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

[gujuDoc]

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This might be a unique question (or perhaps not): I am in the process of developing an engineering software package. This software was not created as part of any paid job activity. I got the idea when I saw that my work wants to perform a specific task that no other software package is able to do as of yet. So I started thinking about it and decided to put it together.

The catch is that I myself am not a software publising company (Mircosoft, Adobe, etc.) and the software techinically has not officially been sold/released yet. So I am not sure if you can call it as being developed since no one else is aware of it. It is still sitting on my computer at home. I do plan to sell/market it...but this fact should not be relevant to my application, I suppose?

Can this be classified as a publication or something else? I thought about choosing this as a hobby since I do enjoy programming, but it is more than just a hobby.....it is also leadership in that I took the initiative myself (whatever the motives were).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

You could still list that you've done something like that in other or another category. If it shows your ability to critically think to put a program together and shows your creativity and sets you apart in terms of showing you have done things that are not necessarily related to medicine. It also shows your willingness to go above and beyond for your company if youve been doing it to help out your work.

As long as you can show you learned something from it that is what is important.

 

[LizzyM]

This might be a unique question (or perhaps not): I am in the process of developing an engineering software package. This software was not created as part of any paid job activity. I got the idea when I saw that my work wants to perform a specific task that no other software package is able to do as of yet. So I started thinking about it and decided to put it together.

The catch is that I myself am not a software publising company (Mircosoft, Adobe, etc.) and the software techinically has not officially been sold/released yet. So I am not sure if you can call it as being developed since no one else is aware of it. It is still sitting on my computer at home. I do plan to sell/market it...but this fact should not be relevant to my application, I suppose?

Can this be classified as a publication or something else? I thought about choosing this as a hobby since I do enjoy programming, but it is more than just a hobby.....it is also leadership in that I took the initiative myself (whatever the motives were).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Call it a hobby. It is rather interesting.

 

[gujuDoc]

No, it isn't a red flag to have no "volunteer, clinical". However, no one will fault you for adding something you did after HS graduation. (Heck some people serve in the military for 4 years before college... should they not include that because it was before college??)

also things that are done in the summer before college are considered POST High School. So anything in this category is generally considered.

 

[creativekat]

Question regarding stuff from high school on the AMCAS.

I did journalism in HS (newspaper) and was pretty good at it. Went to college and joined the newspaper, doing a similar job but getting paid for it.

Should I list this as happening from HS to present? And under description, write "I wrote stories and interviewed people and designed the newspaper..." (something to that effect)?

Should I list hospital volunteering too, which is both HS + college? I volunteered at different hospitals and I even mention the hospital I volunteered in HS in my PS.

 

[gujuDoc]

Question regarding stuff from high school on the AMCAS.

I did journalism in HS (newspaper) and was pretty good at it. Went to college and joined the newspaper, doing a similar job but getting paid for it.

Should I list this as happening from HS to present? And under description, write "I wrote stories and interviewed people and designed the newspaper..." (something to that effect)?

Should I list hospital volunteering too, which is both HS + college? I volunteered at different hospitals and I even mention the hospital I volunteered in HS in my PS.

You can list it to show continuinity. But alternatively you could just describe your previous HS involvement in journalism in the description and show how that was what provided your impetus to continue such later on.

For the hospital. I'd not list the Hospital volunteering done in HS in your activities if it is a different hospital then your college stuff was done at. If you did it post highschool at that given hospital then list it. Otherwise, again you can list it in the description to say that your previous experience served as an impetus to find similar opportunities in college and show continuity towards a similar kind of activity.

 

[guyski79]

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[gujuDoc]

Hi all,

I have 4 questions about my activities I was hoping you could answer.

This post will be a little long, so many thanks in advance for your help!

1) For one year, I worked as a personal assistant for a disabled MS patient. I came into her home a few times per week, helped her to move around the house, read aloud and wrote her emails by dictation, and did anything else she couldn't herself. I was paid for this work, but I'm wondering how it could be classified for AMCAS. Is it strictly employment? Or could it be considered clinical experience?

2) I've just started as a volunteer on a clinical research project in the ICU of a children's hospital. Over the next two months of the study, I'll have direct contact with patients and their families. Should this count as research experience or clinical experience?

3) Over the past few months, I've been doing a talk radio show with some friends that has aired weekly on our campus radio station. It's only about an hour or two per week, and I haven't been doing this very long. Would it be seen as "filler" on the AMCAS activities section, or does this sort of thing seem at all interesting?

4) This is a bit more of a general question about my application. I'm a bit thin on clinical experience, but I'm wondering if I'm so thin that it will sink my application. Yes, I know that more clinical experience is always better and I know there's no magic amount that one needs to get. I just want to know if my lack of clinical experience will cripple my application. Here's a quick list of my experiences:

-The personal assistant thing with MS patient mentioned above (10 months, 200+ hours)
-Volunteer at free clinic last summer (30 hours, would have been more, but clinic closed due to funding issues)
-Shadowed doctors in various specialties (80 hours)
-Research volunteer in p-ICU (just started this, will be ~100 hours by the time I start applying in June)

You have more then enough shadowing. I'd get a bit more on the volunteering side.

What exactly would you be doing with the research??? I think you could consider entering it in as both or choosing one and using the description space to describe the other aspects of it.

i.e. if you list it as research you could mention in the description are athat you will also gain clinical experience from it.

Keep in mind that a lot of schools allow you to add things that you do not add on the AMCAs on secondaries. so you could also start new experiences after AMCAS and update schools on secondaries or individually via an email or letter. Many schools allow this to be done.

I'd add the radio station thing if you have room because it makes you stand out and shows you have outside interests. I think it would be something to talk about in an interview in terms of interests. I had a friend who did something similar in that he was a DJ. he included it in his application. This seems like a reasonable thing to put since you also put a significant time commitment per week even though its only 1 day per week. Its the same amount of time some people volunteer per week and seems like it would make you look unique. Besides if it is important to you it might be worth mentioning.

I would think the ms patient thing would be clssified in the tabs by Employment nonmilitary. then in the exp. name you could say Home Health Aid to MS Patient or something like that to let them know its clinical.

Clinical experiences that are work experiences don't have a separate tab to say they are specifically clinical employment. Only for community service do they have a specific tab that says clinical. However, if you write home health aid or something they'll get it.

I think if your stats and essays and letters are great and you apply broadly enough you should be ok. I've seen people get away with less then you've done and you still have a chance to do new things and update them as you go on with the process. that's my opinion.

Let's see what LizzyM has to say.

 

[LizzyM]

You have more then enough shadowing. I'd get a bit more on the volunteering side.

What exactly would you be doing with the research??? I think you could consider entering it in as both or choosing one and using the description space to describe the other aspects of it.

With clinical research, if you are actually testing a hypothesis or have other input into what data is collected, how it is collected, how the results are interpreted, etc, then I'd call it research. If you do not have a say in what is done but do what you are told to do, (recording data, distributing and collecting questionnaires, doing pill counts, etc) then it is either employment or volunteer-clinical but I wouldn't call it research.

i.e. if you list it as research you could mention in the description are athat you will also gain clinical experience from it.

I'd add the radio station thing if you have room because it makes you stand out and shows you have outside interests.

Strongly agree.

I would think the ms patient thing would be clssified in the tabs by Employment nonmilitary.

then in the exp. name you could say Home Health Aid to MS Patient or something like that to let them know its clinical.

If the job title is "personal assistant" then it shouldn't be changed to "home health aid" as that is a misrepresentation. Generally a home health aid provides assistance with the activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, transferring from bed to chair, feeding etc. It sounds like the applicant is providing secretarial services rather than physical care.

 

[gujuDoc]

With clinical research, if you are actually testing a hypothesis or have other input into what data is collected, how it is collected, how the results are interpreted, etc, then I'd call it research. If you do not have a say in what is done but do what you are told to do, (recording data, distributing and collecting questionnaires, doing pill counts, etc) then it is either employment or volunteer-clinical but I wouldn't call it research.

i.e. if you list it as research you could mention in the description are athat you will also gain clinical experience from it.


Strongly agree.





If the job title is "personal assistant" then it shouldn't be changed to "home health aid" as that is a misrepresentation. Generally a home health aid provides assistance with the activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, transferring from bed to chair, feeding etc. It sounds like the applicant is providing secretarial services rather than physical care.

I see what you are saing. I thought they were doing those things like dressing and feeding. I guess I need a bit more details.


Thanks for coming in LizzyM. Your input is always great. 🙂

 

[TooMuchResearch]

1) If the applicant has held leadership roles in multiple student organizations, are the positions usually lumped under one of the 15 slots or multiple slots? The organizations I have in mind are not related to one another.

1a) What about multiple paid tutoring positions at separate colleges?

2) I presented a poster at a major undergraduate research conference. My assumption is that this should just go in the description of my research...does this sound okay?

3) For multiple types of awards/honors (Phi Beta Kappa, departmental and university scholarships, Latin honors, departmental honors, etc.), should these all get lumped into one large awards category? I realize things like multiple semesters of dean's list (if the applicant chooses to list them) get thrown together, but what about separate awards?

4) Do planned activities that are definitely going to occur get listed? For example, if the applicant has secured an Americorps or other employment position, but the position does not start until July, does it still get listed when the applicant submits in June?

I'm sure these questions have been asked somewhere within the thread...I read the first two pages without finding the answers and figured another post would be okay.

 

[gujuDoc]

1) If the applicant has held leadership roles in multiple student organizations, are the positions usually lumped under one of the 15 slots or multiple slots? The organizations I have in mind are not related to one another.

1a) What about multiple paid tutoring positions at separate colleges?

2) I presented a poster at a major undergraduate research conference. My assumption is that this should just go in the description of my research...does this sound okay?

3) For multiple types of awards/honors (Phi Beta Kappa, departmental and university scholarships, Latin honors, departmental honors, etc.), should these all get lumped into one large awards category? I realize things like multiple semesters of dean's list (if the applicant chooses to list them) get thrown together, but what about separate awards?

4) Do planned activities that are definitely going to occur get listed? For example, if the applicant has secured an Americorps or other employment position, but the position does not start until July, does it still get listed when the applicant submits in June?

I'm sure these questions have been asked somewhere within the thread...I read the first two pages without finding the answers and figured another post would be okay.

You can list poster/oral presentations/conferences separately. AMCAS has separate tabs for those kinda things from the research lab work tab description of research. they also have a separate tab for publications. So research really has multiple categories. I'd split up the poster presntation and actual lab work description if they are both really significant.

No separate awards should be listed separately because the tab for award will ask the date of each award and you need to be able to show that separately. They are all not part of the same thing. Dean's list is essentially th same award earned in different semesters which is why it is insignificant. Also list only awards that the whole university doesn't get. i.e. it is truly significant and not just something most of the high GPA people have.

Remember you don't have to list every single student organization you've been in. List the ones that are most significant that you got something out of.

It is difficult to list future activities but you can list ongoing activities and chek the til present box rather then giving an end date.

Future activities cannot be listed. I've tried that in the past. didn't work for me.

However, remember you will get spots on your secondaries to show updates of things that are not on AMCAS, at least that is how it is in Fl. schools. If your secondaries dont have that then my advice is that you send a letter of update to schools you've applied to.

You can always send updates of new activities or publications or new grades or things of that nature to schools after sending AMCAS and even after sending your secondaries. keep that in mind. Just as long as it is preinterview and not post interview. only few schools will allow post interview updates.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to come up w/ a way to only include the more important ECs...they all seemed pretty important to me at the time. Even without the obvious awards like Dean's lists and a couple of random "outstanding student" awards, I'm still at 17 items. Let me know if you have any consolidation ideas:

http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?myid=17170.

 

[gujuDoc]

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to come up w/ a way to only include the more important ECs...they all seemed pretty important to me at the time. Even without the obvious awards like Dean's lists and a couple of random "outstanding student" awards, I'm still at 17 items. Let me know if you have any consolidation ideas:

http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?myid=17170.

Are there some you can talk about in personal statement but leave out of the activities section?

Otherwise you are going to have to do as you say and group things together. If you are going to group things, don't group your poster presentation vs. actual lab work, don't group awards, and don't group the tutoring.

Instead group some of the leadership positions that you did similar things in i.e. you organized fundraisers, etc. in different organizations. Then list the organizations and position names in the description. That's what I'd do if you couldn't do it any other way.

 

[TooMuchResearch]

Are there some you can talk about in personal statement but leave out of the activities section?

I might be able to work some in. You're good 🙂

 

[gujuDoc]

I might be able to work some in. You're good 🙂

Also some secondaries allow you to tell about other activities not on AMCAS in your secondaries.

 

[BlueElmo]

1. Do I need to include contact number or address or is writing the name of the contact person okay?

2. What if I can't remember the contact supervisor's/director's name?

3. For descriptions, do I have to write what I got out of this experience and why it was meaningful to me? I just wrote what I did and what my job responsibility was for each catergory. I thought this section is more like job descriptions, not personal viewpoints.

 

[BlueElmo]

Come on, who's brave enough to answer my questions?

 

[witness23]

1. Do I need to include contact number or address or is writing the name of the contact person okay?

2. What if I can't remember the contact supervisor's/director's name?

3. For descriptions, do I have to write what I got out of this experience and why it was meaningful to me? I just wrote what I did and what my job responsibility was for each catergory. I thought this section is more like job descriptions, not personal viewpoints.

1. name is usually okay, they won't really check, but if you have the number go ahead.
2. i wrote down like 'the pediatrics dept', and added their general phone number when i was confused as to who was really the supervisor. also student run organizations, you probly dont need to

3. this is a great question. in my app run, i wrote really general crap down - maybe 1 sentence or 2 at most. in my interviews i noticed my interviewers had no clue as to what i actually did. (note: almost all pre-meds do the same sht, how can u be confused as to what really means what). so i decided to send an update letter elaborating my descriptions. i sold the activities better, showed excitement for the task and for my future in medicine, described a cool story in a line or two, and well blah blah blah.

when i got to my mount sinai interview, the dean told me that the update letter got me to the interview and that i should have written more from the start.

 

[gujuDoc]

1. Do I need to include contact number or address or is writing the name of the contact person okay?

2. What if I can't remember the contact supervisor's/director's name?

3. For descriptions, do I have to write what I got out of this experience and why it was meaningful to me? I just wrote what I did and what my job responsibility was for each catergory. I thought this section is more like job descriptions, not personal viewpoints.

Views on question 3 vary from one person to another. LizzyM would go with the latter of the two things you stated and just have you describe what you did. One of USF's adcom members would prefer to know what you learned and why it was meaningful.

Decide what you think is best. I'm sure it varies from member to member of the committee.

Just put the closest thing you can remember to a contact person. If not leave it blank.

I don't believe you have to give a phone number. So you should be ok.

 

[witness23]

if i had a really hot girlfriend. how should i put it down on my app? should i email a picture of her to schools, as well?

do you think ADCOMs will take this in the wrong way because most women in medicine are not attractive? will they be jealous? or will they think - oh, adds diversity?

🙄

 

[gujuDoc]

if i had a really hot girlfriend. how should i put it down on my app? should i email a picture of her to schools, as well?

do you think ADCOMs will take this in the wrong way because most women in medicine are not attractive? will they be jealous? or will they think - oh, adds diversity?

🙄

Huh? Who was this directed at and why is it in this thread? I'm confused. Maybe I'm missing some sarcasm or what it is in reference to because the internet does not justice sometimes to getting a person's point.

 

[witness23]

sarcasm

i guess i failed.

 

[gujuDoc]

sarcasm

i guess i failed.

I thought so but like I said sometimes the internet does no justice to what a person is joking about. haha. 😛

 

[LaCasta]

You can list poster/oral presentations/conferences separately. AMCAS has separate tabs for those kinda things from the research lab work tab description of research. they also have a separate tab for publications. So research really has multiple categories. I'd split up the poster presntation and actual lab work description if they are both really significant.

Can you elaborate on this please?

I have done a year and a half of research, and I presented a poster at my university's undergrad research symposium and at the american chem. society undergrad research symposium.

I assumed that I would have to put this in the description of my research, but you are saying that I can list the poster presentations seperately? That would be nice if I could.

Thanks

 

[witness23]

Can you elaborate on this please?

I have done a year and a half of research, and I presented a poster at my university's undergrad research symposium and at the american chem. society undergrad research symposium.

I assumed that I would have to put this in the description of my research, but you are saying that I can list the poster presentations seperately? That would be nice if I could.

Thanks

yes, there is a tab for research, another for pubs, another for posters, another for conf attended

what i did was list all my different research experiences separately
list all my pubs under one tab
list the presentations under the presenations tab (didnt bother w/ conf attended, thats implied under presentations)

 

[viscous]

how different is job-shadowing from clinical volunteering? Clinical volunteering seems to be a very broad term, at least to me as a Canadian student. How do you define clinical volunteering in the US? in my "family physician-shadowing" activity, I actually talk to the patients, listen to their stories, run errands related to their files etc. Is that clinical or purely job-shadowing?

 

[mexicochangedme]

i did much of high school and college simultaneously. i was a full-time high school student but also a full-time community college student for many of my pre-teen and early teen years. do activities i did during this time count for amcas since i was technically a college student? or do i only count activities that continued/started post-high school graduation? also, i took a year off between high school graduation and leaving for university and worked full-time, this experience can be recorded on amcas, correct?

 

[BlueElmo]

how do I describe my research? Do I write about the project abstract? What I did? I don't know what to put for this section.

 

[LaCasta]

yes, there is a tab for research, another for pubs, another for posters, another for conf attended

what i did was list all my different research experiences separately
list all my pubs under one tab
list the presentations under the presenations tab (didnt bother w/ conf attended, thats implied under presentations)

Thanks, I'll do that

 

[witness23]

how different is job-shadowing from clinical volunteering? Clinical volunteering seems to be a very broad term, at least to me as a Canadian student. How do you define clinical volunteering in the US? in my "family physician-shadowing" activity, I actually talk to the patients, listen to their stories, run errands related to their files etc. Is that clinical or purely job-shadowing?

don't think this is volunteering - i would put it under other shadow

 

[witness23]

how do I describe my research? Do I write about the project abstract? What I did? I don't know what to put for this section.

abstract is a bit too much and what you did will probably not be hot enough for the app.

i would start with the focus of the lab (1 sentence). follow up with the focus of your specific project. a clinical relevance if you have one. what you did (only if its not like washing tubes and doing elisas). what you got out of it/significance. next step in the project. accomplishments/pubs/presentations derived from the project.

try to refer yourself to I/we even if it was the postdocs project

 

[witness23]

i did much of high school and college simultaneously. i was a full-time high school student but also a full-time community college student for many of my pre-teen and early teen years. do activities i did during this time count for amcas since i was technically a college student? or do i only count activities that continued/started post-high school graduation? also, i took a year off between high school graduation and leaving for university and worked full-time, this experience can be recorded on amcas, correct?

that experience b/w hs and college can be recorded. put down whatever you think is necessary to show a well-rounded side of you. you don't need 15 things (esp for random crap like dean's list, etc) but don't undersell yourself either

 

[BlueElmo]

abstract is a bit too much and what you did will probably not be hot enough for the app.

i would start with the focus of the lab (1 sentence). follow up with the focus of your specific project. a clinical relevance if you have one. what you did (only if its not like washing tubes and doing elisas). what you got out of it/significance. next step in the project. accomplishments/pubs/presentations derived from the project.

try to refer yourself to I/we even if it was the postdocs project

Thanks man. Appreciate it.

 

[gujuDoc]

how different is job-shadowing from clinical volunteering? Clinical volunteering seems to be a very broad term, at least to me as a Canadian student. How do you define clinical volunteering in the US? in my "family physician-shadowing" activity, I actually talk to the patients, listen to their stories, run errands related to their files etc. Is that clinical or purely job-shadowing?

Basically shadowing is defined as just following around doctors and watching in on the procedures and what not that they run. its basically observing doctors.

Volunteering on the other hand includes being the one to change linens, take patients to various parts of the hospital and lab tests to various parts of the hospital as an escort, translating as a foreign language translator, etc. anything where you are actually doing something and registered as a volunteer with their dept. If it is just observing physicians it is shadowing and shadowing does not have its own tab so you will have to list it as other.

Witness23,

Good job with getting everyone's questions answered.

To the rest of you, I'd listen to Witness23's advice. they know what they are talking about. This coming from someone whose been advising people for years. 🙂

 

[BlueElmo]

When I'm describing my research, is it okay if I use some technical terms? Do I explain what these terms mean? Or should they be kept to a minimum? I only have 1325 characters to do this.

 

[gujuDoc]

When I'm describing my research, is it okay if I use some technical terms? Do I explain what these terms mean? Or should they be kept to a minimum? I only have 1325 characters to do this.

as long as they are not abbreviations.

For instance I volunteered in a lab where they did research with TNFalpha. I would have to write out tumor necrosis factor alpha not TNF-a

 

[Confused2626]

How would I handle a non-continuous internship at the same location?

I have had three full time (40hr/week) internships at the same company but in different departments, spread out over a year and a half with some full time school (ie, no internship) thrown in the mix. Like I said, each internship was in a different unit/different co-workers.

If I lumped this as one activity, how would I do hours/week and the date? It sounds like I may have to put it down under three activities

Any advice?

 

[BlueElmo]

How would I handle a non-continuous internship at the same location?

I have had three full time (40hr/week) internships at the same company but in different departments, spread out over a year and a half with some full time school (ie, no internship) thrown in the mix. Like I said, each internship was in a different unit/different co-workers.

If I lumped this as one activity, how would I do hours/week and the date? It sounds like I may have to put it down under three activities

Any advice?

I just put in under one category. But I divided the dates. For example, March 2007-June 2007, October 2007-April 2008, etc.

 

[Confused2626]

That's helpful, I didn't realize you could divide the dates. Thanks

 

[Appless]

I had a question about shadowing...so for my research we do shadowing everyday basically as we follow the docs around on rounds and get to go into the OR etc etc...Should I just describe all the outside clinical experience I was able to get in my description of my research? Or just list it seperate under other where i can talk about how i got to go on rounds, shadow docs in multiple depts., mm conferences etc etc..?

 

[gujuDoc]

I had a question about shadowing...so for my research we do shadowing everyday basically as we follow the docs around on rounds and get to go into the OR etc etc...Should I just describe all the outside clinical experience I was able to get in my description of my research? Or just list it seperate under other where i can talk about how i got to go on rounds, shadow docs in multiple depts., mm conferences etc etc..?

I'd split it up as two different entries because in theory shadowing is not really doing research. Use the research space to describe what the research was esp. if you played a significant role in data collection and analysis.

List the shadowing separately.

That's what I'd do. But I wonder if LizzyM is around if she'll be able to give further input.

 

[gujuDoc]

That's helpful, I didn't realize you could divide the dates. Thanks

I don't think you can do that in the date section but you can show that in the description section. I think that is what they meant.

 

[witness23]

I had a question about shadowing...so for my research we do shadowing everyday basically as we follow the docs around on rounds and get to go into the OR etc etc...Should I just describe all the outside clinical experience I was able to get in my description of my research? Or just list it seperate under other where i can talk about how i got to go on rounds, shadow docs in multiple depts., mm conferences etc etc..?

do you have any outside shadowing experiences that you all clump? under the description you can really elaborate out and list each of them

of course id definitely list the clinical research in a different tab (under reseach) and elaborate that side as well

i'd suggest opening up a word document, listing the different activities. going through a couple different formats, and see what shows your enthusiasm, maturity, experience, and skill in the most efficient way.

 

[witness23]

When I'm describing my research, is it okay if I use some technical terms? Do I explain what these terms mean? Or should they be kept to a minimum? I only have 1325 characters to do this.

what are the technical terms? its fine to go into them as long as they highlight your research goals. personally, i like to try to emphasize the clinically relevant points, or the really significant basic science points, or try to make it interesting like a story. ie, blah blah project was started because of observation in patients, from there experiment progressed to a cell culture model, BlueElmo comes in and proves hypothesis in in-vivo model, while also going around with the docs seeing patients collecting samples for lab work. conference paper translational medicine biaaaaaaaaatch

 

[BlueElmo]

what are the technical terms? its fine to go into them as long as they highlight your research goals. personally, i like to try to emphasize the clinically relevant points, or the really significant basic science points, or try to make it interesting like a story. ie, blah blah project was started because of observation in patients, from there experiment progressed to a cell culture model, BlueElmo comes in and proves hypothesis in in-vivo model, while also going around with the docs seeing patients collecting samples for lab work. conference paper translational medicine biaaaaaaaaatch

 

[BlueElmo]

I don't know if my description is too technical. I basically summarized protocol and abstract from my lab notebook. Are the people reading these faculty members or people with no biology background?

 

[Dashne Gafoor]

Just a quick question: There are many professionals who present at conferences that relate to their work because they are mandated by their upper management. But there are also other conferences that these professionals are not required to present at but still they attend and present at these conferences to share some new business approach or some new process so that the entire community can apply these new findings to their own work. Would it be fruitful to mention that a professional attended one of these latter conferences to present a new way of performing a business process? Could it count toward a presentation at a conference even though techincally you were being paid (salary) at the time of the presentation?

~Dashne🙂

 

[gujuDoc]

Just a quick question: There are many professionals who present at conferences that relate to their work because they are mandated by their upper management. But there are also other conferences that these professionals are not required to present at but still they attend and present at these conferences to share some new business approach or some new process so that the entire community can apply these new findings to their own work. Would it be fruitful to mention that a professional attended one of these latter conferences to present a new way of performing a business process? Could it count toward a presentation at a conference even though techincally you were being paid (salary) at the time of the presentation?

~Dashne🙂

Yes it is counted as far as I can see. I fail to see what being paid vs. volunteering to present have to do with whether or not it is a presentation at a conference or can be listed. They are still both presentations at conferences.

 

[Dashne Gafoor]

Yes it is counted as far as I can see. I fail to see what being paid vs. volunteering to present have to do with whether or not it is a presentation at a conference or can be listed. They are still both presentations at conferences.

I guess what I was questioning was that if you were paid during the presentation, one may relate that to a required activity, one that your employer has mandated. Similar to having a weekly meeting with your boss, it is something that you need to do regardless, especially if you wish to maintain your employment. And being a mandated presentation somewhat takes the icing off the cake, if you will, since it appears that you might not have presented otherwise. But I see your logic as well..

 

[gujuDoc]

I guess what I was questioning was that if you were paid during the presentation, one may relate that to a required activity, one that your employer has mandated. Similar to having a weekly meeting with your boss, it is something that you need to do regardless, especially if you wish to maintain your employment. And being a mandated presentation somewhat takes the icing off the cake, if you will, since it appears that you might not have presented otherwise. But I see your logic as well..

But by that logic people would say that ECs that include employment shouldn't be included. But in fact admissions want to see this. the point of the ECs is to see that you are not just some person who only sticks your head in books and has zero personality and not someone that doesn't know how to talk to people. etc.

You'll be fine. I'd list work things too not just volunteer positions. Also, a lot of research positions people have are jobs so its not like they would be doing it necessarily if they weren't getting money and had bills to pay. Think of it that way. Stress what you learned from it and realize that everything yu do paid and non paid have importance in theirow ways in teaching you something. That's what is important.