*~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2012-2013*~*~*~*

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I want to put down marathon running in the "extracurricular" category, but I'm a little unsure if this is something noteworthy enough that I should take up a whole spot for it. any thoughts? a lot of people run marathons...

and if I were to put it in there, what do I do about the Contact/information stuff? I'm not in a club and I train alone

Could you use this space for something else that you believe is more noteworthy? If not, I would go ahead and list it. It's pretty impressive, and can make you stand out more or describe you more as a person.

In that case, your contact person is just yourself. It's acceptable to list yourself as the contact person for certain hobbies and activities.

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Also what do you guys think about putting Deans List as an activity under the "awards/blahblah" category? if I dont include it, I dont have any awards or anything, but I feel like every person applying has probably been on the dean's list at some point. and since the criteria differs for every school its hard to know how much of an accomplishment it really is right?
I'm asking all these questions about what to include because I applied last cycle with a full 15 activities, and for this upcoming one I have 4 new things that are very relevant that I need to add, so I'm debating about what to cut/condense etc.
 
If that's the only thing that would be under the awards section, you can probably cut that section out to make space for something more substantial.
 
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When describing employment, should I include the circumstances under which I was employed? For example, should I say that the job was a work-study job and that I held the job while having a full-time course schedule, or should I expect the adcoms to infer that on their own? I have some extra space so I was wondering if this would help.
 
I have a question about listing high school activities in the work/activities section.

I know that in general it's good to avoid high school experiences, but the research I did in high school seems directly relevant to my application. I spent a summer working in a chemistry lab and the research I contributed to yielded a published paper in which I was listed as a coauthor.

I continued to gain biomedical lab/research experience during undergrad but none of it yielded publications. Should I list the high school experience?
Thanks in advance!
 
hi, does anyone know how the whole application is presented to ADCOM? Do they read the Activities section first before reading the Personal Statement? If this is the case, then can I just use acronyms of organizations instead of the whole name in my PS?
Don't assume an "order" of presentation. Make each part complete in itself.
 
I have a question about the two sections: conferences attended and presentations/posters

What if I attended 4 conferences but I've only presented 2 posters so far (each of my posters was presented at two conferences)?
Should I list that I attended 4 conferences in the conferences category, and then in the poster category mention that I've presented two posters?

Thanks!
If you present a poster, it is assumed you attended the conference to do so (unless you state that the presented was someone else on the author list), so there is no reason to use more space to state the obvious.

And if the same poster was presented in two locations, list the most prestigious in the header and mention the second presentation later in the same space with the details of date, location, and sponsoring organization.

If you attended a conference without any purpose but to attend talks, it really doesn't add to your application. If you need to save space, you need not mention it.
 
1) I want to put down marathon running in the "extracurricular" category, but I'm a little unsure if this is something noteworthy enough that I should take up a whole spot for it. any thoughts? a lot of people run marathons...

2) and if I were to put it in there, what do I do about the Contact/information stuff? I'm not in a club and I train alone
1) If you don't have much to say about it, then list it with other hobbies, sports, and avocations. If you've trained for and run multiple marathons, it could well be space-worthy on its own.

2) You might list the organization sponsoring the marathon, or a friend who also ran, or yourself.
 
Also what do you guys think about putting Deans List as an activity under the "awards/blahblah" category? if I dont include it, I dont have any awards or anything, but I feel like every person applying has probably been on the dean's list at some point. and since the criteria differs for every school its hard to know how much of an accomplishment it really is right?
I'm asking all these questions about what to include because I applied last cycle with a full 15 activities, and for this upcoming one I have 4 new things that are very relevant that I need to add, so I'm debating about what to cut/condense etc.

If that's the only thing that would be under the awards section, you can probably cut that section out to make space for something more substantial.
I agree with TheKDizzle. Your grades are evident from the transcript. There's no point in wasting space mentioning Dean's List.
 
When describing employment, should I include the circumstances under which I was employed? For example, should I say that the job was a work-study job and that I held the job while having a full-time course schedule, or should I expect the adcoms to infer that on their own? I have some extra space so I was wondering if this would help.
I think it's fine to be specific and include this information. See sector9's example in post #2 under item 4.
 
I have a question about listing high school activities in the work/activities section.

I know that in general it's good to avoid high school experiences, but the research I did in high school seems directly relevant to my application. I spent a summer working in a chemistry lab and the research I contributed to yielded a published paper in which I was listed as a coauthor.

I continued to gain biomedical lab/research experience during undergrad but none of it yielded publications. Should I list the high school experience?
Thanks in advance!
Yes, you may list it. Some adcomms, particularly those at research-oriented schools, like to see that your momentum began early on, and then continued into the college years.
 
Thank you! In that case, should I just list the publication under the description?
 
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I've been working since high school, and when college started, I made a deal to pay for $1000 of my tuition each semester. This started with my first non-healthcare job. Should I put it in there? 2000 is 5% of my tuition at this point, back then my tuition was like 14000/sem.
 
When describing shadowing experience, should I write down the specific names and locations of the doctors I shadowed?
 
If I was the founder of a soccer club in my city and playing soccer been a stress reliever in my life....do you think I should include it as one of my meaningfull activities, i just feel that i should have three meaningfull activities from three different areas (i,e, one from community service(medical/clinical), 2nd from research experience and 3rd my hobby)

Catalystik?
 
I've been working since high school, and when college started, I made a deal to pay for $1000 of my tuition each semester. This started with my first non-healthcare job. Should I put it in there? 2000 is 5% of my tuition at this point, back then my tuition was like 14000/sem.
The question isn't clear. If you had a job, enter the job under employment. If you got a scholarship or grant on a competitive basis, you can enter it under Awards. The total bill for your current tution would not be mentioned. Other means of paying for your education goes elsewhere on the application, not in the Experiences section.
 
If I was the founder of a soccer club in my city and playing soccer been a stress reliever in my life....do you think I should include it as one of my meaningfull activities, i just feel that i should have three meaningfull activities from three different areas (i,e, one from community service(medical/clinical), 2nd from research experience and 3rd my hobby)
You are only obliged to list one "Most Meaningful" activity.

You can pick "Most Meaningful" experiences strategically by trying to read adcomm minds about what they want to see (and probably being wrong half the time), or practically because you need more space to say what needs to be said, or you can make the selections "From the Heart." The latter is more likely to ring true when you discuss what you got out of it and its transformative nature. It's for you to decide.
 
Here comes a stupid question!

I am very, very good at poker. I used to play online and such before the major sites got shut down (this is where everything starts to get fishy) for having corrupt dealings. Anyways I keep reading about how people are putting unicycle riding, horseback riding, flute playing, typing skills (my friend put on her app that she can type 95 words per minute), and all sorts of crazy quirks on their apps and was wondering if I should include my card playing skills. Back in the day I financed a good bit of my education off of this, but obviously I am hesitant to include it because of the stigma against poker and the fact that it is 100% gambling.

So, simple answer from someone, don't include it correct?
 
You should cite the publication with correct formatting in the description.
I wouldn't say that correct formatting is essential. A lot of us shortened and abbreviated the formatting well beyond what any of the style guides would have you do. As long as someone can find the publication, then you should be good. It is helpful to include enough of the authors list to see where your name falls in the order

In your publications entry, you should include basic info about the project and your role in the publication.
 
Here comes a stupid question!

I am very, very good at poker. I used to play online and such before the major sites got shut down (this is where everything starts to get fishy) for having corrupt dealings. Anyways I keep reading about how people are putting unicycle riding, horseback riding, flute playing, typing skills (my friend put on her app that she can type 95 words per minute), and all sorts of crazy quirks on their apps and was wondering if I should include my card playing skills. Back in the day I financed a good bit of my education off of this, but obviously I am hesitant to include it because of the stigma against poker and the fact that it is 100% gambling.

So, simple answer from someone, don't include it correct?
Including it is more likely to hurt than help you, considering that adcomms tend to be as conservative about risk-taking behaviors as one's grandparents might be. You could consider downgrading the involvement to "playing cards with friends" (if also true), but even that could backfire in some parts of the US.
 
Including it is more likely to hurt than help you, considering that adcomms tend to be as conservative about risk-taking behaviors as one's grandparents might be. You could consider downgrading the involvement to "playing cards with friends" (if also true), but even that could backfire in some parts of the US.

What if my grandparents were the people who got me into playing cards? Haha. :D

Anyways, thanks for the advice and I figured it wouldn't be a good thing to add as it is essentially gambling.
 
my friend put on her app that she can type 95 words per minute

Is...is this a thing?

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My "mistake" was a comma.
 
Thanks for all the great tips so far!

1) I have spent the last 6years working full time in research in 3 labs and have 11 publications. I was originally going to lump all the research under one heading and all the publications under another but should I split them into separate ones? I have a few open headings after I consolidated some of my activities into things like "Hobbies and Leasure activities" and "Volunteering during undergraduate coursework".

2) Since two previous labs I worked in I was only there for 1.5-2years each should I give a brief explanation why I moved to a different lab? (PI moved to a different institution, SO was transferred).

3) Even cutting down the publication citations to the bare minimum (1st author, et. al, title, abbreviated journal name, PMID) I'm still over 1700 characters. Should I drop some of my older (and less prestigious) publications where my involvement was limited? Or should I cut down some of the citations even more, to just the 1st author, year, PMID (I'd be able to keep a full citation for my most recent paper, which is also the one I'm 2nd author on)? Or just use 2-3 headings for them?
 
Question regarding most meaningful experiences: should I save 'stories' that I have to back up claims/ demonstrate a lesson learned for the secondaries? Or should I play all of my cards with the primary first? I'm afraid I won't have much new material for the secondary if I give it all in the most meaningful experiences.
 
I don't understand.

The first post implies we list everything as a resume.

Other people are telling me to make it descriptive as to what I learned and how it'll make me a great potential doctor.

Which is it?
 
I don't understand.

The first post implies we list everything as a resume.

Other people are telling me to make it descriptive as to what I learned and how it'll make me a great potential doctor.

Which is it?
Post #2:
4. They are giving me a lot of space to describe each activity....how the heck should I enter them in? Is less more? Should I use up all available space?
Unfortunately...you will never get a clear cut answer to this one. But we can give you some possible techniques and advice

A - One school of thought is that this is not the time to pontificate. Describe the activity if it needs describing (if you think it is something an AdCom member will not know about) and otherwise, be pithy with your description. Many think that talking about what you learned from the activity is not appropriate in this section, and is better saved as material for secondary applications.

B - Another school of thought is that this is exactly the place to address why you got involved and/or what you learned from an activity because you may not get another chance in a secondary application. Those from California especially feel this pressure since most of the secondaries at California Med Schools are screened (you do not automatically get a secondary; they review your primary application first and decide if you are worthy). Because of this it is tempting to spew as much as possible here.

C - Approach C is a combination of the two approaches. Spew when necessary (an unusual activity that may need a little bit more explanation to understand its depth, and you learned a lot from but you are NOT addressing in your PS) and limited description of commonplace application items (ER scribe, general hospital volunteer, MCAT teacher/tutor).

You can really go down two general paths when it comes to entering the activities in: paragraph form or bullet points. Go with what comes most naturally to you, and don't force yourself to conform to a style that you think is inappropriate for the information you are trying to convey and your writing style.

 
Question regarding most meaningful experiences: should I save 'stories' that I have to back up claims/ demonstrate a lesson learned for the secondaries? Or should I play all of my cards with the primary first? I'm afraid I won't have much new material for the secondary if I give it all in the most meaningful experiences.
Put them in the Primary, as you can't rely on every school to give you the essay prompts you need. Think of new stories later.
 
I did C, and you helped me with it before, but some reviewers of my PS agreed to help me with the W&A and are ****ting on what I've written.

Well, I'm at a loss, so I'll just do whatever I feel like. My application is **** either ways..
.
 
41 wpm with 5 mistakes lol writing is my second language lol
 
1) I have spent the last 6years working full time in research in 3 labs and have 11 publications. I was originally going to lump all the research under one heading and all the publications under another but should I split them into separate ones? I have a few open headings after I consolidated some of my activities into things like "Hobbies and Leasure activities" and "Volunteering during undergraduate coursework".

2) Since two previous labs I worked in I was only there for 1.5-2years each should I give a brief explanation why I moved to a different lab? (PI moved to a different institution, SO was transferred).

3) Even cutting down the publication citations to the bare minimum (1st author, et. al, title, abbreviated journal name, PMID) I'm still over 1700 characters. Should I drop some of my older (and less prestigious) publications where my involvement was limited? Or should I cut down some of the citations even more, to just the 1st author, year, PMID (I'd be able to keep a full citation for my most recent paper, which is also the one I'm 2nd author on)? Or just use 2-3 headings for them?
1) Ideally, each pub would have its own space, but obviously, that won't work for you. List them in reverse chronological order. If you run out of space, maybe use a 2nd space for more of them, or prune (for limited involvement), or generically say: 4 more earlier publications can be Searched through PubMed if interested.

2) No. Neither of them was for an embarrassingly short period of time.

3) You can only shorten a citation so much before it's meaningless. Instead, use strategies listed in 1).
 
I can only type 70 so you're killing me. Anything above 90 is...ridiculous and also a good skill to have in the modern world.

I don't see how this is a real skill set other than if you helped to transcribe some poetry or whatever...how will this help, you can type patient cases super fast? lol.

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I guess I'll put it on my application, whatever...lol.
 
Are publications and rewards considered ECs?
If you have several publications, should not you put under the research experience you have?
Also if you have multiple rewards, should you list them as one EC?
 
You are only obliged to list one "Most Meaningful" activity.

You can pick "Most Meaningful" experiences strategically by trying to read adcomm minds about what they want to see (and probably being wrong half the time), or practically because you need more space to say what needs to be said, or you can make the selections "From the Heart." The latter is more likely to ring true when you discuss what you got out of it and its transformative nature. It's for you to decide.
Thanks Catalystik for your reply :thumbup:
 
1) Are publications and rewards considered ECs?
2) If you have several publications, should not you put under the research experience you have?
3) Also if you have multiple rewards, should you list them as one EC?
1) Yes.

2) If a research publication was in a campus journal, mention it in the associated Research listing. If it appeared in a regional or national journal, ideally you'd place it in its own Publication space, in addition to discussing the associated Research in another. If you have too many to give each its own space, then group them.

3) Usually, Awards and Honors are all listed in one space. If you've won Olympic Gold, or the equivalent, it gets its own space.
 
What if you attended a national research conference, presented a poster there, and was awarded a travel award by a private co. to go there? Would you list the poster/conference as one as the travel award as another academic recognition?
 
What if you attended a national research conference, presented a poster there, and was awarded a travel award by a private co. to go there? Would you list the poster/conference as one as the travel award as another academic recognition?
It depends.

You could do what you suggested, or alternatively, mention the travel stipend in the same space as Posters/Presentations to make it easier to appreciate the link.

Important to know before you decide: why you received a travel stipend. Was it a competitive process? Did you send in an application for consideration? Did it come as a result of winning a prize in a campus competition, so the university sent you to the next level with private backing funds. Or did the PI call up a buddy in industry and ask him to do a favor (which I'm not sure is worth mentioning). Or worse, did the private company also give the funds for the research, which supports their product, and this was a write-off form of advertising for them?

These are just examples that don't necessarily fit your exact situation, but are provided for illustration purposes as to why the answer isn't always cut and dried.
 
It depends.

You could do what you suggested, or alternatively, mention the travel stipend in the same space as Posters/Presentations to make it easier to appreciate the link.

Important to know before you decide: why you received a travel stipend. Was it a competitive process? Did you send in an application for consideration? Did it come as a result of winning a prize in a campus competition, so the university sent you to the next level with private backing funds. Or did the PI call up a buddy in industry and ask him to do a favor (which I'm not sure is worth mentioning). Or worse, did the private company also give the funds for the research, which supports their product, and this was a write-off form of advertising for them?

These are just examples that don't necessarily fit your exact situation, but are provided for illustration purposes as to why the answer isn't always cut and dried.

Thanks! It was competitive, but I hadn't even though to mention things like that!
 
I am co-director for an organization that feeds and clothes the needy in my community. It is my most significant leadership activity as well as my most significant non-medical community service activity. So, which category would be best to list it under, or should I list it twice in both categories?
 
I am co-director for an organization that feeds and clothes the needy in my community. It is my most significant leadership activity as well as my most significant non-medical community service activity. So, which category would be best to list it under, or should I list it twice in both categories?
You would only list it once unless you split out the two component activities and divide the related hours so they aren't counted twice.

If you leave them together, name the experience something that makes both components evident. You can choose the designation based on what would balance your application best, using the date span for the named activity only (making the date range of the other part evident in the narrative). If you have other community service, you might decide to go with Leadership. If you have plenty of leadership, you might go the other way. If one component has a wider date range, you might want to pick that since it would encompass the other activity. If you have none of either, personally, I'd choose Community Service.
 
I want to list Emergency Department Volunteer as a most meaningful activity. I think I can do a good job describing why it is significant to me, but is it too common an activity to be considered meaningful? I'm guessing two-thirds of all premeds have volunteered in the ED. However, I'm pretty limited on my clinical experiences, so would it be a bad thing to list it as most meaningful?
 
I want to list Emergency Department Volunteer as a most meaningful activity. I think I can do a good job describing why it is significant to me, but is it too common an activity to be considered meaningful? I'm guessing two-thirds of all premeds have volunteered in the ED. However, I'm pretty limited on my clinical experiences, so would it be a bad thing to list it as most meaningful?
It's perfectly reasonable to list it as "most meaningful" even if it is a common activity. The title "most meaningful" is not meant to mean "most unique" IMO. If it was significant to you, I'd list is as meaningful.

Also, it is rare for premeds to have a unique clinical experience. Your ability to describe the activity's impact is more important than its novelty to the adcomm
 
It's perfectly reasonable to list it as "most meaningful" even if it is a common activity. The title "most meaningful" is not meant to mean "most unique" IMO. If it was significant to you, I'd list is as meaningful.

Also, it is rare for premeds to have a unique clinical experience. Your ability to describe the activity's impact is more important than its novelty to the adcomm

Thanks. I was thinking about this, and these are the activities I am considering to include under most meaningful:

1) Emergency Department Volunteer
2) Hospice Volunteer (weekly visits to a patient)
3) Playing the piano for nursing homes with hospice patients (I also visit with them briefly after performing but mostly it's music)
4) Tutoring disadvantaged students in an after-school program
5) Senior Research project (evolutionary bio project)

I am definitely choosing three of the above, but I'm not sure which ones I should choose. I was thinking I will probably end up choosing the tutoring and the senior research project since those two will cover my non-clinical community service and research experience, but which one should I choose for the clinical experience? If I choose the music volunteer I feel like I can also fit in a hobby in there (since playing the piano is a huge hobby of mine), but it's not as clinical as the weekly visits or the ED.
 
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