for amcas activities, how many hours a weeks should be minimum?

[nolee]

I was recently talking to a person who worked on a medical school board, and she told me that 3-4 hours a week should be the minimum for activities listed on the app. I have a few activities (e.g. mentoring, tutoring, etc.) that only occupy ~1 hour a week--should I just leave these off? (Although would it make a difference if I've been doing them consistently over a multiple-year period?) Thanks so much guys!

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[yellowfish]

The minimum activity that I listed was a 3 hour a week commitment. I had some that were less, but I lumped those similar "smaller" activities together and added the hours together. You could try doing that, but I think if they add to your application even if they are just 1-2 hour commitments (esp. if they are over a long period of time) you should list them, unless you have something else and are constrained for space on your application.

 

[theseeker4]

I was recently talking to a person who worked on a medical school board, and she told me that 3-4 hours a week should be the minimum for activities listed on the app. I have a few activities (e.g. mentoring, tutoring, etc.) that only occupy ~1 hour a week--should I just leave these off? (Although would it make a difference if I've been doing them consistently over a multiple-year period?) Thanks so much guys!

Are they a significant part of your application, in your opinion? Would you have gaping holes in your application without including them? If they are significant to you, put them in. Obviously adcoms will come to their own opinions about the value of what you put in, but if the activities mean something to you, and you can discuss them in a genuine, meaningful, significant way, forget about hour limits or minimums people talk about and include your meaningful activities on your application. Unless you are bumping something more significant off your application by including those activities, I highly doubt including them will, on average, hurt you, since the alternative is fewer activities filled in on your app.

 

[nolee]

thanks so much to both of you! i agree, more is better than less, but i'm just worried that reviewers will think i'm padding my app (if there are multiple 1-hour/week commitments all over the place). lumping together similar activities is a great idea--i'll see if i can amalgamate some of my smaller ones. thank you for the tip!

 

[inmyposhposh]

How do you list something that say you only spent 3 or 4 weeks doing, but occupied 100 or more hours of your time?

 

[LizzyM]

How do you list something that say you only spent 3 or 4 weeks doing, but occupied 100 or more hours of your time?

List anything that averaged one hour per week or more. Frankly, I pay more attention to the start date/end date than the hours per week. If you started something early in freshman year and are still doing it when you apply in junior or senior year: Win!

 

[circulus vitios]

List anything that averaged one hour per week or more. Frankly, I pay more attention to the start date/end date than the hours per week. If you started something early in freshman year and are still doing it when you apply in junior or senior year: Win!

What about something I did 3 years ago for a month, stopped, then picked it up again 3 years later for 6 months?

 

[LizzyM]

What about something I did 3 years ago for a month, stopped, then picked it up again 3 years later for 6 months?

To be honest, I'd list the 6 month period and mention in the explanatio that you also did a month of this activity 3 yrs earlier. Otherwise, you need to divide the total hours done over a 7 month period by 3 years which makes the average number of hours per week over the time period quite small (maybe < 1 hr wk for 156 wks).