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An identical format isn't always possible, so be flexible. When information is similarly arranged, though, it's easier to locate data one is looking for.
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*~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2012-2013*~*~*~*
Started by sector9
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Does anybody know if adcoms can resort the AMCAS work and activities according to categories? The AMCAS only allows for chronological order but I feel that it can disturb the flow of work and activities
I'm part of a club that is composed of 3 different programs. There's the chapter executive board and the boards of the individual programs. I have served as Secretary on both the chapter board and the program board. I have also helped organize a conference as a committee chair.
I'm not sure how to organize it in my application. I was thinking either:
a) Group the secretary positions together since they're really similar. Then I'll have 3 entries - one for secretary, one for conference planning, and one for the program (one of my meaningful experiences).
b) Group chapter secretary and conference chair together. The other entry will be program secretary and general program stuff.
c) Group leadership positions together (chapter secretary, program secretary, conference chair). Slightly afraid that I'll run out of space though.
I was wondering what your opinions on this are. Thanks!
I'm not sure how to organize it in my application. I was thinking either:
a) Group the secretary positions together since they're really similar. Then I'll have 3 entries - one for secretary, one for conference planning, and one for the program (one of my meaningful experiences).
b) Group chapter secretary and conference chair together. The other entry will be program secretary and general program stuff.
c) Group leadership positions together (chapter secretary, program secretary, conference chair). Slightly afraid that I'll run out of space though.
I was wondering what your opinions on this are. Thanks!
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Should the coursework that you list match exactly what is said on the transcript? My school uses a lot of abbreviations for classes. For instance, for "fundamental statistics", my official transcript reads "fundmntl statistics". Is it OK if I just write "Fundamental Statistics"?
EDIT: Wrong thread, sorry.
EDIT: Wrong thread, sorry.
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So I have done a few community presentations that involve discussing my native country's culture (Mid East). I initiated, planned and led these presentations and had atleast 70+ guests attend each one. Some of them were held on campus, others were off of campus. I was wondering which category I should list these under; Leadership (since I planned them from scratch), Community Service-non medical, or Presentations? Also, should I lump them together or split them up?
For a club where members spend the school year on designing a project (ex. footbridges) for a community abroad and then implement it during the summer, would this go under Volunteer - nonclinical or Extracurricular?
The studies that we did were potentially publishable. However, experimental issues prevented us from publishing. For example, in the rat lab we were looking at the storage of smell memories in rats and the effects of hippocampal lesions. Analysis of the final data showed that the original learning task was not refined enough to justify that the rats had actually learned the task to begin with. This was the first time we were attempting an odor task like this and it clearly needed some tweaks before we could run a publishable study. But, the study was done from beginning to end including slicing and imaging the brain tissues.
I think out of the three classes this would be the strongest case for a research activity. I understand that it seems weak and that's why I'm asking first. Thanks for your answers!
I think out of the three classes this would be the strongest case for a research activity. I understand that it seems weak and that's why I'm asking first. Thanks for your answers!
@ shirahyuki- I would say Extracurricular.
For oral presentations at conferences, do you guys think that I should explain what I learned from that experience, or is it self-explanatory?
For oral presentations at conferences, do you guys think that I should explain what I learned from that experience, or is it self-explanatory?
How bad is it to use technical jargon when discussing research? The phrase 'Followed patient lab cultures and discussed de-escalation of emperic antibiotic therapy based on culture results' seems pretty readable to me but should I try to oversimplify my explanation for individuals who might not have a background in what I am talking about?
After I read that I was like...what. Just be simple, and straightforward. You could cut off "based on culture results"
Also, your words like "followed" and "discussed" are too vague. I would choose more specific verbs
It's bad. You are assuming a panel of physicians will be reviewing and interviewing you. PhDs of varying backgrounds and administrative persons will be involved too.
At least start out user friendly and generic with the first paragraph, giving a lay person's overview, then get technical after that. Those who zone out don't need to keep reading to get the gist that way. Those with interest can get their questions answered as you go on.
Did you give a talk or get involved in organizing it, then yes. Otherwise, no (at least not that comes to mind). If you want to include it anyway, go ahead. But ask yourself, how is this several-day event making my application better, because that's the point of putting it in.
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1) You can either include it with the clinic experience under Community Service/Volunteer, or if there is lots to say, you could list it on its own under Leadership.
2) It depends on what you do. If you led a youth group, cleaned floors, did gardening, were involved in a choir, made out schedules, yes. If otherwise, be more specific to get appropriate input.
I think it's self-explanatory. 🙂
The available designation is Research/Lab, so I think you can legitimately list it, as it was lab experience. Be sure to mention what you learned: that all studies don't result in positive results and might have been better if designed differently, a lesson that is hard to learn, but good self-analysis.
If you implemented the plan before submission (footbridges already built or in progress) it would be Community Service. If the project has been planned but not implemented yet, I'd put it under Other or Hobbies.
If you organized others to arrange a venue, advertise, make snacks, etc, it might be Leadership. Teaching would be a good category to consider, regardless, especially if you were an invited speaker. I would not use Community Service. Presentations are generally reserved for researchy stuff.
You can cite it. Use the date you were informed of the acceptance instead of the publication date, then cite it as best you can for the issue it will be in, using "In Press" to substitute for info you do not know, like page numbers, etc. At the least, you'd have an author list and the title of the article, with journal name. Hopefully you know the month, or at least some planned timeframe when it will appear. You might put a note afterward that the e-pub will appear after the print version.
Hi! I'm a newbie to the forum. I've spent the last day slogging through the old Work/Activities posts (from previous years too), and they've been incredibly helpful. So let me start by saying thanks: without this forum, I would've improperly cited my publication, described my poster presentations *way* too informally (and not stressed that I presented at a national level), not put down any hobbies (who knew that admissions reviewers liked to see that we're human?), not condensed my academic honours, and missed out on the really excellent title of "Recognitions for Excellence" as a catch-all for honours/deans list/summa cum laude/etc.
With that said, let me get to the ugly. I'm definitely in need of advice, and I'd love to hear any thoughts.
I didn't decide that I wanted to be a doctor until, um, about four months ago. This means, of course, that I have *zero* shadowing experience. None.
</life story> Sorry that was so long, but I wanted to explain my thought process to people that have never met me (and the fact that I didn't just wake up one day and go, "oh hey, gonna become a doctor now. brb.").
So, considering that I'm already a little (okay, a lot) unorthodox of an applicant for not having 300 millionty years of shadowing behind me
: Can I stretch my experience into clinical experience? 🙄 Haha.
No, but seriously.
(Please play nice with the newbie?)
With that said, let me get to the ugly. I'm definitely in need of advice, and I'd love to hear any thoughts.
I didn't decide that I wanted to be a doctor until, um, about four months ago. This means, of course, that I have *zero* shadowing experience. None.
Right. Now that the appropriate gasps and "oh no"'s have been uttered, here's a more detailed explanation (read: long, boring, personal, probably skimmable 🙄). The reason I took so long to decide on a future career wasn't because of apathy, but the exact opposite: I took the decision very, very seriously. Medicine as a career has always been an interest, but I also wanted to consider everything from biomedical engineering, to pharmaceutical mass spectrometry, to teaching English in Japan. It took me 4.5 years to decide that medicine was actually the field I wanted to dedicate my life to.
How do I know that medicine is what I want to do if I've never shadowed a doctor? Well, I've had a chronic illness since I was 9. Because of it, I've been in and out of multiple hospitals, multiple times. I've not just followed a single doctor around, but have actually been behind the scenes with several. Instead of having clinical experience through one, good doctor (comma intended for emphasis on "good"), I've met both excellent and not-so-excellent doctors -- and because of that, I'm able to better pinpoint what traits will make me the kind of doctor I want to be. I've seen doctors and hospitals and ERs at their good, their bad, and their absolutely awful. No, I haven't sorted charts or taken blood pressure or monitored blood glucose for anyone but family member, but I don't think that's the point of shadowing anyway, is it? Isn't the point to expose you to medicine -- to show you the grit, the stress, the downsides, the it's-not-like-on-TV side? My disease is under control (and has been for the past 5 years) through a combo of diet/keeping stress down (read: exercise)/meds, but living through my own "clinical experience" means that I can empathise with patients, has made me absolutely respect nurses (seriously, they're amazing. future docs: please respect them as equals. they can make or break you 😛), and gave me a view into the insanity that doctors face every day.
How do I know that medicine is what I want to do if I've never shadowed a doctor? Well, I've had a chronic illness since I was 9. Because of it, I've been in and out of multiple hospitals, multiple times. I've not just followed a single doctor around, but have actually been behind the scenes with several. Instead of having clinical experience through one, good doctor (comma intended for emphasis on "good"), I've met both excellent and not-so-excellent doctors -- and because of that, I'm able to better pinpoint what traits will make me the kind of doctor I want to be. I've seen doctors and hospitals and ERs at their good, their bad, and their absolutely awful. No, I haven't sorted charts or taken blood pressure or monitored blood glucose for anyone but family member, but I don't think that's the point of shadowing anyway, is it? Isn't the point to expose you to medicine -- to show you the grit, the stress, the downsides, the it's-not-like-on-TV side? My disease is under control (and has been for the past 5 years) through a combo of diet/keeping stress down (read: exercise)/meds, but living through my own "clinical experience" means that I can empathise with patients, has made me absolutely respect nurses (seriously, they're amazing. future docs: please respect them as equals. they can make or break you 😛), and gave me a view into the insanity that doctors face every day.
</life story> Sorry that was so long, but I wanted to explain my thought process to people that have never met me (and the fact that I didn't just wake up one day and go, "oh hey, gonna become a doctor now. brb.").
So, considering that I'm already a little (okay, a lot) unorthodox of an applicant for not having 300 millionty years of shadowing behind me
: Can I stretch my experience into clinical experience? 🙄 Haha. No, but seriously.
(Please play nice with the newbie?)
I would like to see each entry discuss how you grew in responsibility over time. It should tell a story so I know why you made the choices you did, rather than list roles. What about dividing it by program and chapter roles? How you divide it doesn't matter so much as that each narrative flow.
Each med school can sort the entries as they wish. It won't necessarily be viewed in chronological order. You have no control over this.
^Ok thanks. In terms of listing poster presentations, I only listed the year and the poster event name. Is it necessary to give the poster title, authors, and location?
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I had a question about entering awards. If I have won awards for some of my activities (ex: volunteered in hospital-->won hospital award for volunteering, ex: did research-->won university-wide award for research) should I group these awards in an "awards" section? Or for continuity, should I list them with the activity? I already have an "honors" section for a competitive program. My three options:
1. List each award with its activity
2. Get rid of a volunteer experience/hobby (with awards...) to make room for a second "Honors" section.
3. Take my Major Program "Honors" section, condense it, and add all the other awards to it.
Does anyone have any advice on what the best way might be to present this information? Thank you!!
1. List each award with its activity
2. Get rid of a volunteer experience/hobby (with awards...) to make room for a second "Honors" section.
3. Take my Major Program "Honors" section, condense it, and add all the other awards to it.
Does anyone have any advice on what the best way might be to present this information? Thank you!!
I have a few questions. Questions #2 and #3 may sound dumb, but I want to make sure I do not miss anything :
1. I am an immigrant. During freshman and sophomore years of high school in my home country, I earned a few awards, and these types of awards are not very common in the US. Should I list these awards as well, given they were obtained during high school years ?
2. During college in the US, I participated in a creative writing contest on campus but never won any prize or got chosen to participate further contests. Should I list it and how do I list it ?
3. Should I list the financial aid grants as well, given these are sort of need-based scholarships ?
Thank you very much.
1. I am an immigrant. During freshman and sophomore years of high school in my home country, I earned a few awards, and these types of awards are not very common in the US. Should I list these awards as well, given they were obtained during high school years ?
2. During college in the US, I participated in a creative writing contest on campus but never won any prize or got chosen to participate further contests. Should I list it and how do I list it ?
3. Should I list the financial aid grants as well, given these are sort of need-based scholarships ?
Thank you very much.
Ok, I have questions about presentation/poster vs conferences attended.
I am co-author for different abstracts that got accepted to many national/regional conferences. I'm not the first author and did not present nor attend those conferences. Under what Experience Type should I cite these and how should I list for Organization Name (if I list them all together)?
I also attended a few poster and oral presentations. I was the second author but did not present. Where should list these?
Thank you!
I am co-author for different abstracts that got accepted to many national/regional conferences. I'm not the first author and did not present nor attend those conferences. Under what Experience Type should I cite these and how should I list for Organization Name (if I list them all together)?
I also attended a few poster and oral presentations. I was the second author but did not present. Where should list these?
Thank you!
Yes, I organized others (told them what to say, how to setup at the location, post advertisements, etc.) and was invited to give presentations by several people. So in that case should I put this under Leadership? Or maybe I can put the invited presentations under Teacher, and the others under Leadership? I am thinking about lumping them together except for one presentation which I will do separately as a 'Most Meaningful' experience; would that be fine?
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Quick question: I am currently a researcher under a PI. I've been working with collaborations in other labs. As of right now, I have paid-employment non military as my research listing. In the descriptions and most meaningful I talk about what I actually did, managing people, designing experiments, carrying out experiments, animal surgeries, analysis and other things.
I also have a "research" listing that is all of my undergraduate research. I have a posters/presentations that has all of the accepted abstracts/posters/presentations that I have.
My question is whether or not I should create another "Research" listing that explains each of my projects in a little more depth since I"m involved in three very different, and impressive projects?
I also have a "research" listing that is all of my undergraduate research. I have a posters/presentations that has all of the accepted abstracts/posters/presentations that I have.
My question is whether or not I should create another "Research" listing that explains each of my projects in a little more depth since I"m involved in three very different, and impressive projects?
I'm worried about this, as my research description has jargon in it, yet I can't "describe" what everything means in the 700 characters...I guess as long as it gets the main idea across it's ok?
I want to know this as well....also when is it acceptable to put abstracts under the experience type "publications"--I saw a thread on this and I'm curious as to why you can do this?
Catalystik, I have two questions:
First, what should I do with a patent pending. I'm rather limited in what I can say since its a drug idea not an actual drug, but at the same time this has been something that I have worked on for a long time (I'm second on the patent behind the PI) and all of our publications are being held back so that we can publish a bunch at the same time. I'm applying MD/PhD so having something to show for 2+ years of research in this lab I think would be important. And if I put this in, would this be its own entry?
Second, I was in a BS/MD program but since I have decided to apply for MD/PhD programs at that school and others. Now I know that you had told person earlier in this tread to not put down that they were on a BS/MD track but had to drop, but would this strengthen my application for MD/PhD if I gave up a certain thing (and very easy thing- didn't have to take the MCAT and the GPA requirement was very low), to pursue an MD/PhD? The reason I ask is because I have been told by some summer programs that I wasn't accepted because I was already in a medical school.
Thank you very much
First, what should I do with a patent pending. I'm rather limited in what I can say since its a drug idea not an actual drug, but at the same time this has been something that I have worked on for a long time (I'm second on the patent behind the PI) and all of our publications are being held back so that we can publish a bunch at the same time. I'm applying MD/PhD so having something to show for 2+ years of research in this lab I think would be important. And if I put this in, would this be its own entry?
Second, I was in a BS/MD program but since I have decided to apply for MD/PhD programs at that school and others. Now I know that you had told person earlier in this tread to not put down that they were on a BS/MD track but had to drop, but would this strengthen my application for MD/PhD if I gave up a certain thing (and very easy thing- didn't have to take the MCAT and the GPA requirement was very low), to pursue an MD/PhD? The reason I ask is because I have been told by some summer programs that I wasn't accepted because I was already in a medical school.
Thank you very much
instead of jargon should i use common terms for example in my research section I say:
"For my 1st project I worked on a clinical case series describing three patients who developed a medullblastoma as a result of the genetic disorder Gorlin Syndrome."
should I say
"For my 1st project I worked on a clinical case series describing three patients who developed a brain tumor as a result of a very rare genetic disorder"
"For my 1st project I worked on a clinical case series describing three patients who developed a medullblastoma as a result of the genetic disorder Gorlin Syndrome."
should I say
"For my 1st project I worked on a clinical case series describing three patients who developed a brain tumor as a result of a very rare genetic disorder"
I'm assuming you aren't listing the same poster twice, like if you presented it at two conferences. In general, all that information should be listed for each poster. Also, say who presented the poster, as one need not necessarily be present to get credit where one is on the author list.
I'm also assuming all these posters were presented at noncampus events. If they were at a college research symposium, you'd mention the poster in the same space as the Research.
If you are tight on space, then list each award with its related activity. It makes more sense when you put it in context anyway. Then maybe you'll have room for an Honors/Awards section that doesn't otherwise fit.
1) I would not list HS awards unless you won olympic gold or something equally impressive.
2) If you like, include writing as a Hobby. I would not mention a contest you did not win.
3) I would not. But if you got merit-based aid, that is worth mentioning.
Your information is rather vague, so I hope I'm understanding you correctly. See post #747 FOR DEFINITIONS.
1) If you are an author (presumably for a poster/presentation approved after abstract submission), it is not necessary that you be the presenter or attend the conference to get credit for it, so long as you give credit to the presenter. They'd go under Posters/Presentations if they were research-based. You might use the university or employer that sponsored the research as the organization and then cite specific conferences, dates, etc in the narrative.
2) Same answer.
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1) Where you took on a supervisory role, Leadership is appropriate.
2) That is fine.
3) If you want to lump the two types together, use Teaching, but make the leadership for some of them evident in your description.
If you have the space, you can do that. Be sure you don't count he same hours per week twice that you already accounted for in another space. Even better might be three separate listings, one per project.
I'm just asking for 1-2 summary sentences that your grandparents would understand, after that, use all the jargon you like.
There are abstracts that are poster or presentation summaries picked in a competitive process for conference use and there are published abstracts that were peer reviewed and are Pub Med Searchable and found in a printed journal (which may also have been presented as a poster or presentation at an organizational meeting that also sponsors the journal). In the latter case, you can use Publications, mentioning any associated poster/presentation in that same space, not on its own.
Is there a general consensus on listing/not listing senior design projects for engineering majors? My project was designing a laparoscopic surgery simulator, so it was at least somewhat relavent to medicine. I'm assuming if I did list it, it would be under "other"?
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
For the second question, I just wanted to know that -- if I attended a scientific conference and had a poster/oral presentation presented by the first author (I'm the second author), which Experience Type should I list this under: Conference Attended or Poster/Presentation?
Also, should I cite one of my publications as: First author, "et al"...then the rest...? There are too many names in that paper and I want to save some space. I'm not the second or third author on this paper.
1) A patent pending is not a patent. Not being able to give details detracts even more from the accomplishment. If you can't talk about it, it didn't happen. I would not give it its own space, but rather mention the submission in the associated research space. To give the accomplishment more cashe, ask your PI to refer to it in whatever way he/she feels able to publically proclaim. Alternatively, if you want to go more into the experience of filing for a patent, put it under Other.
2) I don't participate in the MD/PhD application process and so can't comment. You might PM Lil Mick or another active sdn MD/PhDer and see if they have any insight to offer. Or ask in the Physician Scientist forum.
1) Use Poster/Presentation, as you get credit even if you didn't personally present it, but state who did present and work in there somewhere that you were present at the conference. This has more prestige than Conferences Attended, which means you were there solely for session attendance purposes.
2) That's fine, so long as you say where you are on the list of authors.
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An MD/PhD-specific question: Since I will going into heavy detail about my research elsewhere on the application (10,000 characters specifically about research as a separate essay), is it okay to restate a lot of this when I make research one of my most significant activities? I was planning to just pull the main ideas from this larger essay for the W/A section. Will this be acceptable or is there a better way to approach this?
Thanks!
Thanks!
If one of my papers is submitted and is currently under reviewed. Where should I put this? Publication or...?
How important is listing hobbies in the work/activities?
Use the second example. Then feel free to use all the jargon you like.
I'm now confused though. Are you doing original hypothesis-driven research on these patients that adds to human knowledge, or publishing a case report after doing book research to learn about it?
Ok thanks! so my abstract is listed here:
http://thejns.org/doi/abs/10.3171/2011.2.FOC-CVSectionabstracts
this would be considered a "publication" right? I would still put "Abstracts presented at the AANS/CNS Meeting" in the experience name and put the journal name in the organization name?
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