My 2 cents:
The only non-clinical volunteering I have was done as a requirement for when I was on a sports team for my school. Should I list it as its own entry or just mention it in passing under the main entry for my sport?
Thanks! 🙂
Either. If it was just one time or not a ton of hours I would probably include in the main entry for the sport. On the other hand, if you want to "showcase" it then separate it(ie want it classified as non-clinical volunteering). I would probably mention that it was in association with the team.
When I am listing one of my clubs should I include that I was elected President for the upcoming year or just mention it in interviews ?
From what I remember, I didn't include any projections of what I would be doing in the year after my application, but I don't see anything wrong with it. A lot of secondaries will have spaces asking you to explain what you have done since your application(though some of these sections were specifically for people who were taking gap years).
Should we not put 'present' down as the 'to' date if we are continuing an activity after we submit? Yale explicitly says not to and to enter an actual date, but if other schools don't care, it seems easier than projecting into the future.
There is a "Until Present" option on AMCAS. I would use it unless you want to make it look like you ended all your events when you applied, I don't think you can put future dates on AMCAS.
😛 Also Yale's secondary will require you to list activities including actual end dates(if I am not mistaken), so whatever you read that explicitly says to enter an actual date is probably from their secondary and not AMCAS application?
1) One of my hobbies turned into a major volunteering (400 hours) EC. Basically, most of the time, the hobby is a relaxed intellectual contest, people getting together and hanging out, solving puzzles. That is, until your team wins.
At that point, your team gets to plan and execute the next event. This means creating a 2-4 day event for 1K+ people from all over the world. 300 hours is my conservative estimate. The weekend of, I worked 40 hours, almost 100 hours in the two weeks before, and then the other 250 hours spread over a period of six months. Do I divide this into "hobby" and "volunteer"? I want to acknowledge that I had to teach myself video editing in the space of a week. -_-
2) My fish keeping is a hobby, but now I'm breeding an endangered species. Seriously. Does it get its own listing? (Do I get to attach pictures? 😀 )
3) Do I list all my individual teaching jobs or just say that I've been teaching since (year X) in the following disciplines? That includes a stint as a teacher for underprivileged youth in which I set a table on fire.
4) How do I list the number of hours of research for my PhD? I was in grad school for 👎 years, but (n-2) of those were doing research rotations or mostly writing my thesis.
1) I would probably just include it under a hobby in one section. You can talk about the video editing in that context. Doesn't really sound like volunteering but maybe I am misreading it.
2) It doesn't need its own listing, you can group hobbies together. Pictures(which you would have to link, you can't include pictures in the application) are probably unnecessary.
3) You can do either depending on how much space you have and how much of each activity you want to highlight.
4) If you got any publications I would include the publications as a second activity(there is a category for that). Otherwise you can group the years of research together or break them apart. Honestly however you want to present the time is probably ok. Including every rotation may be relatively unimportant, on the other hand you may want to mention them in a description of your larger project or have a separate activity for them.
Sdn fam,
I have a question about the entry for he "most meaningful" activities.
When an experience is selected as most meaningful, are we then able to enter a 2025 character description?
Or is the description 700 characters, and then we have a seperate 1325 character entry to explain why it's most meaningful.?
You have the 700 character description and then when you select most meaningful you get an extra box for the 1325 characters to explain why it's most meaningful.
I have a quick question about the 3 most significant experiences. Is this meant to highlight a specific event or memorable part of the experience?
I think its meant to highlight why you thought that experience was meaningful or important. If that was because of a specific event, then write about that.
