told in person. You can do whatever you want to do. Clearly, someone here has not listed 15 activities and still got an interview invite. It is up to you to make the judgement call on this matter.
 
BiologyNerd said:
I'm just adding to the knowledge here on SDN. This is what I was told in person. You can do whatever you want to do. Clearly, someone here has not listed 15 activities and still got an interview invite. It is up to you to make the judgement call on this matter.
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power to you mate. i'm just as willing to add to and learn from the knowledge base as the next person
 
As someone who will apply next cycle and has no idea of the layout of the AMCAS app...

This section requires a contact person for each thing you put down, correct? So would this be the place I would put down "guitar player for x-number of years" or does this belong in another section? Just a bit confused about where hobbies would go, I know people are saying they put hobbies here but how could you have a contact person for that lol
 
SixStringPsych said:
As someone who will apply next cycle and has no idea of the layout of the AMCAS app...

This section requires a contact person for each thing you put down, correct? So would this be the place I would put down "guitar player for x-number of years" or does this belong in another section? Just a bit confused about where hobbies would go, I know people are saying they put hobbies here but how could you have a contact person for that lol
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You don't need put a contact person for your hobbies. For the activities section, there is a drop-down menu to categorize what you're putting down, so the required fields will change.
 
SixStringPsych said:
As someone who will apply next cycle and has no idea of the layout of the AMCAS app...

This section requires a contact person for each thing you put down, correct? So would this be the place I would put down "guitar player for x-number of years" or does this belong in another section? Just a bit confused about where hobbies would go, I know people are saying they put hobbies here but how could you have a contact person for that lol
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You can list yourself as a contact if there is no contact for your activity. I did this for one of my hobbies, and also for one of my work experiences that no longer has any of the managers that were there when I was. You can read further info in the AMCAS instruction manual by clicking on HELP in the app itself.
 
BiologyNerd said:
The Dean of Loyola says to fill out all 15 sections, there is no excuse. Everyone has had 15 life experiences that had shaped them in one way or another. Personally, I could have used more sections. Then again, I'm nontrad.
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What? :laugh: No, I don't.
 
emt training, so not a real emt then? haha u suck. you volunteered at a summer camp for children. so you like children, huh?

my list.

1. emt as noted above.
2. weekly hospice sessions with patient, just counseling., one hour a week.
3. one month medical trip to nepal. worked at a clinic there.
4. shadowed Two MDs. only for 20 hrs. not one year, whatever that means.
5. worked as a white collar professional for 6 yrs. made 6 figure salary. quit by choice.
6. did the tutoring stuff back in college but that was like 12 yrs ago.

thanks for sharing by the way. always curious what you EC hounds write down. now i know.
 
kdavidlee25 said:
emt training, so not a real emt then? haha u suck. you volunteered at a summer camp for children. so you like children, huh?

my list.

1. emt as noted above.
2. weekly hospice sessions with patient, just counseling., one hour a week.
3. one month medical trip to nepal. worked at a clinic there.
4. shadowed Two MDs. only for 20 hrs. not one year, whatever that means.
5. worked as a white collar professional for 6 yrs. made 6 figure salary. quit by choice.
6. did the tutoring stuff back in college but that was like 12 yrs ago.

thanks for sharing by the way. always curious what you EC hounds write down. now i know.
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.
 
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