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There has to be a VP or someone that is in charge of all extracurriculars.
*~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2012-2013*~*~*~*
Started by sector9
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There has to be a VP or someone that is in charge of all extracurriculars.
1) The characters allowed have varied over the years.
2) Artful pruning and succinct phrasing. Using bullet format might help.
3) Maybe make two clumps of jobs.
4) If it was teaching/tutoring/mentoring/TA/coaching, then you can call it Teaching, but mention you got paid. You can designate it as most meaningful if a) it was, b) you need more room, or c) you have read adcomm minds and think it will make them happy.
5) Then you a) don't reflect, or you b) reflect in the PS, or c) in a Secondary essay if pertinent, or d) you make it "Most Meaningful" to get more space.
6) List the most recent volunteering info in the header, describe in the narrative, give total hours, then list the dates of the earlier activity with similar info as already given for the recent activity, with its hours. At the end give a grand total of hours.
7) List the contact as Volunteering Office (for the first and last name) and their phone number.
8) Yes, if the person recalls you.
Any other officer in the club will do, or a faculty advisor.
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1.How should I document the start and end date of an activity if I've stopped for 1 year in between, then just started again?
2.If I've volunteered at multiple locations within a hospital, ie. ER, ambulatory care, lobbies, should I list them all under 1 entry? Much of my clinical experiences are from these activities, and I feel like I would mask a lot of it if I just put it down as 1 hospital volunteer entry.
Thanks.
2.If I've volunteered at multiple locations within a hospital, ie. ER, ambulatory care, lobbies, should I list them all under 1 entry? Much of my clinical experiences are from these activities, and I feel like I would mask a lot of it if I just put it down as 1 hospital volunteer entry.
Thanks.
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1) You can either list the most recent date span in the header and mention the older dates of involvement in the narrative, giving the hours per week for each, and/or the total hours for both combined in the narrative. Or, you can list the full date span with hours per week in the header averaged out to include the year off. If this dilutes the total to less than 1 hour per week, I wouln't use this method. Or, if it's a summer activity, you could name the activity "Summer XXX" giving the 1+ year date span in the header, putting the hours per week in the header that applies to both, summarizing or listing actual dates of involvement for each in the narrative. Or a variant of the above.
2) Most would probably list them in one space, but if you have more to say than the space accomodates, either make it "Most Meaningful" or use more than one space. It's fine to split them out or to split out one component about which you have a lot to say.
Just enter the month of presentation. Time for prep can be included in the listed related-Research hours.
I tried to search the thread but didn't find anything too clear. My question is: When listing a summer research experience, what goes in the "Experience Name"? Would that be the title of the summer program (i.e. Summer Undergraduate Research Experience at Emory) or would that be the title of my project/poster?
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That would be the Experience Name. The poster title would be specific as to the exact project investigated by the research.
Alright. So would the "Organization Name" be the University I was working at (i.e. Emory) or the specific lab I was working at (i.e. The Smith Lab)
For my shadowing, I only have about 40 hours right now but I'm going to be doing a ton more in the next month.
However, I'm going to submit Tuesday so technically the rest is in the future. Should I mention something like "there's more to come, I will send update letters" in the description space? Or just totally leave it out?
However, I'm going to submit Tuesday so technically the rest is in the future. Should I mention something like "there's more to come, I will send update letters" in the description space? Or just totally leave it out?
I asked my pre-med advisor the same question and she said to leave it out, and just send a letter after you finish your shadowing.
also does anyone know if we have to include total hours? I just put hr/wk.
It could be either, or the specific Department the lab is associated with, eg Biochem, Ochem, Psychology, etc. If you already have Emory in the Activity Name, then pick one of the others.
If you feel compelled to mention a future plan at the end of the space, it should be a definite plan, like "I have arranged to shadow Dr XXX for 3 hours pr week over summer 2012." Not, "I will try to shadow more over the summer." And all schools don't accept update letters, so don't refer to them. And you'd better carry through if you say you'll do it, broken leg or not. Which is why it's better not to refer to future possibilities.
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It's not required. But for some activities, it's nice to include it in the description, in case an adcomm happens to be math-challenged, particularly shadowing or clinical experience entries, or any activity that wasn't done on a regular basis (in which case you don't need to fill in hours per week).
I play a club sport. Technically, since we play other universities, I can list it as intercollegiate athletics, right? I also wanted to list physical fitness as a hobby though. Would it be better to just list it all under an "Athletics" hobby category, or should I separate the club sport from my other time spent training/personal endeavors?
If I had two volunteer experience in two different hospitals, say
first hospital volunteer for 3 months and about 1+ year volunteer at another hospital with about 1 year gap between these two activities, how would I write about it?
I want to bother writing 3months experience as it helped me prepare/affirm my goal towards medicine
first hospital volunteer for 3 months and about 1+ year volunteer at another hospital with about 1 year gap between these two activities, how would I write about it?
I want to bother writing 3months experience as it helped me prepare/affirm my goal towards medicine
1) It's my understanding that the Intercollegiate Sports designation is not intended for club sports.
2) I think that listing them together with the title you've suggested is a good idea.
Since you are actively involved in the group, I see no reason not to list it. You might specify what some of the events are, as it gives a clue about your personal interests..
It's fine to combine the entries in that way, if you don't have the space to list the Poster/Presentation in its own spot.
Ideally, you'd list the two experiences in two different spaces. Three months is not too short for the experience to have been worthwhile.
If you don't have space to do that, I'd list the most recent or the most substantive experience in the header information, discuss it, and then give similar info for the second in the narrative space with its own dates and hours/week. I'd suggest giving a grand total for all the hours at the end of the space to combine them. Be sure the title applies to both activities.
I'd mention it at the end of the Research space. Hopefully, your activity description will tell why.
1. I serve as the representative of my class on one of my university's steering committees. What should I categorize this as? Leadership? Or Community Service?
2. If I was involved in activities that I didn't continue in the summer (since I was away from my university campus, for example), can I still list normal start-end dates and then specify in the description that I did not do the activities over the summer? Or what is normally done for this?
3. Originally I was going to list honors/awards in a separate slot. But the main scholarships I've gotten were only two $1,000 awards and a $3000 award, which I'm not sure is worth mentioning. The other awards I've gotten were all tied to activities (research, public service fellowship, artistic endeavors) so would it make more sense to just forego listing the three awards I mentioned before and list then in the other activity description slots?
4. Is it ever okay to list myself as a contact? I do have people I could technically list as contacts, but I'm a self-employed music teacher so I don't know if I should just list the contact info of the people I teach... it seems a little weird to.
5. I was a volunteer at a camp for children with a certain illness. I had to bring them to the camp clinic and make sure they got their physical therapy, medications, etc., fill out reports for them, and counselors got training for all of this. Would that count as non-clinical community service or clinical?
2. If I was involved in activities that I didn't continue in the summer (since I was away from my university campus, for example), can I still list normal start-end dates and then specify in the description that I did not do the activities over the summer? Or what is normally done for this?
3. Originally I was going to list honors/awards in a separate slot. But the main scholarships I've gotten were only two $1,000 awards and a $3000 award, which I'm not sure is worth mentioning. The other awards I've gotten were all tied to activities (research, public service fellowship, artistic endeavors) so would it make more sense to just forego listing the three awards I mentioned before and list then in the other activity description slots?
4. Is it ever okay to list myself as a contact? I do have people I could technically list as contacts, but I'm a self-employed music teacher so I don't know if I should just list the contact info of the people I teach... it seems a little weird to.
5. I was a volunteer at a camp for children with a certain illness. I had to bring them to the camp clinic and make sure they got their physical therapy, medications, etc., fill out reports for them, and counselors got training for all of this. Would that count as non-clinical community service or clinical?
1) Leadership. Of course, it will help if the description supports that choice.
2) Besides giving exact dates in the description, if you don't want to average the hours per week to include the summer, thus diluting them, you might name the activity, "Academic Year Steering Committee Member."
3) You could forego an entry for the Academic Awards/Scholarships completely, if none stand out, so the space could be used for the more-interesting activity awards, or you could include the activity award in the same space with the associated Experience.
4) It's acceptable to list oneself in this situation, or you could pick one of your music students if they are of the appropriate age.
5) If you gave the medication, assisted with the physician therapy, and otherwise made yourself useful in a therapeutic way while interacting with the child, it would be considered clinical. Presumably all of these things would be supervised by licensed medical staff, like nurses. Getting campers to an appointment and performing clerical duties would more likely be looked on as nonmedical.
Looking for a second opinion! I had an admissions consultant review my primary application, and one of the comments was that the multiple experiences under one heading/catch-all technique is hard to decipher. He thought that paragraph style is better then resume as well. Not sure if this is widely shared by admissions committees, but I don't have a lot of time to revamp!
Hi everyone,
I looked through the thread to find an answer but was unsucessful. I just wanted to know how I should write my experience description.
For example, i have volunteered at a dialysis program through a hospital and this was an internationally known program (their website mentions that). So I started by writing "The internationally known Dialysis Program at " " hospital provides ..... to patients suffering from acute renal failures" and then I listed my responsibilities. Finally, I listed what I have gained from this experience (ability to effectively communicate" At the end I was closed to the max word limit. I don't know if I should continually do this (will end up using all the space available) or should I just mention my responsibilities and what I have gained from the experience. I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks
I looked through the thread to find an answer but was unsucessful. I just wanted to know how I should write my experience description.
For example, i have volunteered at a dialysis program through a hospital and this was an internationally known program (their website mentions that). So I started by writing "The internationally known Dialysis Program at " " hospital provides ..... to patients suffering from acute renal failures" and then I listed my responsibilities. Finally, I listed what I have gained from this experience (ability to effectively communicate" At the end I was closed to the max word limit. I don't know if I should continually do this (will end up using all the space available) or should I just mention my responsibilities and what I have gained from the experience. I would greatly appreciate any help. Thanks
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This is a stylistic choice you'll have to make for yourself. Either narrative sytle of bullet style can be used depending on which you feel communicates the necessary information best. Perhaps you have an English teacher or friend also involved in applying that could look over the entry for you (I assume you mean the community service grouped activities). Or maybe someone reading this will volunteer to get PMed.
Stating that it's an "internationally known program" seems like unnecessary hype, and the purpose of a dialysis unit is well known and need not be stated. Just say you were a volunteer in a hospital dialysis unit, mention responsibities, and what you gained. Be succinct.
Thank you for your help, I really appreciate it. Just to confirm, I don't even have to mention that I was a volunteer since they can figure it out from the questions. But would it look wired if I go directly to my responsibilites and then what I gained from the experiene?
Sorry, one more question. So if I worked, for example in Genentech, should I give a description of the company and what it does because I assume not everyone knows what Genentech is? For example, that is is a leader in the biotech companies and has been providing services for more than 30 years? Thank you so much.
Sorry, one more question. So if I worked, for example in Genentech, should I give a description of the company and what it does because I assume not everyone knows what Genentech is? For example, that is is a leader in the biotech companies and has been providing services for more than 30 years? Thank you so much.
Okay so I shadowed a physician in a hospital through a "Health Professions Mentor Program" from my school and at the end I was awarded a certificate of completion. Anyways, my question is: in the Organization Name, should I include the name of the hospital the doctor worked for or the name of the program? Thanks
Before giving out the contact's information, should we first ask for permission or just give the information (information that can be easily found online) but I don't think it is necessary to give out the phycisian's cell number (the only contact number other than the email addess I have) so can I just leave it blank? 😕
Before giving out the contact's information, should we first ask for permission or just give the information (information that can be easily found online) but I don't think it is necessary to give out the phycisian's cell number (the only contact number other than the email addess I have) so can I just leave it blank? 😕
Hey everyone!
I'm sure this has been answered before, but there are too many pages to look through!!! I am filling out my app, and was wondering if for the work/activities section, we should include what we learned about the experience or why is meaningful (or something along those lines) in the 700 character space? Or should it just be a description of what you did in that particular activity? Thanks in advance!
I'm sure this has been answered before, but there are too many pages to look through!!! I am filling out my app, and was wondering if for the work/activities section, we should include what we learned about the experience or why is meaningful (or something along those lines) in the 700 character space? Or should it just be a description of what you did in that particular activity? Thanks in advance!
Hey guys, quick question. I volunteered with this organization by babysitting young autistic children. I can't decide if I want to call that medical/clinical volunteering or not, because they are TECHNICALLY patients, and it was medical in the sense that I had to understand the specific difficulties they face with their illness. Thoughts?
Will people notice if we write out submissions like this:
"this experience was cool.I did a lot of stuff.blah blah blah.talk talk talk." as opposed to this? "this experience was cool. I did a lot of stuff. blah blah blah. talk talk talk."
In the first one I didn't put a space after each period, where as in the second one I did. Obviously not using spaces inbetween sentences will save characters but I'm wondering if this could cause trouble for us? What about using this in our personal statements?
"this experience was cool.I did a lot of stuff.blah blah blah.talk talk talk." as opposed to this? "this experience was cool. I did a lot of stuff. blah blah blah. talk talk talk."
In the first one I didn't put a space after each period, where as in the second one I did. Obviously not using spaces inbetween sentences will save characters but I'm wondering if this could cause trouble for us? What about using this in our personal statements?
I would advise against it, I think it'd look bad to not use spaces after the periods.
I actually wanted to ask how do I assemble my research experience as I had worked in the same lab from both my undergrad and graduate studies. Can I just mark it as one activity and explain it under the experience or should I have two activities for it? I am kinda confused on how to arrange it. I have also done senior honors thesis in undergrad and masters thesis in grad school. Should I have different categories for them under work/experience section? I also had one silly question. When they ask to describe experience..what are they referring to? As in what I did in the lab or how has that experience shaped me? or What was my project on? Any feedback would be highly appreciated
I have another question: I am working on a clinical research project and in the process of publishing a paper and an abstract. I was selected to be the coordinator of the group (a MD, and two other members(already graduated from university)) and to lead the project by making sure things were done on time, organized our meetings, presenting preliminary results to other members of the lab (these were people not in our group but working in the lab, such as other MD/PhD and students working with them). So my question is, since I will listing this as clinical research, should I also include this as "leadership" becuase I was the "leader" of the group and also because I really have not taken leadership positions that I can list. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Thanks, Catalystik. Would you not recommend doing the catch-all for more than the community service activities? The way I perceived the strategy and used it was to make nearly all of my activities fit into a category, so as to have a section for all awards, all non-clinical, all clinical, all teaching, etc. The only ones that got their own space entirely were publications, and my research had its own heading since I was only with one lab for two years.
Also, what are your thoughts on being 'flowery' in your most memorable section? I took the space to tell a story from the experience, and then explain how this significantly impacted my viewpoint of medicine. I worry, though, that it will come off as less professional/mature
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1a) If the activity is designated as Community Service/Volunteer-Medical/Clinical then you don't have to mention the word "volunteer" again. 1b) You can begin the description with the duties, then go to the impact.
2) That it is a "leader" is an opinion. Just state the facts, like, "A biotechnology company specializing in . . ." Personally, I don't care that it's 30-years old, but add that if you like. If you are short on space, strip it out.
1) I would use the Organization as the office or department that organized the experience, and the program coordinator as the contact, as this person for sure has a record of your involvement.
2) If you use the contact I've suggested then you don't need permission first. You are obliged to give phone or email information by the AMCAS program.
IF you have the space and IF the activity is suitable for it, then add why you did it, what you learned, or how it's meaningful to you.
Every child is a patient of someone. Just because they were children who happened to have a certain condition doesn't make this a clinical experience. If you were trained in behavior managment techniques and part of your role was to apply therapeutic interventions, then a case could be made that it was clinical in nature.
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1) It's your choice, as there's no One Right Way to do this. You could easily make it a single Experience, if you have the space, which is likely if you make it "Most Meaningful". If you worked on multiple projects, which applicants tend to describe in oder within the narrative, maybe you'll need two spaces.
2) Again, you can combine them or separate them. Your choice depending on space needs. Usually these are entered in the Other category.
3) It's common to see the space started with a brief description of the project, and then what were your duties in the lab/techniques you used. How it might have shaped you is elective, depending on space and degree of impact. And maybe on whether you're focusing on research-oriented schools.
If possible, I think you should make a Leadership entry, trying to carve out the leadership role on its own, with its own hours and dates, to help it stand out, and so you have room for a proper description/impact/reflection and try to leave the research portion on its own under Research (not double counting any hours). If you feel it's impossible to do this due to a lack of space, then you could either list it under Leadership (my last choice), or you could add the term, "and Cliinical Research Coordinator" to the name of the activity to make the leadership role clear (and stating the date of onset in the description).
1) You hadn't specified whether your reviewer was making a comment referring to the entire Work/Activities section, or just one space that was particularly over-busy. If you have a lot of activities, sometimes you have little choice in how you present them (by grouping), unless you're willing to prune out some less significant activities. I recommend that you do what you have to do to get activities listed that make you out as an appealing candidate. If you can cut the clutter without detracting from your appeal, then do so. Usually, shadowing and awards are grouped, so I can't imagine that the criticism was leveled against those spaces. Beyond those, most candidates aren't cursed with excessive activities the way that you are. 🙂
2) Some adcomms like illustrative vignettes and lots of reflection. I think the "Most Meaningful" activity is the best place to do this. I prefer "succinct" to "flowery," however, which to me means extra unnecessary verbiage.
thanks so much for answering all these questions.
If my name is listed on an abstract that was presented at a conference that I wasn't there for, should I bother listing it? I don't want to get to the interview and be asked, "So! how was that conference?" and have to say "... that wasn't me..."
Related to that same abstract, I have a non first-author publication that has been accepted pending minor revision (so there isnt a specific accept date I could list just yet). Should that go in a separate slot or should I put that in the activity description for the corresponding research experience? (If it matters, I also presented a poster on that research as well, but it wasn't anything major.)
If my name is listed on an abstract that was presented at a conference that I wasn't there for, should I bother listing it? I don't want to get to the interview and be asked, "So! how was that conference?" and have to say "... that wasn't me..."
Related to that same abstract, I have a non first-author publication that has been accepted pending minor revision (so there isnt a specific accept date I could list just yet). Should that go in a separate slot or should I put that in the activity description for the corresponding research experience? (If it matters, I also presented a poster on that research as well, but it wasn't anything major.)
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