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

[gujuDoc]

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just wondering if most people fill up all 15 spots.
I have about 12 spots filled with good stuff.

I was going to add tutoring my friend in orgo but it was very casual, we were in the same class but I was good at it and she wasnt so she would come over once a week and I would go over lecture material with her.
no payment or anything. although she did buy me a 26er of rum after the exam : )

do u guys think that this is worth adding? I dont want to seem like im trying desperately trying to fill up the spots.

Don't add it if it wasn't something you considered a big deal.

that said, you don't need all 15 spots filled. That's just the upper limit for people who have too much cuz they don't want people listing 100 activities or something. That's all.

 

[MB333999]

Don't add it if it wasn't something you considered a big deal.

that said, you don't need all 15 spots filled. That's just the upper limit for people who have too much cuz they don't want people listing 100 activities or something. That's all.

okay thank you

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

just wondering if most people fill up all 15 spots.
I have about 12 spots filled with good stuff.

I was going to add tutoring my friend in orgo but it was very casual, we were in the same class but I was good at it and she wasnt so she would come over once a week and I would go over lecture material with her.
no payment or anything. although she did buy me a 26er of rum after the exam : )

do u guys think that this is worth adding? I dont want to seem like im trying desperately trying to fill up the spots.

You don't have to fill up 15 spots unless there are fruitful experiences. If you trying to fill up just cuz 🙄 I wouldn't do it because the can tell. I know with my experiences I will prob fill up all 15 and that is because I have 15 and a little bit more than 15 to add and with the advice of gurudoc 😀 hopefully all can be put on there, if not, I will save some for the interview ya dig. Hope this helps dear!!!

 

[monkey44]

What is the best way to list research that began as volunteer ( 6 months), then was given units for a semester, and later was hired to complete it for 8 months?
Should I just list it all under research? and then explain in the description?

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

What is the best way to list research that began as volunteer ( 6 months), then was given units for a semester, and later was hired to complete it for 8 months?
Should I just list it all under research? and then explain in the description?

That's exactly correct.

 

[Catalystik]

I published two peer-reviewed articles, one in 2008 and one in 2009. I was going to list them together under "Publications" but as far as I can tell I have to list one month and year. Is there a way around this or should I just list them separately?

I have the same question about posters - I presented posters at a bunch of conferences between 2007-2009, so I'd like to just lump them together but I don't know what to put in the month/year fields.

Research publications in national peer-reviewed journals are felt to be of such significance that they should be listed separately.

For the posters, you could list the presentation/poster at the end of the description of the research in the Research narrative, or you could group them under Presentations, listing all the ones related to one research project together and choosing the most recent for the date entry, but listing the others in the narrative. Alternatively, since Publication trumps Presentation, you could list in the Publication section that the same project was presented at XXXXX Conference, in XXXXcity, on XXXXdate.

 

[Catalystik]

Also, if we've participated in a notable initiative through our job, is it ok to create a separate entry for that and just note that the two are related (as long as we don't double-count hours)? I can't sufficiently explain everything in one entry related to both my job and the other initiative I am working on, and the other initiative is sufficiently different, but I was asked to do it through my job (sorry for vagueness).

Yes, it's fine to separate out significant components into two Experiences from a single situation.

 

[Brittany]

I was in a health careers program at a local hospital my senior year of high school. It was once a week for 4 hrs the whole year. Basically we shadowed physicians in a variety fields, observed surgeries and performed vitals and blood glucose checks. For me, it definitely strengthened my interest in medicine.

I have room in my activities section but will it look bad to list this b/c it was a hs activity?

Thanks!

 

[MB333999]

I was in a health careers program at a local hospital my senior year of high school. It was once a week for 4 hrs the whole year. Basically we shadowed physicians in a variety fields, observed surgeries and performed vitals and blood glucose checks. For me, it definitely strengthened my interest in medicine.

I have room in my activities section but will it look bad to list this b/c it was a hs activity?

Thanks!

i think the general consensus is that you only include activities from high school if they continued on into your undergraduate career in some way shape or form. Or if it led to something that you did do later on you could mention it in that description of the later on thing

 

[tima]

1) I read from previous posts that the work/activities are arranged from most recent to oldest, so it really doesn't matter how you enter them. Is this correct?

2) In the description, are you required to state what this experience means to you and the connection to entering medicine? I only did this for two experiences, which talked about shadowing/volunteering.

Thanks.

 

[MB333999]

umm okay I have done some random volunteering here and there and I figured the proper way to do this was to group them all in 1 heading. but as for the time frame I just included how long I spent on each experience inside my description since there were multiple listings ummm can some1 take a look to see if this sort of structure is okay???

Miscellaneous Volunteering

Fire warden – Responsible for ensuring the safe evacuation of a given number of people in my residence hall during fire emergencies for the entirety of my first year.

Frost Week volunteer – During my first year, I was responsible for attending meetings to plan events for a celebratory week. I also had the duty of supervising some of these events.

Mount hope – This is a senior home where I was responsible for taking seniors to their rooms and helped them participate in leisure activities. I visit the home on three separate occasions throughout each school year.

Think First: Brain Day – I spent two weeks learning a simple brain curriculum to teach to a grade 4 classroom over the course of one full school day. I participated in this program in both my first and second year.

Walk for memories – A fundraiser organized by the Alzheimer’s society, in which I was involved in handling donations and participated in the walk.

 

[MB333999]

1) I read from previous posts that the work/activities are arranged from most recent to oldest, so it really doesn't matter how you enter them. Is this correct?

2) In the description, are you required to state what this experience means to you and the connection to entering medicine? I only did this for two experiences, which talked about shadowing/volunteering.

Thanks.

1) i dunno
2) your only required to say what you did but I think its a good idea to say what that experience meant to you. I wouldn't try to overextend significance to the point where it sounds like total bull**** cuz then u just lose credibility. at least in their minds, which is what counts. hope this helps. I havent been through the process before so hopefully some1 else can comment as well.

 

[texasholdems]

for the discription under Work/Activity section, how much should we write for each activity ?

I know some people want to share some experiences in the personal statement as well, so spending too much and writing like a full paragraph on each activity would be too much. i dunno, i'm not sure.

and i did about 16 hours of doctor shadowing, something i thought it was very interesting and seeing transplant surgury live in OR was amazing, but i dunno if i can write that in my work/activity. Is doctor shadowing "REQUIRED" to be written somewhere in the application?

Also, I won a university car show two times, not something that i want to write to brag about myself, but to show some other side of me (habits and so on) which won't be found anywhere else in the application. should i write this down?

Thanks

 

[Catalystik]

umm okay I have done some random volunteering here and there and I figured the proper way to do this was to group them all in 1 heading. but as for the time frame I just included how long I spent on each experience inside my description since there were multiple listings ummm can some1 take a look to see if this sort of structure is okay???

Miscellaneous Volunteering

Fire warden – Responsible for ensuring the safe evacuation of a given number of people in my residence hall during fire emergencies for the entirety of my first year.

Frost Week volunteer – During my first year, I was responsible for attending meetings to plan events for a celebratory week. I also had the duty of supervising some of these events.

Mount hope – This is a senior home where I was responsible for taking seniors to their rooms and helped them participate in leisure activities. I visit the home on three separate occasions throughout each school year.

Think First: Brain Day – I spent two weeks learning a simple brain curriculum to teach to a grade 4 classroom over the course of one full school day. I participated in this program in both my first and second year.

Walk for memories – A fundraiser organized by the Alzheimer’s society, in which I was involved in handling donations and participated in the walk.

I think that looks fine. If you can add a ballpark figure about number of hours involved, then do so.

 

[MB333999]

I think that looks fine. If you can add a ballpark figure about number of hours involved, then do so.

Great! i appreciate the response.

 

[Catalystik]

1) I read from previous posts that the work/activities are arranged from most recent to oldest, so it really doesn't matter how you enter them. Is this correct?

1) LizzyM, an adcomm, has posted that that Experiences are no longer ordered by date, but rather alphabetically by the Experience type (from the pull-down menu).

 

[Catalystik]

1) for the discription under Work/Activity section, how much should we write for each activity ?

2) and i did about 16 hours of doctor shadowing, something i thought it was very interesting and seeing transplant surgury live in OR was amazing, but i dunno if i can write that in my work/activity. Is doctor shadowing "REQUIRED" to be written somewhere in the application?

3) Also, I won a university car show two times, not something that i want to write to brag about myself, but to show some other side of me (habits and so on) which won't be found anywhere else in the application. should i write this down?

1) Be as succinct as you can be to put across the activity. If it's self-explanatory, then don't explain it (eg, everyone knows what a waitperson does). Adcomms have a lot of these to read, and you don't want to annoy themwith excess verbiage.

2) I highly recommend that you list the shadowing (it goes under Other). We've seen applicants dinged because their application didn't include shadowing. You might want to add a primary care doc before you submit to get more breadth of experience.

3) I'd put your car interest under Hobbies and list the win there, along with what the prize was given for.

 

[BrainBuff]

just wondering if most people fill up all 15 spots.
I have about 12 spots filled with good stuff.

I was going to add tutoring my friend in orgo but it was very casual, we were in the same class but I was good at it and she wasnt so she would come over once a week and I would go over lecture material with her.
no payment or anything. although she did buy me a 26er of rum after the exam : )

do u guys think that this is worth adding? I dont want to seem like im trying desperately trying to fill up the spots.

Tutoring a friend does not sound like something worth mentioning. Everyone who studies with a couple of friends is indeed "tutoring". And yes, it seems like you are now desperately trying to fill up the spot.

Please, feel free to mention the elderly neighbor that you help cross the street frequently....😀

 

[BrainBuff]

1) LizzyM, an adcomm, has posted that that Experiences are no longer ordered by date, but rather alphabetically by the Experience type (from the pull-down menu).

Well, my Experiences are ordered by date and I did not enter them that way. The system did it automatically. So.... LizzyM is wrong there.

 

[Kanye West]

On my last spot, would it look better if I put Deans List, or Continuing Student Scholarships (CSS)? Through CSS I got 2 scholarships ($5000 for one year, and $2500 for another year)...I thought it was a lot of money but people around here seem to get 6 digit scholarships so im not sure if its worth mentioning!

 

[monkey44]

If I have shadowed four different doctors (each in different fields), each of them multiple times... (but all at the same hospital). What is the best way to include that?

 

[cfx]

Hoping someone can help (is LizzyM out there?):

-If I have been in a certain volunteer position for ~4 years, but was not involved at all during a couple of semesters during this time (e.g., volunteered for 2 semesters, skipped 1 semester, volunteer for 2 more, skip 1, etc.). How do you enter this for dates/hours per week?

-My volunteer hours are all over the place (3 hours one week, 4 hours the next, 2 hours after that, etc.). How do you list number of hours per week in this case? (note I do not have record of my total hours, so can't really take an average that way).

-I've been a part of a program for 5 years, and will be listing this, but was wondering is it's okay to list a few particularly big projects that I've done within this program separately, or do they all need to be kept within the same description?

BUMP. Anyone?

 

[Catalystik]

On my last spot, would it look better if I put Deans List, or Continuing Student Scholarships (CSS)? Through CSS I got 2 scholarships ($5000 for one year, and $2500 for another year)...I thought it was a lot of money but people around here seem to get 6 digit scholarships so im not sure if its worth mentioning!

The scholarships. But be sure to include the reason you qualified for them.

 

[Catalystik]

If I have shadowed four different doctors (each in different fields), each of them multiple times... (but all at the same hospital). What is the best way to include that?

Choose the "Other " category, name it physician shadowing, fill in the header space for location and feel free to leave everything else blank. In the narrative, list a rough timeframe (eg 09 fall semester or summer 08) and then the docs' specialties and total hours for each. At he end put a grand total.

 

[Catalystik]

Well, my Experiences are ordered by date and I did not enter them that way. The system did it automatically. So.... LizzyM is wrong there.

The way the information is filtered may vary by recipient or by school choice. LizzyM reads so many Experiences sections that I doubt she's wrong about the way her school prints out the information for their adcomms to read.

 

[fatalerror]

I was told not to include stuff from high school unless there is "continuation".

Well, in high school I did some shadowing, a dentist to be exact (wanted to know how it is). In university I shadowed some MDs. I certainly changed my preference, but I can see it as some continuation. Can I include both experiences, just because I was younger doesn't make it any less meaningful.

Also, what if I did some shadowing overseas, would that be a problem?

 

[Untraditional]

If you're a returning student with many publications, presentations or awards you can put those under one general section instead of doing them individually. It can save a lot of space and allow you to present a more organized view to the reviewers.

 

[Catalystik]

I was told not to include stuff from high school unless there is "continuation".

Well, in high school I did some shadowing, a dentist to be exact (wanted to know how it is). In university I shadowed some MDs. I certainly changed my preference, but I can see it as some continuation. Can I include both experiences, just because I was younger doesn't make it any less meaningful.

Also, what if I did some shadowing overseas, would that be a problem?

It's fine to list all the shadowing you've done in one space under "Other." International shadowing is fine to include also, but it should not stand on its own. Adcomms want to see that you have a basis for understanding what US-based physicians' lives are like.

 

[fatalerror]

It's fine to list all the shadowing you've done in one space under "Other." International shadowing is fine to include also, but it should not stand on its own. Adcomms want to see that you have a basis for understanding what US-based physicians' lives are like.

I'm Canadian, so...I hope that's close enough.

But what about international students (other than Canada), they could only do it outside the states.

 

[MD786]

I am sorry if someone has asked any of these questions previously!
Please help me if u can! Thanks =)
1) I received an award from the county I live in as a “Student Hero In Medicine” (a month before graduating from HS) for having volunteered over 2000 community service hours toward medicine. Should I list this?

2) I co authored several abstract…
3 were presented at conferences… so should they be listed as separate conferences because they took place on different days and locations??

I also have 4 abstracts submitted to another conference but the results have not been revealed… I don’t think they will be until august… Should I make a new category for these and list these 4 together as currently under review for APHA.

3) I participated in one activity during two different summers, can/should I list them separately since the dates differ.

4) I got presidents honor roll a couple of times, should this be listed as one of different ones because of dates.

5) Should college organizations be listed as one or different ones depending on the dates? (ie, I joined one freshman year and I am still a member and I joined one sophomore year and I am still a member…)
Thanks 😀

 

[Catalystik]

But what about international students (other than Canada), they could only do it outside the states.

International applicants to US schools are required to have 60-90 hours of credits from US or Canadian accredited schools, including all their prerequisites. If in the US, they'd have a chance to get in the suggested shadowing. If in some parts of Canada, it's understood that it's not allowed.

 

[smartdoc]

Hey guys,

So I have two different significant (in terms of time) hospital volunteering stints. First one was from 3/2007-8/2007 and next one was from January 2009-Present.

The first one was at a hospital close to home and the second one was at college.

How do you guys suggest I list these two? Should I put them together under the same header as Hospital volunteering or divide that in two?

If I put them together, what contact person should I list? And the start date?

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

1) I received an award from the county I live in as a “Student Hero In Medicine” (a month before graduating from HS) for having volunteered over 2000 community service hours toward medicine. Should I list this?

2) I co authored several abstract…
3 were presented at conferences… so should they be listed as separate conferences because they took place on different days and locations??

I also have 4 abstracts submitted to another conference but the results have not been revealed… I don’t think they will be until august… Should I make a new category for these and list these 4 together as currently under review for APHA.

3) I participated in one activity during two different summers, can/should I list them separately since the dates differ.

4) I got presidents honor roll a couple of times, should this be listed as one of different ones because of dates.

5) Should college organizations be listed as one or different ones depending on the dates? (ie, I joined one freshman year and I am still a member and I joined one sophomore year and I am still a member…)
Thanks 😀

1) & 4) It sounds on par for specialness as being an Eagle Scout. Go ahead and list it together with all other honors/awards/scholarships in a single space. You may list "honor roll" but there's little point as your GPA is evident from your transcript.

2) If the abstracts were published in national journals, you may list them as Publications. If not, and if you presented the data, you may list them as Presentations. If you did not present it personally, you can still use Presentations, but give credit to the presenter OR you can mention the accepted abstract and your authorship and its presentation by someone else at the end of the Research section on the project.

Submitted abstracts which have not been accepted should not be mentioned. Save it for an updat letter.

You would only use Conferences Attended if you were present as a regular attendee and your data was not being presented.

3) You can put the dates for the most recent participation and then mention in the narrative that you also did XX hours in the same activity in summer 08. Or, you can list the first and last date of the two year involvement, name the activity Summer ______ (as a cue it was not year round), do not enter the hours per week in the header, rather put it in the narrative with total hours at the end for the two years.

5) Club involvement really doesn't help much unless you had a leadership role, but if they are important to you, feel free to list each separately.

 

[Catalystik]

So I have two different significant (in terms of time) hospital volunteering stints. First one was from 3/2007-8/2007 and next one was from January 2009-Present.

The first one was at a hospital close to home and the second one was at college.

How do you guys suggest I list these two? Should I put them together under the same header as Hospital volunteering or divide that in two?

If I put them together, what contact person should I list? And the start date?

If you have the space, list them separately. You need to put both in one space, listing the longer stint's dates/contact/location, etc and then adding the details of the other activity wholly within the narrative with hours/week. Then at the end of the space give a total for both activities.

 

[RadioCure]

During high school and 1-2 summers of college I had a lawn service business where I mowed lawns and did extensive landscaping for a few customers. The only problem is that I never made the business official and everything was under the table.

Should I still add this as a job?

 

[Catalystik]

During high school and 1-2 summers of college I had a lawn service business where I mowed lawns and did extensive landscaping for a few customers. The only problem is that I never made the business official and everything was under the table.

Should I still add this as a job?

You won't be asked for your tax documents. It's fine to list it under employment. However, if you say it was a business you founded, you might leave yourself open to questions about organizational/legal/tax issues that you'd rather not have to answer.

 

[MD786]

🙂 Thanks for the help!
Quick Question...
when i list the award from high school and the honor roll to decribe it should i list it and decribe it under and conitnue doing the same?

ie.
Hero in Medicine award - April 2007- Description.....
Presidents Honor Roll- December, May- Description...
and so on?

or do u recommend a better way?
also what should I put for the experince name?
For the volunteering at the same place for two summers i dont think i can write summers for the time frame. it allows us only for month and year. Should I list it as May 2008- August 2010 and then when i list it write that i only participated from may-august of both summers of X amt of hours?


Thanks for all ur help! 👍

 

[fatalerror]

International applicants to US schools are required to have 60-90 hours of credits from US or Canadian accredited schools, including all their prerequisites. If in the US, they'd have a chance to get in the suggested shadowing. If in some parts of Canada, it's understood that it's not allowed.

Now that you mention it, that's an interesting point, because when originally I inquired about shadowing up here (Ontario), I was told ( I guess by volunteer services/ management) that because of privacy issues I couldn't do it, only med school students could do it. But luckily I had a med school resident friend and he let me follow him around. But, thinking about, he didn't ask anyone, and neither did I (I was a volunteer there). I'm not even sure if we did it would be approved, he kind of did it as a favor, and for a short period of time. Should I include that, or would it be best just to say shadowing up here is not usually allowed and avoid the moral dilemma?

 

[Catalystik]

🙂 Hero in Medicine award - April 2007- Description.....
Presidents Honor Roll- December, May- Description...
and so on?

or do u recommend a better way?
also what should I put for the experince name?
For the volunteering at the same place for two summers i dont think i can write summers for the time frame. it allows us only for month and year. Should I list it as May 2008- August 2010 and then when i list it write that i only participated from may-august of both summers of X amt of hours?

Name it Community Service Award. Describe it. If you list the honor roll below that, well, everyone knows what that means, so no need for description, unless it means you were in the top 3% of your class. As I said, your transcript makes your grades obvious.

I know you can't put "Summers" in the time frame, but you can name the activity Summer Volunteering, put dates 5/08-8/10, and then in the narrative put the actual dates of involvement for each year with hours per week there.

 

[Catalystik]

Now that you mention it, that's an interesting point, because when originally I inquired about shadowing up here (Ontario), I was told ( I guess by volunteer services/ management) that because of privacy issues I couldn't do it, only med school students could do it. But luckily I had a med school resident friend and he let me follow him around. But, thinking about, he didn't ask anyone, and neither did I (I was a volunteer there). I'm not even sure if we did it would be approved, he kind of did it as a favor, and for a short period of time. Should I include that, or would it be best just to say shadowing up here is not usually allowed and avoid the moral dilemma?

Many applicants get shadowing in during the time of their volunteer or work experience, so I see no problem with listing it as shadowing, particularly if you want to appeal to US schools.

 

[RadioCure]

Would a single entry named "sports" or "athletic activities" be a good idea? I participate in a lot of unorganized, unofficial sport activities like downhill skiing, skateboarding, wakeboarding/waterskiing.

 

[Catalystik]

Would a single entry named "sports" or "athletic activities" be a good idea? I participate in a lot of unorganized, unofficial sport activities like downhill skiing, skateboarding, wakeboarding/waterskiing.

You may use the Hobbies or Other category and then name the activity as you suggested. If you have other Hobbies, too, you could name it Leisure Activities to differentiate them.

 

[fatalerror]

I work for a company that's partly owned by my father. Should I mention that? It has nothing to do with my job directly.

And if I organized a small (community) sports tournament, would that be in "community service" or "leadership" section?

 

[Thom1986]

I spent my first two summers of college working manual labor in a warehouse full time, is this something I should include? I am only supposed to include meaningful experiences, but why it was meaningful is reserved for interviews and supplemental essays..

 

[Penner]

How to enter this research experience on AMCAS?

Research with Professor X
June 2009-September 2009 (14 weeks), 60 hrs/wk

Research with Professor X again
June 2010-July 2010 (7 weeks), 50 hrs/wk

I want to put them together - what should I do about the dates?

 

[ronaldo23]

Does playing in an intramural sports league in college go under hobbies?

edit: should we also list the time commitment to our hobbies?


Also, in general is it bad to be leaving out the time per week slot and instead writing the time commitment in the description? I just don't have a consistent involvement week-to-week in most of my activities, so I prefer to just list the dates I was involved and the total hours, especially for those that span multiple years...

 

[myusernam3]

Couple questions,

1. should we be as descriptive as possible in describing the activities? or just get the point across

2. should we talk about what we got out of the experience, just purely what the activity is and your responsibilities and etc.

thanks in advance!

 

[gujuDoc]

Couple questions,

1. should we be as descriptive as possible in describing the activities? or just get the point across

2. should we talk about what we got out of the experience, just purely what the activity is and your responsibilities and etc.

thanks in advance!

The answer to this depends and varies based on who you talk to. People at top tier schools like LizzyM sometimes like you to just get to the point and say what you did as concisely as possible.

However, schools like BUSM and USF have had MD admissions officers saying to write what you did, why you did it, and what you learned from it.

That's the approach I took.

However, whichever approach you take do the following:

1. Keep it concise. i.e. don't write in a round about way. Whether you use paragraphs or bullets, make it to the point.

2. Make sure whichever of the 2 approaches you take from above is that which will help you market yourself better to the schools you are applying to.

Some people can market themselves well with just bullets but some people feel they can make the importance better by writing why an activity was important to them and some adcoms prefer the former approach while some prefer the latter approach.

Use which one you think will work well for yourself and best for you.

 

[traitorman]

i did research during undergrad and I got credit for it. I was listing hours per week and total number of hours when I realized that the numbers don't add up.

On my transcript, 1 credit = 800 minutes. My school credited me 3 credits for research which is 2400 minutes/40 hours a semester. But I was doing about 6 hours of research a week. If one semester is approximately 12 weeks, that should give me a total of 72 hours a semester.

But if I put that down, then it will not be consistent with my transcript. Should I put my actual hours or the calculated credited hours?

 

[Kuune]

I worked in a private family physician's office for about 5 weeks over the winter break, and I'm not sure if I should include it in my ECs. The situation is a little unusual. I got the job to cover my friend, who was leaving the country for winter break, which explains the short period. The doctor is a very high profile doctor who had really really famous clients, so the atmosphere of the clinic was really professional. I wasn't encouraged to talk to the doctor, he probably doesn't even know my name, so obviously there was no LOR from there. All I did was push paper. I got a total of about 40 hours and it was paid (very well, might I add).

So on one hand, I want to say that I experienced how a private clinic works and I learned about professionalism.

On the other hand, it was short lived, and there wasn't really contact with the doctor or with actual medical practice.