that's what i did. alternatively you can put the advisor's name in there.
Edited due to typo.
that's what i did. alternatively you can put the advisor's name in there.
Hi! I have 2 questions, in case LizzyM or anyone is around and willing to indulge me. If so, thanks in advance!
1. For research - should I separate out my thesis from working part-time in the same lab for the three years prior so that they don't have to read through the description to find out that I did a thesis, or is it okay like this:
Research: description of duties as a research assistant in X field looking at Z topic... + also completed an honors thesis entitled "xyz". ?
The other issue with this is that I did research partially for credit and partially for pay, so on my transcript I only ever got 2 credits for my thesis, when in fact it took me about 10 hours per week during the year and a whole summer of working full time. Worth explaining or not very interesting?
2. My "hobby" or "thing that I do to relax" is learn languages. Not sure whether to mention it as an activity, though. I mean, they're on my transcript, so it's kind of obvious that I learned them... but then again, I'm afraid that it looks like gpa padding (I took 3-4 language classes each semester my senior year) when in fact I did it for fun and because I figured I might never get "free" language instruction again. Also, in addition to English and the other language my family speaks, there are two others that I speak fairly well, but can't check the box for because I'm not fluent, so... worth mentioning as an activity?
I'm also semi-tempted to stick travel in there (lumped with languages) because I've spent a month in another country every summer (family ties) and have also been living in another different country for the past year. So... I'm tempted because maybe it makes me an interesting person (?) but on the other hand... who doesn't like to travel? It's hardly a unique sentiment and most people just call it vacation...
Thoughts? Thank you so much, in advance!! I realize that I sound a bit ridiculous. Just know that you're helping me to sleep soundly and breathe normally. 🙂
Yes include the traveling. You might want to lump the language learning and traveling if the languages are for the same countries you traveled to. What was the living in a different country for?? Are you studying abroad or working abroad or volunteering abroad full time right now? Then list that travel experience separately of the rest.
i would make the distinction between what was paid employment and volunteering just for thesis and credit because it is still paid employment. Its like saying you work at a hospital and have volunteered there. You'd also list those as separately. Same thing here.
Good luck.
When listing the traveling, I have two questions...
1) Could this be in anyway thought of as harmful to your application, because as LizzyM would say, you are adding "fluff" to the EC section
2) When entering the traveling experience, Could I just say I enjoy different cultures/traditions, so I traveled to different places and name them? When including the dates how does that work? For the summary section, do I include all the countries and what year I visited them in? Is that necessary? Sorry for all the traveling questions, I'm just a bit torn and reconsidering if I should even enter it....
explain the kinda nature of them. i.e. were you a bible study group leader, music director of a church? Leader in community service? or was it leader of a mission trip trying to convert people?
if it is the last option that's probably not going to go well in a profession where our goal is not to change other's personal cultural and religious beliefs.
If it is something like the former that is different. More details please.
You might want to lump the language learning and traveling if the languages are for the same countries you traveled to. What was the living in a different country for?? Are you studying abroad or working abroad or volunteering abroad full time right now? Then list that travel experience separately of the rest.
Thanks for your reply!
Yup, same languages. I do already have one entry for my job here since it's full time (teaching english), but other than listing the location where it asks for it, it doesn't talk about the effects of actually living here at all.
On the other hand, it's western europe, so it's not like I'm hacking through the Amazon to bring bandaids and clean water to starving orphans or anything valiant like that. Actually, compared to undergrad and (not to mention med school) it's more like an extended vacation... except with a job.
Then again, I do feel that it's been significant in helping me mature, gain perspective, etc. So maybe I could put in an entry as a hobby, list the languages, and tack the fact that I've also lived abroad and gained perspective and whatever else into the description. Just in case they miss the location of my job. Or am I edging into "fluff" territory, here? (The only thing is that I don't really have any other interesting hobbies... are the hobbies essential?)
Thanks again!
Sorry for the delay in my response, I don't get in here too often...
There are a lot of things... I worked for my church for all three of my 'in-between' summers in college, first in a small support role for children's programs, then pretty much running the high school and junior high programs while we were without a youth director. During my senior year, I was a live-in counselor/mentor/small group leader for a dorm of fifty freshmen. I also spent two summers working as a counselor at a Christian camp. Then I participated in a 'Medical Mission' to Honduras with my school, though it was not evangelistic in nature (or really terribly religious in anything other than name). Finally, I was debating whether or not to include my study abroad experience in London, in which I also acted as a small group leader.
Basically, it amounts to a lot of counseling/mentoring experience, serving, working with young people, and event planning. All things I'm sure schools want to know I can do, but I don't want the religious context to make them uncomfortable.
Thank you for all of your help in this thread, it's awesome to have someone who's willing to take the time to help out all of the panicked pre-meds in here 😉
Can your description be in narrative format...or does it need to be the resume style.
example "I did this and this"
versus
"Responsibilities include x, y, z"
thanks!
For a period of three summers, I worked at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While my employment was not military in nature, but rather as a civilian employee, I am confused as to how I should enter this in the AMCAS work section.
Should I enter it as Paid Employment - Non-Military? Or Military?
My guess is the first, but I'm just trying to figure out the best way to enter it.
Thanks!
I love this one. Not something we see very often...
Regarding my landscaping hobby with my wife, I have a quick question... When entering ECs in the application, you are required to enter an Organization name, and a contact name... If it's just me and my wife putting some sweat equity into our front and back yards, how would I go about the protocol?
Again, I appreciate your help!
Obviously, you leave those blank. Categorize it as "hobby". No one expects an organization name & contact name for a hobby.
Yah I'd list the countries and dates. I'd make it a point to show how it exposed you to other cultures and made you more away of other people's beliefs and how this made you look at things from an outside perspective.
Gujudoc, would it be possible if I could PM you the entry for my traveling experiences. I've just been a bit anxious about this one...and many of the experiences were in high school as well. It's less than 4-5 lines, so it won't be too long..
Is it bad that I used most of the 1325 character limit in most of my entries? I wrote in prose, and just states my job, what it entailed, and what I got from it. I didn't use overly flowerly language, but I did bump up against the limit a few times. Will this be looked upon negatively?
For entering in Phi Beta Kappa honor as a work/activity, what do you write about?
Hello everyone (particularly LizzyM!),
I have two questions:
1) My research for my Honors Thesis contributed to an abstract that my PI will present in the 2009 Society for Neuroscience conference. Should I highlight this as a "presentation" in an additional entry, or should I include this info (along with the abstract citation) in my entry that describes my research? I'm very hesitant to separate it out and call it a "presentation" since the *PI* will be the one doing the presenting.
2) Similar question to above. I won a scholarship that allowed me to produce a radio show after a study-abroad experience. Should I list the radio show as a "publication" outside of my entry describing the scholarship and my project?
I am already maxed out at 15 activities, all of which were significant (no padding). Thus, if I created additional entries to highlight the abstract that came out of my research and the radio broadcast that came out of my project, I would have to sacrifice 2 activities from my list.
Thank you for your help!
~Kalyx
For entering in Phi Beta Kappa honor as a work/activity, what do you write about?
Specifically, I've become incredibly interested in the relationship between food and health in the past 2 years. I've done (non-original) research on high fructose corn syrup, the nutritional differences between beyond-organic to organic to industrial meat. I frequent farmer's markets to (subjectively) test differences in flavor between industrial and local. I've also taken wine classes, cooking classes, started a garden, etc.
It's something I'm fairly passionate about and could talk at length about - would this be a valid hobby to include?
i have been a coordinator at a clinic for over a year. for the past few months we've begun a reaserch project that is sort of flailing, but I've done a lot of work for it. It is a case review study. I went through IRB training (we were approved) and have been gathering data from patients (I have been there long enough to be familiar with their case and relaize what is relevant regarding our aims in the project.) I am listed as part of the study staff, and have gone through multitudes of literature in order to find clinics which are comparable across the country in order to figure out whther the research is relevant (it is) and how and why it is pertinent to the review. additionally, i am basically the point person for the clinic - know its ins and outs - and am in charge of refining the projects goals. However, i do this on the side (!!!!). It is not ready to submit for publication, and is going really slowly as the hospital is funding some of it and we don't have a grant to go forth as yet....It is my PI's first research project, so everyone is kinda flailing around. Does this count?
what should I include - I have no idea how to even format "research" in the work and activities section
i have been a coordinator at a clinic for over a year. for the past few months we've begun a reaserch project that is sort of flailing, but I've done a lot of work for it. It is a case review study. I went through IRB training (we were approved) and have been gathering data from patients (I have been there long enough to be familiar with their case and relaize what is relevant regarding our aims in the project.) I am listed as part of the study staff, and have gone through multitudes of literature in order to find clinics which are comparable across the country in order to figure out whther the research is relevant (it is) and how and why it is pertinent to the review. additionally, i am basically the point person for the clinic - know its ins and outs - and am in charge of refining the projects goals. However, i do this on the side (!!!!). It is not ready to submit for publication, and is going really slowly as the hospital is funding some of it and we don't have a grant to go forth as yet....It is my PI's first research project, so everyone is kinda flailing around. Does this count?
what should I include - I have no idea how to even format "research" in the work and activities section
Here's my take on these (correct me if I'm wrong LizzyM):
1) No. "A presentation" is something that you prepared and presented.
2) No. A "publication" generally refers to something that appeared in a scientific journal or related work. Besides, you said you already have fifteen awesome activities 👍
hey, are we required to list exact dates of activities in our descriptions?
Thank you!month and year that the activity started, month and year the activity ended (or "present") and average number of hours per week.
So I shadowed 4 different doctors over 3 different summers. Each time it was about 30 hours over the course of a week. I want to list all these as one work/activity. When I put dates attended do I put June 2006 to June 2008 and put 30 hours per week? This kind of seems like I am claiming that I worked 30 hours per week for two straight years rather than just 4 separate weeks. I am explaining the specifics of each shadowing in the description section which I think should clear this up, but I don't want to have my application voided due to "lies."
Help!!!!!
Now I know its okay to type out the Work/Activities in either prose or bullet-point form. But what about doing some activities in bullet-form and some in prose? And so far I haven't used bullets, I'm typing fragments separated by periods (kind of like resume-style). Any thoughts?
Also, I know this was discussed but I don't remember which page of the novel, I mean, forum it was on... As a refresher, when we type out our ECs (i.e. shadowing, volunteering), is it good to include anything other than a plain list of what we did? For example, include what you got out of the experience, try to relate it to bring out your good character (i.e. held babies at NICU), etc.
Thanks!
I'm finished with every other part of the application, and would appreciate some advice on this section. I'm currently at 13 activities.
1) I have one slot for "University honors" and another for "Phi Beta Kappa." Should I just lump PBK into the first slot? The only description I put for it was that I was inducted as a junior, so it'd be easy enough to do. Basically, is PBK that significant to list on its own? I'm not pressed for slots, but I don't want to add unnecessary length to my application if adcoms wouldn't like it.
2) My most significant involvement in college has been tutoring / mentoring children from a low-income area of the city. I've held one of the top leadership positions for significant time now, doing a lot of fundraising to provide the kids with some pretty cool opportunities. I currently have split into a community service experience (talking about the various program activities, we expand a lot out of tutoring) as well as a leadership experience (detailing my individual work). My description of both fits under the character limit, am I best off combining the two under one experience? Which experience type should I pick?
3) I'm studying abroad this summer, after having traveled in a developing country this past winter. I definitely have a big interest in traveling (will be going to South Africa for the World Cup next summer) and immersing myself in other cultures, and ethnographic research abroad is something I'd like to do in medical school. Is a "Study abroad" slot appropriate; should I talk about other traveling I've done? I've also been selected by my university to blog about my travels this summer (as a tool to encourage interest among younger students), would that be worth mentioning within this description?
13 is the maximum activities I'll have. Depending on if I should combine the experiences, I could have 11; if the study abroad / traveling slot isn't worthwhile, I'd have 10. I'm not too worried about how many slots I fill, I just want to make sure whatever I list is worthwhile reading for an adcom.
I'm finished with every other part of the application, and would appreciate some advice on this section. I'm currently at 13 activities.
1) I have one slot for "University honors" and another for "Phi Beta Kappa." Should I just lump PBK into the first slot? The only description I put for it was that I was inducted as a junior, so it'd be easy enough to do. Basically, is PBK that significant to list on its own? I'm not pressed for slots, but I don't want to add unnecessary length to my application if adcoms wouldn't like it.
2) My most significant involvement in college has been tutoring / mentoring children from a low-income area of the city. I've held one of the top leadership positions for significant time now, doing a lot of fundraising to provide the kids with some pretty cool opportunities. I currently have split into a community service experience (talking about the various program activities, we expand a lot out of tutoring) as well as a leadership experience (detailing my individual work). My description of both fits under the character limit, am I best off combining the two under one experience? Which experience type should I pick?
3) I'm studying abroad this summer, after having traveled in a developing country this past winter. I definitely have a big interest in traveling (will be going to South Africa for the World Cup next summer) and immersing myself in other cultures, and ethnographic research abroad is something I'd like to do in medical school. Is a "Study abroad" slot appropriate; should I talk about other traveling I've done? I've also been selected by my university to blog about my travels this summer (as a tool to encourage interest among younger students), would that be worth mentioning within this description?
13 is the maximum activities I'll have. Depending on if I should combine the experiences, I could have 11; if the study abroad / traveling slot isn't worthwhile, I'd have 10. I'm not too worried about how many slots I fill, I just want to make sure whatever I list is worthwhile reading for an adcom.
I just lumped all "college honors" under one activity, with PBK listed first...and I was not even trying to conserve my activities...I would have to look, but I think that I had only 9 total "activities" on my app...I felt zero compunction, like so many others, to fill out all the slots...
i asked this in another forum and i dont think it merits another thread so this seems like the place to go.
i will be writing an article on facelifts this summer to be published in the archives of facial plastic surgery hopefully. my question is how will this look to med school and beyond? i dont want to miss a chance to get published, but then again the subject is facelifts, and technically no pre med should be shooting for cosmetic plastic surgery if he/she wants to go into medicine to "help people." is there any way to put a positive spin on this article? i really do enjoy plastics and its something ive always wanted to do...
should i leave it off the amcas in the future? should i explain in the text area why it's interesting?
Would guitar be a sufficient extra curricular activity if I don't play for any organizations nor took any formal lessons (ie selftaught, play just as a hobby)?
Edit: my concern is that my work/activities list is lacking in quantity (I have a list of seven, currently), however I don't want to uselessly pad my activities either
Its not about quantity so much as it is quality. If you did something significant with guitar like those in rock bands on here I'd put it on or even if you were playing for your bible study group like someone on here did. But you just play a little here and there and that doesn't sound like much. I mean maybe when secondaries ask you again you could put it there. To me it doesn't really seem like anything noteworthy.
I'm finished with every other part of the application, and would appreciate some advice on this section. I'm currently at 13 activities.
1) I have one slot for "University honors" and another for "Phi Beta Kappa." Should I just lump PBK into the first slot? The only description I put for it was that I was inducted as a junior, so it'd be easy enough to do. Basically, is PBK that significant to list on its own? I'm not pressed for slots, but I don't want to add unnecessary length to my application if adcoms wouldn't like it.
2) My most significant involvement in college has been tutoring / mentoring children from a low-income area of the city. I've held one of the top leadership positions for significant time now, doing a lot of fundraising to provide the kids with some pretty cool opportunities. I currently have split into a community service experience (talking about the various program activities, we expand a lot out of tutoring) as well as a leadership experience (detailing my individual work). My description of both fits under the character limit, am I best off combining the two under one experience? Which experience type should I pick?
3) I'm studying abroad this summer, after having traveled in a developing country this past winter. I definitely have a big interest in traveling (will be going to South Africa for the World Cup next summer) and immersing myself in other cultures, and ethnographic research abroad is something I'd like to do in medical school. Is a "Study abroad" slot appropriate; should I talk about other traveling I've done? I've also been selected by my university to blog about my travels this summer (as a tool to encourage interest among younger students), would that be worth mentioning within this description?
13 is the maximum activities I'll have. Depending on if I should combine the experiences, I could have 11; if the study abroad / traveling slot isn't worthwhile, I'd have 10. I'm not too worried about how many slots I fill, I just want to make sure whatever I list is worthwhile reading for an adcom.