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Bump. Any advice?
*~*~*~*Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2013-2014*~*~*~*
Started by sector9
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Definitely mention it in the description. If this also happens to be one of your significant activities, do not repeat whats already said in the box above. But expand on how working with research subjects prepared you for patient work.
Can't say if Adcoms will like it, but they certainly won't dislike it! One can argue that your subjects were undergoing an unusual procedure, very much like a patient, so how you handled difficult subjects is valuable experience.
Good Afternoon SDNers!
I have 2 shadowing experiences, one with a cardiologist for the summers all of high school and then into the first two years of college, the second I have done with a world renowned Neurosurgeon and Chair of Neurological surgery - I am wondering is it necessary to put them together? I would really like to speak about the experience with the neurosurgeon by itself (even though its only been 4 months I find this experience to be incredible meaningful).
Any advice?
I have 2 shadowing experiences, one with a cardiologist for the summers all of high school and then into the first two years of college, the second I have done with a world renowned Neurosurgeon and Chair of Neurological surgery - I am wondering is it necessary to put them together? I would really like to speak about the experience with the neurosurgeon by itself (even though its only been 4 months I find this experience to be incredible meaningful).
Any advice?
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I also forgot to ask - I have been doing research for ~4-5 years since a freshman and now I am currently an employee continuing my research. Basically can I split the research into the first two years of volunteering that I had done, the next few years as leadership/research because I was assigned my own students to teach my autonomous project to and finally I also wrote a senior honors thesis - what would category do I ascribe that to?
Should I be using the full character limit for experience summaries that go with the most meaningful activities? I did for one, but I'm worried that I might just be filling space if I do it for all three.
If we were to list a unique experience (ex. participated in a game show-which you were required to try out for), how would this be done in the best possible way? How does ADCOM view this? It certainly sets me apart from others in that sense. Thanks!
Quick question: I have a volunteer position where I had training for the month but it wasn't until 2 months later that I was assigned to a patient to volunteer for. When I include the start date should I include the training month? For example, my training month was September but I began to volunteer there in December. Should i just say the start date is September but make a note in the description that that was my training date and that I was assigned to patients in December? Thanks
Yeah, group them all. If you run out of room then think about omitting some of them, like the dean's list and less important honor societies.
What should be put down for Award Date if we group several awards together?? And contact person??
Were you on Jeaporady! ?
That's awesome! I'd trade an HMS acceptance for a chance to pick Alex' brain about 17th century authors whose names begin with "t".
Hello,
Which experience type should I put the following under:
I'm currently at a medium-sized public university and have been doing research with a biology professor of mine for many years. Aside from research, she teaches mid-level courses and some 400-level advanced courses, too. She will teach a new advanced biology course next year that also has a lab component. The lab component is 90% drawn from my own research project with her. As such, she has asked me to design a semester's lab curriculum (planning class experiments and selecting which techniques/procedures students will learn) as well as write a lab manual for the class. It's a highly specialized class and lab manuals for such a class are few, which we can't use anyways since we have to work around our own equipment and resources at the school.
So after designing a week-by-week lab schedule and checking with her, I've begun writing the manual. Sometime mid-summer, we will send it to an independent printing company -- it's like a mom and pop Kinko's business that our school does work with (we don't have a university press). In fact a lot of our department's supplemental material and lab manuals are printed and sold here. Anyways, it will be around 100 page, and she will be listed as the course instructor and "consulting" author and I will be the primary author.
I'm thinking about listing it under either teaching or leadership. Will this depend on what I'm lacking, experience wise? I'm planning on entering a few leadership experiences (i.e. being a lab manager and training new lab students and leading small EC student group for one year), but have no real TA experience...
Thoughts?
On a side note, I would like to know if this experience will still be looked positively, despite it not being published at say a McGraw-Hill or other big publisher.
Thanks!
Which experience type should I put the following under:
I'm currently at a medium-sized public university and have been doing research with a biology professor of mine for many years. Aside from research, she teaches mid-level courses and some 400-level advanced courses, too. She will teach a new advanced biology course next year that also has a lab component. The lab component is 90% drawn from my own research project with her. As such, she has asked me to design a semester's lab curriculum (planning class experiments and selecting which techniques/procedures students will learn) as well as write a lab manual for the class. It's a highly specialized class and lab manuals for such a class are few, which we can't use anyways since we have to work around our own equipment and resources at the school.
So after designing a week-by-week lab schedule and checking with her, I've begun writing the manual. Sometime mid-summer, we will send it to an independent printing company -- it's like a mom and pop Kinko's business that our school does work with (we don't have a university press). In fact a lot of our department's supplemental material and lab manuals are printed and sold here. Anyways, it will be around 100 page, and she will be listed as the course instructor and "consulting" author and I will be the primary author.
I'm thinking about listing it under either teaching or leadership. Will this depend on what I'm lacking, experience wise? I'm planning on entering a few leadership experiences (i.e. being a lab manager and training new lab students and leading small EC student group for one year), but have no real TA experience...
Thoughts?
On a side note, I would like to know if this experience will still be looked positively, despite it not being published at say a McGraw-Hill or other big publisher.
Thanks!
Teaching. Not a publication. Viewed positively.
I had a job my senior year of high school which continued in the summer after graduation until right before I left for college.
It wasn't a clinical experience exactly, but it was a food service job at a nursing home and it involved a lot of patient contact (delivering trays up to patients, conversing with them and their families, etc.). Still okay to list or no?
It wasn't a clinical experience exactly, but it was a food service job at a nursing home and it involved a lot of patient contact (delivering trays up to patients, conversing with them and their families, etc.). Still okay to list or no?
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What should I put for the date range if I group them all? And is there a need to explain each of them? Or is simply listing them okay?
See the FAQ for examples of grouping
I've attended a couple conferences. Didn't present or anything. Should I list them on their own or roll them into my shadowing experience? If I make it its own that'll be 15 activities.
Hi everyone, I have a few questions:
1. If I just started training for a new teaching position, but may not actually start working for a couple weeks, should I still list the activity (May start date)?
2. Should I include one-time shadowing experiences (~3 hours each)? Or stick to the long-term ones?
1. If I just started training for a new teaching position, but may not actually start working for a couple weeks, should I still list the activity (May start date)?
2. Should I include one-time shadowing experiences (~3 hours each)? Or stick to the long-term ones?
Is anyone combining all their job shadowing into one experience-assuming that there was not one job shadow that stood out and had an overwhelmingly positive impact?
I put all of my shadowing as one event. I had one that was the most important, but I talked about it in my PS and I didn't want to have my whole activity section filled with shadowing.
If it was meaningful and you can write a description of it that adds to your application, go for it. It would be especially important if that's your only shadowing.
That is my same intention as well. Haven't decided whether to mark it as one of my most meaningful experiences yet. But I do believe that the personal statement is definetly the right place for it.
Hello -- I have one question about senior honor thesis.
I'm including this in research section (although it's kind of taking classes since I get credits) and I'm wondering what I should put down for number of hours? I got 3 credits (1 in Fall semester 2 in Spring semester, so 4 and 8 class credit hours) but obviously, I worked A LOT longer hours. Do I just estimate how much time I put in? What did you guys do?
I'm including this in research section (although it's kind of taking classes since I get credits) and I'm wondering what I should put down for number of hours? I got 3 credits (1 in Fall semester 2 in Spring semester, so 4 and 8 class credit hours) but obviously, I worked A LOT longer hours. Do I just estimate how much time I put in? What did you guys do?
For hours for poster, what should be put? The length that I was presenting my poster (which is 2 hours)? How about for awards - 0 hours?
Also, the two poster presentations were both at my university. Would it be worth it put it as a separate thing? Should I split it up to two, since it happened in two different years? I have the extra slots to put it in and I wouldn't know how to really combine two if you can only put one date ....
Finally, could somebody be able to look over the format I'm using?
700 characters is nothing, so I hope I'm going in the right track. I sorta feel as if I have too much "CV-type" material explaining the logistics of what I did. Should I be more personal and talk about what I got out of it?
Sorry for all the questions. THANK YOU!
Also, the two poster presentations were both at my university. Would it be worth it put it as a separate thing? Should I split it up to two, since it happened in two different years? I have the extra slots to put it in and I wouldn't know how to really combine two if you can only put one date ....
Finally, could somebody be able to look over the format I'm using?
700 characters is nothing, so I hope I'm going in the right track. I sorta feel as if I have too much "CV-type" material explaining the logistics of what I did. Should I be more personal and talk about what I got out of it?
Sorry for all the questions. THANK YOU!
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I have the same question. What do you put down for the hours in terms of publications and awards?
i guess you could do anything published in a JOURNAL as a publication... ask your research mentor. Also I don't think it hurts to just put all of it in bullet points on your AMCAS. Are you doing MD/PhD?
So during one of my activities, I left the state for a month or so multiple times to participate in something else. Should I account for this by listing multiple date ranges in the first activity, or will it be fine listing a single date range, as long as the total hours is correct? My concern is that if I did break the first activity into the exact date ranges, with multiple one-two month gaps in it, I would have well over the allowed 4 possible date ranges.
I studied abroad for a semester, and while it wasn't anything medicine related, I did learn a lot about different health care systems and views of health, while also learning about different cultures, etc. I was thinking of putting it as one of my most meaningful experiences (because it was) but I'm not sure how that will be looked at? any thoughts? Thanks.
Also, I was part of a tennis club for 4 years, we only played recreationally and I didn't hold any leadership positions.. would this be under hobby?
Also, I was part of a tennis club for 4 years, we only played recreationally and I didn't hold any leadership positions.. would this be under hobby?
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I did list my time abroad as a meaningful experience. Had nothing to do with medicine. But I spoke about the personal development aspects of the experience. Really enjoyed writing it. I felt that was the only activity that I was writing from heart.
Doubt it will be looked at negatively. It's good to throw in a bit of character into the application.
EDIT: Tennis Seems fine to list as Hobby. Or "other-Extra Curricular Activities."
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What is the general wisdom about the oldest activity that is fair game? I am thinking of putting in something from 2008 (4 years old; from my early College years). It's a research experience. Tempted to put it in because its a big research name and continued for a year.
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Who did you guys put under contact information for the Dean's List. I mean, the Dean's list is awarded by the school right? Do we just put the registrar offices information?
Where should we enter the MD/Ph.D/DO/MS designation of the contact? After their last name?
Well we used to recommend that you leave those fields blank, but apparently AMCAS is now requiring an answer for them.
For awards.... I dunno, I would honestly try to put 0 or put 1 if it doesn't allow that. It just seems pretty ridiculous that they'd force you to put an answer there.
For the research poster, I guess I would just put down the time that you were actually presenting which would likely only be a couple of hours. The reason for this is that most of the actual hours used to work on the research project are generally listed under a separate "Research" listing.
The big point here is not to double list hours
Ok I have a few questions:
1. Since this didn't get answered yet and many have the same question, I'll ask again. What is everyone doing regarding Dean's List? I put 0 as the # of hours as I read that someone else did that. What about the award date? The Dean's list and if you're compiling several awards together, which date did you use? For now, I put May 2011 (the month and year I graduated). I also put "Office of the Registrar" for both contacts: first name, last name, and title.
2. I went on a missions trip to Ethiopia where I volunteered in an HIV+ orphanage (I didn't do anything medical-related there like take care of the kids, give them their meds, etc.) I also visited a leprosy/tuberculosis hospital, and obstetric fistula hospital, but again didn't do any hands on medical volunteer work. However, on the same trip, I shadowed an orthopedic surgeon both in surgery and the clinic for 3 days. Finally to my question, I have no idea which category to place this in...obviously I was thinking "Volunteer- Not Medical/Clinical." Also, I wasn't sure if I should separate the time where I shadowed to a whole separate activity under "Physician shadowing/clinical observation"?
3. I did summer undergrad research with my University where I got a stipend for it and had to apply for the position, then created a poster with my work. However, I did not present my poster at a conference per se, just at my schools research presentation night where students, faculty, and professors would come up to you and you would talk about your research/findings/etc. I currently have it under "Research/Lab," but since I got paid, I wasn't sure (even though I used that money to actually pay for the units and lab fee since it was at my school haha).
Thanks everyone! I feel like I'm an idiot/control freak/have OCD with this AMCAS app!
1. Since this didn't get answered yet and many have the same question, I'll ask again. What is everyone doing regarding Dean's List? I put 0 as the # of hours as I read that someone else did that. What about the award date? The Dean's list and if you're compiling several awards together, which date did you use? For now, I put May 2011 (the month and year I graduated). I also put "Office of the Registrar" for both contacts: first name, last name, and title.
2. I went on a missions trip to Ethiopia where I volunteered in an HIV+ orphanage (I didn't do anything medical-related there like take care of the kids, give them their meds, etc.) I also visited a leprosy/tuberculosis hospital, and obstetric fistula hospital, but again didn't do any hands on medical volunteer work. However, on the same trip, I shadowed an orthopedic surgeon both in surgery and the clinic for 3 days. Finally to my question, I have no idea which category to place this in...obviously I was thinking "Volunteer- Not Medical/Clinical." Also, I wasn't sure if I should separate the time where I shadowed to a whole separate activity under "Physician shadowing/clinical observation"?
3. I did summer undergrad research with my University where I got a stipend for it and had to apply for the position, then created a poster with my work. However, I did not present my poster at a conference per se, just at my schools research presentation night where students, faculty, and professors would come up to you and you would talk about your research/findings/etc. I currently have it under "Research/Lab," but since I got paid, I wasn't sure (even though I used that money to actually pay for the units and lab fee since it was at my school haha).
Thanks everyone! I feel like I'm an idiot/control freak/have OCD with this AMCAS app!
Should I mention my significant travels under hobbies? I went to China twice in the past 3 years, and each time, I stayed about 5 weeks. I also became significantly ill during my second trip and had to visit a Chinese ER.
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My volunteering is all spread out through clubs, honors college, religious etc.. do I make a separate space just for volunteering (non clinical) and write how I accumulated these hours/hrs total?
Also, would volunteering in a histology lab be considered clinical?
Finally, can a program at school in which you get credit, be considered an experience (STEM program)?
Also, would volunteering in a histology lab be considered clinical?
Finally, can a program at school in which you get credit, be considered an experience (STEM program)?
For publication hours and posters, wouldn't you put the amount of time spent working on writing the paper and working on the poster?
Did you have any patient contact in the histology lab. If not, I'm afraid it can't be considered clinical
I did not have patient interaction, I did see a ton of interesting dissections of tumors,really interesting. I already have actual patient clinical volunteering too, but was just wondering what this is called?
I don't think I've gotten a great deal of ECs but could you guys let me know if these are good to list? And what else I can do this year?
-First Aid Volunteer ~2 years[Count as patient interaction right? Since I am the one providing "care"?]
-Tutor ~2 years
-1 quarter of research
Not sure if any of these are worth mentioning:
-Intramural Basketball and Football
-Church Volunteer for ~1.5 years
-6 month Hospital Volunteer(still going on)
-Various Summer Jobs(mostly just held in the summer)
Would it be appropriate to list things that will happen in the future? Or just mention these if interviewed? i.e. I plan on getting another quarter of research and additional months of volunteering.
And how am I supposed to verify these?
-First Aid Volunteer ~2 years[Count as patient interaction right? Since I am the one providing "care"?]
-Tutor ~2 years
-1 quarter of research
Not sure if any of these are worth mentioning:
-Intramural Basketball and Football
-Church Volunteer for ~1.5 years
-6 month Hospital Volunteer(still going on)
-Various Summer Jobs(mostly just held in the summer)
Would it be appropriate to list things that will happen in the future? Or just mention these if interviewed? i.e. I plan on getting another quarter of research and additional months of volunteering.
And how am I supposed to verify these?
That's what I did.
Bump....any takers? Wanna know if I should add this to the section or not.
I also had an internship at the radiology department of the hospital my senior year of HS but i'm not planning to add that since it ended right after school did. However, i'm planning on mentioning it in my PS because it was one of the reasons I decided to pursue medicine.
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2 questions:
1) I was on the student govt assembly this year, and I was elected Vice President of Student Govt for the upcoming school year (2013-2014) How can I list that? Is that one experience or two? Do I just write Vice President Elect, because just getting elected alone technically IS an experience, but that's not what I want them to focus on. Also is student govt "Leadership" or "Extra Curriculars"?
2) I did tons of free-lance tutoring over the past two years... is there any way I could list that? There really isn't any contact person...
1) I was on the student govt assembly this year, and I was elected Vice President of Student Govt for the upcoming school year (2013-2014) How can I list that? Is that one experience or two? Do I just write Vice President Elect, because just getting elected alone technically IS an experience, but that's not what I want them to focus on. Also is student govt "Leadership" or "Extra Curriculars"?
2) I did tons of free-lance tutoring over the past two years... is there any way I could list that? There really isn't any contact person...
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I would like to use one experience for awards/scholarships and list all the significant ones, but they are not related. How do I put 1 contact for all the different awards? Can I put "see description" in the contact boxes and mention a contact for each award?
prior replies said they contacted amcas and lady seemed unsure. I'd go with expected only if you know with certainty you will be working there.
i think adcoms will get frustrated with seeing 999 hours and then having to read hrs/week in the description box, seems like it defeats the purpose of adding a "total hours" box in the first place for longer commitments at least. it's also slightly frustrating with the repeated date ranges, i was working on a few activities and the page had an error and I couldn't click "save/add another" until all the required asterisk fields were filled out so I essentially had to repeat all of it again for a couple activities 😡
Also, on their facebook page a couple people asked: "In the Work/Activities section, how do I enter total hours that are greater than 999? Should they be written in the Experience Description section?"
And they replied: "In order to get around this issue use the "Repeated" option that is available in the application. Once you select this option you can now enter this activity as a repeat up to four times. Indicate the start date with the very first time you began this work/activity (both month and year) and then divide your work hours evenly between the repeated entries. For example if I worked more than 2500 total hours during the course of one year than I would list my work/activity select the "Repeated" and then I would indicate each time listed with 625 total hours. Even though you have the option to enter REPEATED activities up to four (4) times in this section it will count as only one (1) activity."
i think adcoms will get frustrated with seeing 999 hours and then having to read hrs/week in the description box, seems like it defeats the purpose of adding a "total hours" box in the first place for longer commitments at least. it's also slightly frustrating with the repeated date ranges, i was working on a few activities and the page had an error and I couldn't click "save/add another" until all the required asterisk fields were filled out so I essentially had to repeat all of it again for a couple activities 😡
Also, on their facebook page a couple people asked: "In the Work/Activities section, how do I enter total hours that are greater than 999? Should they be written in the Experience Description section?"
And they replied: "In order to get around this issue use the "Repeated" option that is available in the application. Once you select this option you can now enter this activity as a repeat up to four times. Indicate the start date with the very first time you began this work/activity (both month and year) and then divide your work hours evenly between the repeated entries. For example if I worked more than 2500 total hours during the course of one year than I would list my work/activity select the "Repeated" and then I would indicate each time listed with 625 total hours. Even though you have the option to enter REPEATED activities up to four (4) times in this section it will count as only one (1) activity."
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