Great tips for entering your "Work/Activities" for AMCAS

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I'm confused as to whether I'm supposed to be entirely objective and state facts of what I did in the EC section or if i'm supposed to elaborate and state the importance and what I learned.

Basically, am I just stating facts or am I giving opinions on what values or other things I learned from each EC?

ugh. please help.
 
GirlAnachronism said:
I'm confused as to whether I'm supposed to be entirely objective and state facts of what I did in the EC section or if i'm supposed to elaborate and state the importance and what I learned.

Basically, am I just stating facts or am I giving opinions on what values or other things I learned from each EC?

ugh. please help.
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you can do either or.

whatever your write in these things, ALL medical schools will read. they will read before interviews and before admission decisions. I think the best thing to do is to be yourself. If you are a concrete/fact oriented person, do that, if you like to detail - go for it.

just dont regret it for the next 9-10 months. easier said than done, i guess
 
GirlAnachronism said:
I'm confused as to whether I'm supposed to be entirely objective and state facts of what I did in the EC section or if i'm supposed to elaborate and state the importance and what I learned.

Basically, am I just stating facts or am I giving opinions on what values or other things I learned from each EC?

ugh. please help.
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as I've said over and over this past summer, Do either!!!!

Do which makes you most marketable to med schools in your eyes. Some feel more comfortable with one way and some feel more comfy with the other way. Similarly some adcoms don't want to read too many words and some like to read what you learned. So you will not get a clear cut answer except to hear to do which you feel most comfortable with.

PS I've reviewed people's ECs doing the resume/bullet point style and others doing the essay style as I did and I found both came across as equally effective. One was not better then the other. All the people were effective regardless of which style they used. but you are only effective at getting your point across when you use the style of writing/talking that you feel most confident with. Some people feel it better to use the resume/bullet format and some people feel more comfortable and confident when they write mini essays.
 
gujuDoc said:
as I've said over and over this past summer, Do either!!!!

Do which makes you most marketable to med schools in your eyes. Some feel more comfortable with one way and some feel more comfy with the other way. Similarly some adcoms don't want to read too many words and some like to read what you learned. So you will not get a clear cut answer except to hear to do which you feel most comfortable with.

PS I've reviewed people's ECs doing the resume/bullet point style and others doing the essay style as I did and I found both came across as equally effective. One was not better then the other. All the people were effective regardless of which style they used. but you are only effective at getting your point across when you use the style of writing/talking that you feel most confident with. Some people feel it better to use the resume/bullet format and some people feel more comfortable and confident when they write mini essays.
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Are we able to combine the bullet points/paragraph format? Half bullets and the other half is a paragraph describing my project.

Think that's appropriate?
 
CdnHopeful said:
Are we able to combine the bullet points/paragraph format? Half bullets and the other half is a paragraph describing my project.

Think that's appropriate?
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Again, do what you feel comfortable with most as long as it effectively gets your point across. There is no strict requirement that it be formatted one way or another. Just do what you feel is the best. If you need to combine a few or do a few of them one style and do a few another style because you feel it needs more explaining, then do so.
 
witness23 said:
you can do either or.

whatever your write in these things, ALL medical schools will read. they will read before interviews and before admission decisions. I think the best thing to do is to be yourself. If you are a concrete/fact oriented person, do that, if you like to detail - go for it.

just dont regret it for the next 9-10 months. easier said than done, i guess
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BTW I echo this. This is solid advice as far as I'm concerned. Do what you feel comfortable with and be yourself as stated in the quoted post above. Do what you won't regret and everyone take a deep breath and relax. Its just a description as long as you are professional whether you use resume/bullet format or first person/mini essay format and not talking like a valley girl or a ghetto person or how you would talk with friends in slang, etc. you will be fine.
 
I worked at my undergraduate institution's library for two years, 12 hrs/week. Should I still list it as an activity even though I personally think that other activities are more worth mentioning? I would like to know how much weight adcom puts on employment during the school year.

Thanks!
 
gujuDoc said:
BTW I echo this. This is solid advice as far as I'm concerned. Do what you feel comfortable with and be yourself as stated in the quoted post above. Do what you won't regret and everyone take a deep breath and relax. Its just a description as long as you are professional whether you use resume/bullet format or first person/mini essay format and not talking like a valley girl or a ghetto person or how you would talk with friends in slang, etc. you will be fine.
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You're such an awesome person 🙂
 
For clubs/honor societies-if I list the experience name as "Member of Club X" in the "experience name" section, for organization name, is it just the name of the Club or the name of my university?
 
lychee3 said:
I worked at my undergraduate institution's library for two years, 12 hrs/week. Should I still list it as an activity even though I personally think that other activities are more worth mentioning? I would like to know how much weight adcom puts on employment during the school year.

Thanks!
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I'd put employment dwn. But are there things from your other stuff that can be grouped?
 
I volunteered at the same hospital for 2 summers in row. How should I list the dates for this?

Would it be like May 2007 to August 2008?

OR should I put May 2007 to August 2007. And then in the description list that I did it for 2 summers?

Note that in the Experience Name, I also put "Summer hospital volunteer"
 
CdnHopeful said:
I volunteered at the same hospital for 2 summers in row. How should I list the dates for this?

Would it be like May 2007 to August 2008?

OR should I put May 2007 to August 2007. And then in the description list that I did it for 2 summers?

Note that in the Experience Name, I also put "Summer hospital volunteer"
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Put the bolded as the dates and then say that it was summers only in the description.
 
pookiez88 said:
For clubs/honor societies-if I list the experience name as "Member of Club X" in the "experience name" section, for organization name, is it just the name of the Club or the name of my university?
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Yes, I'm quoting myself 🙂 Anyone?
 
I took part in some clubs unrelated to the field of medicine/health. Should I still put those under work/activities?

Also, what about distinctions/honors granted by the university?
 
ramzax said:
I took part in some clubs unrelated to the field of medicine/health. Should I still put those under work/activities?

Also, what about distinctions/honors granted by the university?
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Yes, and yes. They wouldn't have headings for things like that if they weren't relevant.

Merging with the "Great tips for entering your Work/Activities for AMCAS" thread.
 
Hi all,

I was a writer for an undergraduate publication for two years. I am guessing that this would not go under "Publications" since the articles I wrote for this group were not peer-reviewed and/or in a scientific journal. Any tips on how I should label it?

Thank you.
 
If I did Volunteer research, should I say it in my experience name or should I say it in the description? I wasn't just a research assistant, I had my own project (just wasn't paid)
 
My former occupation was as a commercial pilot. During this time period there were occasional gaps in full-time employment where I received training and supplemented my income as a contract/reserve pilot and flight instructor. More recently, I was laid off from work earlier this year and have been working similar contract flying gigs while continuing to search for full-time employment.

So, I was wondering if/how I should account for this type of work that occured over a 3 year period?
 
I understand that you shouldn't put high school activities unless you continued them in college if they aren't health-related, but what about ones that are?

Specifically, I was a research intern at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine during summers 2001 and 2002 (between sophomore and junior and junior and senior years of hs, respectively. I graduated college in 2007 and since have been getting my masters in forensic science). I also received a Siemens Fellow Scholarship for the research.

Is this too long ago to be worth including in the work/activities section? I mention the research briefly in my personal statement as it is one of a few examples that illustrate a point I am trying to make, so does that mean I need to explain it further in the activities section or should I just take it out of the personal statement and pretend it never happened since it was during high school? From what I've been reading, high school things are a big no-no to include, but it also seems like health-related ones would show a long-term interest in medicine.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated as I am clearly conflicted as to whether to include this activity. Thanks!
 
Zeb0rg said:
Hi all,

I was a writer for an undergraduate publication for two years. I am guessing that this would not go under "Publications" since the articles I wrote for this group were not peer-reviewed and/or in a scientific journal. Any tips on how I should label it?

Thank you.
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From what I've heard, any publication is a 'publication' for AMCAS purposes, even if it's poetry. If you prefer not to list it under "Publications" you can put it under "Other."
 
aew1123 said:
I understand that you shouldn't put high school activities unless you continued them in college if they aren't health-related, but what about ones that are?

Specifically, I was a research intern at the Harvard Institutes of Medicine during summers 2001 and 2002 (between sophomore and junior and junior and senior years of hs, respectively. I graduated college in 2007 and since have been getting my masters in forensic science). I also received a Siemens Fellow Scholarship for the research.

Is this too long ago to be worth including in the work/activities section? I mention the research briefly in my personal statement as it is one of a few examples that illustrate a point I am trying to make, so does that mean I need to explain it further in the activities section or should I just take it out of the personal statement and pretend it never happened since it was during high school? From what I've been reading, high school things are a big no-no to include, but it also seems like health-related ones would show a long-term interest in medicine.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated as I am clearly conflicted as to whether to include this activity. Thanks!
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I would not put it in the Activities section, but it's fine to mention in the Personal Statement if it's part of your story and you have the space. It's also OK to save it for mention in an appropriate Secondary essay or during an interview.
 
I have two questions that i hope someone would be kind enough to answer.

1)I was a volunteer EMT/firefighter and I cannot give an average time per week i spent (I would sometimes 30-40 hours/week during my probationary year, but later I wasn't able to contribute as much time). Additionally, the hours spent were dependent upon call volume. Also, I sufferred a back injury that caused me to resign. During that time I wasn't able to go on calls and the such, and therefore was unable to spend much time (also physical therapy took up a good deal of time). Any advice on how I should enter this into my description would be appreciated.

2)I volunteer at a lab (that later became paid), but the hours were also variable dependent upon when we were able to irradiate rats (lab work is in radiation oncology and the such). Sometimes i would spend 4 hours/week, sometimes up to 20. Also, I wasn't there in summers, so how should i enter the dates?

Thanks in advance.
 
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pookiez88 said:
For clubs/honor societies-if I list the experience name as "Member of Club X" in the "experience name" section, for organization name, is it just the name of the Club or the name of my university?
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State the name of the club again, even though it is repetitive. In the narrative make it clear it was a school-based orgaization, as opposed to community-based.
 
FIREitUP said:
I have two questions that i hope someone would be kind enough to answer.

1)I was a volunteer EMT/firefighter and I cannot give an average time per week i spent (I would sometimes 30-40 hours/week during my probationary year, but later I wasn't able to contribute as much time). Additionally, the hours spent were dependent upon call volume. Also, I sufferred a back injury that caused me to resign. During that time I wasn't able to go on calls and the such, and therefore was unable to spend much time (also physical therapy took up a good deal of time). Any advice on how I should enter this into my description would be appreciated.

2)I volunteer at a lab (that later became paid), but the hours were also variable dependent upon when we were able to irradiate rats (lab work is in radiation oncology and the such). Sometimes i would spend 4 hours/week, sometimes up to 20. Again, any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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1) What I would do, is list the first and last date of involvment, come up with a gestalt number for your average involvement, not including the dates you were disabled, so maybe ~15 hours/week. In the narratvie specifically exclude the dates you were disabled and the reason.

2) Always list a research experience under "Research." In the narrative you can state the months it was volunteer, and then the months you were employed. Again, estimate the weekly time involvement over the entire duration, so maybe ~12 hours/week overall. In the narrative you can mention the variation in weekly participation if you wish.
 
I have two questions regarding Work/Activities section:

1) I know the AMCAS allow you to list honors/awards received during college. But I am wondering if we should list honors that are already noted on the transcript, such as Dean's List or National Society of Collegiate Scholars? I am not sure if the medical schools will receive a transcript copy from AMCAS, so if the med schools do see our transcript, then I feel listing the honors will be redundant.

2) For the Experience Description, I started by listing out what I did during the experience resume style (i.e. helped with...; Organized....😉. I thought we should keep the descriptions short and sweet. But then my advisor made the point that we should write what impact the experience has on us and what I learned. Basically, it seems that I should write little mini essays for that section all in complete sentences. I just wanted to verify if that is the way med school definitely want the description to be like and if others heard similar suggestions from their advisors or past pre-med applicants.

If anyone could please answer the two questions I have above, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thanks so much!
 
McKitty said:
I have two questions regarding Work/Activities section:

1) I know the AMCAS allow you to list honors/awards received during college. But I am wondering if we should list honors that are already noted on the transcript, such as Dean's List or National Society of Collegiate Scholars? I am not sure if the medical schools will receive a transcript copy from AMCAS, so if the med schools do see our transcript, then I feel listing the honors will be redundant.

2) For the Experience Description, I started by listing out what I did during the experience resume style (i.e. helped with...; Organized....😉. I thought we should keep the descriptions short and sweet. But then my advisor made the point that we should write what impact the experience has on us and what I learned. Basically, it seems that I should write little mini essays for that section all in complete sentences. I just wanted to verify if that is the way med school definitely want the description to be like and if others heard similar suggestions from their advisors or past pre-med applicants.

If anyone could please answer the two questions I have above, I would greatly appreciate it!! Thanks so much!
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1) Go ahead and list all your honors and award, but put them all in a single space with appropriate dates and description, if it isn't universally known. AMCAS certainly didn't include any of my honors in their transcript other than an (H) for honors designated classes.

2) You may use either narrative or a bullet style, as seems comfortable and most appropriate to the activity. If you do the mini essay, be extemely succinct, though, as we wouln't want to bore the adcomm eader and have them start skimming. And proofread.
 
Is a assistant director of information tech for a fishing association still considered leadership??
 
Would an alternative spring break be worth listing as its own activity?
Or should I just save it as material for potential 2ndary essays?
Thanks!
 
CdnHopeful said:
Is a assistant director of information tech for a fishing association still considered leadership??
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It depends on whether your narrative makes it sound like you were a leader. Did you manage a team of people, give oversight to be sure tasks were completed, decide on policy, cause change to occur, delegate, train new people? If not, you can still list it under employment.
 
ilikekiwis said:
Would an alternative spring break be worth listing as its own activity?
Or should I just save it as material for potential 2ndary essays?
Thanks!
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It depends on how impactful and interesting the experience was. I did an alternative spring break that totally took me out of my comfort zone in terms of serving the poor and getting an eyefull of what life was like in immigrant camps. (And this is despite my experience on three medical service trips abroad.) So I listed it. If you can write some meaningful lessons-learned sort of narrative, then go for it. Otherwise, a one week community service gig may not be worth using a space for, and referring to it in a Secondary essay is a good idea.
 
Hey, someone mentioned to me that backpacking across Europe can be a work/activity. Is that true? I just finished but I'm not sure how that's relevant to anything...
 
4goneconclusion said:
Hey, someone mentioned to me that backpacking across Europe can be a work/activity. Is that true? I just finished but I'm not sure how that's relevant to anything...
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It's a great adventure that required coping skills, exposure to diverse people, and got you out of your cultural comfort zone. You can list it under "Other." It is as relevant as any hobby, especially if you are excited about it and can express that in your narrative.
 
I wrote for the school paper for a year during college (DAILY BRUIN!!!! BEST COLLEGE DAILY IN THE COUNTRY!! WHAHOO!!).

I specifically wrote for the Science&Health section of the paper. I know that the publication section of Work/Activities is usually reserved for publication of research papers on which we one was an author, but I was wondering if I would still put this under "Publications".

I'm not trying to pull a fast one on the adcom members (I don't think it would fool anyone anyway), but I really feel that it belongs under "publications" rather than "hobbies/interests".

Anyone have any prior experience with this??? Thanks for the help.
 
deshaghian said:
I wrote for the school paper for a year during college (DAILY BRUIN!!!! BEST COLLEGE DAILY IN THE COUNTRY!! WHAHOO!!).

I specifically wrote for the Science&Health section of the paper. I know that the publication section of Work/Activities is usually reserved for publication of research papers on which we one was an author, but I was wondering if I would still put this under "Publications".

I'm not trying to pull a fast one on the adcom members (I don't think it would fool anyone anyway), but I really feel that it belongs under "publications" rather than "hobbies/interests".

Anyone have any prior experience with this??? Thanks for the help.
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See answer #2026 above, which I agree with.
 
I have some questions about community service.

I haven't done much volunteering (at least not compared to people I've spoken to and to other posters on this forum), and I would like to find the best way of including and representing what I have done.

I had one weekly volunteering activity in college that I figure I'll list as one activity. It was an "Adopt-a-Grandparent" program, and I visited elderly women at a nursing care facility once a week for two years.

Other than that, my volunteering has been scattered things. I usually volunteered at the blood drive at my college each term, but that was only for an hour or so each time. I did a little volunteering with a middle school after-school program over winter break this past year (a total of about five hours). I also made Mother's Day and Valentine's Day cards for women in a long-term care at the local hospital and helped a little with a one-time program for kids' health through my school's chapter of AMSA.

Besides the adopt-a-grandparent program, the only other significant volunteering experience I've had was eight days of gutting houses in New Orleans in the winter of 2006 through an organization called Common Ground. I learned a lot through that experience, but I learned more through my shadowing experience last summer, so I would more likely write about that in an essay. I don't know that I would include the New Orleans experience in a personal essay, unless it fit well into a secondary essay. Thoughts?

So, I need help in how to represent these experiences on my application. I'm afraid that if I only put down the grandparent program, it won't look like I've volunteered much at all. I want to find some way to include and positively represent the other volunteering I have done.

Thanks in advance for your help!
(I'm a recent college graduate, in case that has any bearing.)
 
sw3b said:
My former occupation was as a commercial pilot. During this time period there were occasional gaps in full-time employment where I received training and supplemented my income as a contract/reserve pilot and flight instructor. More recently, I was laid off from work earlier this year and have been working similar contract flying gigs while continuing to search for full-time employment.

So, I was wondering if/how I should account for this type of work that occured over a 3 year period?
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??
 
For listing awards, do we have to list the EXACT dates? Like, is it okay for me to say "I received X award in May, 2009" or do I have to say, for example, "I received X award on May 5th, 2009"?
 
If I group multiple activities and describe them in my description, should I list hrs/week and contact person for each of the grouped activities?????
 
pookiez88 said:
For listing awards, do we have to list the EXACT dates? Like, is it okay for me to say "I received X award in May, 2009" or do I have to say, for example, "I received X award on May 5th, 2009"?
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Anyone? :luck:
 
I have to thank you two for helping everybody. It was really helpful, and I think it will help me get in this year. I see all the mistakes I've made now. Thanks a million.
 
sillewater said:
I have to thank you two for helping everybody. It was really helpful, and I think it will help me get in this year. I see all the mistakes I've made now. Thanks a million.
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No problema. Also Mobius who has kind of taken over with answering these sort of questions, Witness23, and mvenue or whatever their name is are really helpful people when and if advice is needed. Just for future reference. i'd trust their opinions and I don't say that about everyone.
 
roseate said:
I have some questions about community service.

I haven't done much volunteering (at least not compared to people I've spoken to and to other posters on this forum), and I would like to find the best way of including and representing what I have done.

I had one weekly volunteering activity in college that I figure I'll list as one activity. It was an "Adopt-a-Grandparent" program, and I visited elderly women at a nursing care facility once a week for two years.

Other than that, my volunteering has been scattered things. I usually volunteered at the blood drive at my college each term, but that was only for an hour or so each time. I did a little volunteering with a middle school after-school program over winter break this past year (a total of about five hours). I also made Mother's Day and Valentine's Day cards for women in a long-term care at the local hospital and helped a little with a one-time program for kids' health through my school's chapter of AMSA.

Besides the adopt-a-grandparent program, the only other significant volunteering experience I've had was eight days of gutting houses in New Orleans in the winter of 2006 through an organization called Common Ground. I learned a lot through that experience, but I learned more through my shadowing experience last summer, so I would more likely write about that in an essay. I don't know that I would include the New Orleans experience in a personal essay, unless it fit well into a secondary essay. Thoughts?

So, I need help in how to represent these experiences on my application. I'm afraid that if I only put down the grandparent program, it won't look like I've volunteered much at all. I want to find some way to include and positively represent the other volunteering I have done.
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As you have plenty of spaces left, I think the New Orleans gig is space-worthy on its own as it made an impact on you. For the other short-term experiences, consider listing them under "Other." Name the experience 'Short-term Community Service.' Don't list a contact person. For dates, you have no choise but to put put the date of the first until the last. Then in the narrative list them by date, # hours, desription, then contact information. Thankfully, it won't force you to put in hours per week at the top as anything you put would be misleading.
 
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sw3b said:
My former occupation was as a commercial pilot. During this time period there were occasional gaps in full-time employment where I received training and supplemented my income as a contract/reserve pilot and flight instructor. More recently, I was laid off from work earlier this year and have been working similar contract flying gigs while continuing to search for full-time employment.

So, I was wondering if/how I should account for this type of work that occured over a 3 year period?
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I am not speaking with authority, but I'll make a suggestion that seems workable to me. List the first and last date that you worked. Don't put the average hours per week when you were working. Don't list a contact person here unless the same organization employed you for everything. In the narrative either list the dates when you weren't working (personally I think the supplemental classes would be part of employment) and make them an exclusion from the average hrs/week you state there, or make a generalization that other than 10 weeks at 5 hours/week you generally worked 40 hours/week. If the contract flying wasn't under the same employer as the majority of your employment, state that in the narrative (with another contact person). I would list the flight instructor experience separately, as "Teaching" is another valued activity.

Another way to do it would be to average out the hours/week, including the weeks you did not work (so maybe 15 hours/week, rather than forty, or whatever). That would save explanations in the narrative, but would not sufficiently reflect the intensity of the work experience as it generally was.
 
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pookiez88 said:
For listing awards, do we have to list the EXACT dates? Like, is it okay for me to say "I received X award in May, 2009" or do I have to say, for example, "I received X award on May 5th, 2009"?
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Ideally, you'll be listing all the awards and honors in a single space, since all of us have this and you don't want to bore an adcomm. For Experience Name, put University Honors. For dates, put the first date you were on a deans list and then 'to present.' In the narrative, list the honors, describe if it's not universally known what it is. Put dates MM/YY or not, as you wish. I don't feel they are critical. Certainly no one cares about a precise day. For deans list, it's fine to just say on deans list four semesters without specifying which ones they were. The registrar would probably be the contact person for everything. If not, put a new cvontact in the narrative after the description.
 
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CdnHopeful said:
If I group multiple activities and describe them in my description, should I list hrs/week and contact person for each of the grouped activities?????
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Yes, along with a description if it is not self evident.
 
if I worked full time over the summer and then stopped during the school year and then continued during winter break, how should I enter this? I was thinking about putting in 40 hours a week from may 2008 to January 2008 but I dont want that to imply I worked full time during school
 
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