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I suggest using 1-1.5y/o children, instead.
*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2016-2017*~*~*~*
Started by WedgeDawg
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1) Yes.
2) Explain the transition with date in the narrative.
3) Yes. Use the Other tag. Be sure they reveal traits that adcomms will feel important to a future doc.
Thanks so much for the response
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@Catalystik Hello! I have 16 work/activities so I am having trouble deciding which one of the following is more important to include:
1) awards like Phi Beta Kappa, Deans list for all semesters, 1 research fellowship award
1) 150 hours of volunteering at a hospital during high school. Although I have ample amount of clinical experience (scribing, hospital secretary, nursing aide) during college, I only have 75 hours of hospital volunteering as a college student.
1) awards like Phi Beta Kappa, Deans list for all semesters, 1 research fellowship award
1) 150 hours of volunteering at a hospital during high school. Although I have ample amount of clinical experience (scribing, hospital secretary, nursing aide) during college, I only have 75 hours of hospital volunteering as a college student.
Keep the Awards entry and cut out the HS hospital volunteering, which would better be referred to in your PS as part of your path to medicine.
Hello everyone!
I am a reapplicant and was wondering what the recommendations are for reapplying in terms of the works and activities section (and probably secondary essays for that matter). My past activities obviously have not changes so only adding to the list, but is it bad taste to use the same exact annotation for those past activities?
Along those same lines.. would it be bad taste to use some of the same essays (copy and paste)? For example, I recall some essays which asked about my greatest conflict/pitfall, and this has not changed in the few months since applying..
I am a reapplicant and was wondering what the recommendations are for reapplying in terms of the works and activities section (and probably secondary essays for that matter). My past activities obviously have not changes so only adding to the list, but is it bad taste to use the same exact annotation for those past activities?
Along those same lines.. would it be bad taste to use some of the same essays (copy and paste)? For example, I recall some essays which asked about my greatest conflict/pitfall, and this has not changed in the few months since applying..
May I suggest that if the candidate is weak on volunteering, and especially if this HS gig was connected to the college volunteering, that it be combine with another volunteering experience under a general "additional volunteering" or "hospital volunteering".
@Catalystik Thank you for your input! 🙂
@gonnif Thank you! I like your idea about combining the volunteer experience under a general "volunteering" tab although they are at 2 different hospitals (only because 1 was close to high school home and another was close to college home)
It is most critical that you revamp the PS and the Secondaries, as they are most likely to undergo head to head comparison. Using the same essays for the Activities section is less likely to be an issue, but I suggest some vocabulary tweaks for those entries that you haven't augmented or had new thoughts about since the last go round.
For ongoing activities such as being a current medical scribe I'm doing it like this:
Start date ---> "End Date" which I list as May 2016 with total hours.
Select repeating:
Then do : "Start date" June 2016 through August 2017 with predicted hours based on an average of past hours.
Is this okay? This is what I surmised was the correct way to do it from other forum responses.
Start date ---> "End Date" which I list as May 2016 with total hours.
Select repeating:
Then do : "Start date" June 2016 through August 2017 with predicted hours based on an average of past hours.
Is this okay? This is what I surmised was the correct way to do it from other forum responses.
From the thread:
6. Should I really list that I was on the dean's list/in an honor society?
Again....two schools of thought here. One is that many applicants have these things, so why list them. The other is that they won't know unless you tell them.
Again, a good trick for entering activities is to have a catch-all category like "Academic Recognition" where you then list the X number of awards/recognition that you have received. That way you are not taking up multiple spaces for things you don't want to emphasize.
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In addition to this I think what you do is simply list individual dates in the description section. With one of the dates being used as the header for the required field (I would probably choose the first in chronological order for this but that's just me).
I currently have 15 slots filled. Is it worth it to try to squeeze in PBK somewhere in there? I don't have a slot for awards because I don't have any. I just want to know if PBK is something important enough that I should try hard to include it somewhere.
1) In the box for my shadowing experience, do you recommend I also add in a brief description of what procedures I saw/what I learned about doctors or only use the box to write the name, phone, hours of the doctors?
2) If I TA'd for 2 semesters (two years ago), is it worth including on my AMCAS?
2) If I TA'd for 2 semesters (two years ago), is it worth including on my AMCAS?
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Yes, exactly. Or end the first date span with June 2016, keeping the second as you have it.
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Yes, they can be listed together in one space. As a date use the last date you received one or the date of graduation, by which time you will have received all those in the box. (Individual dates aren't necessary, if you don't have space or it doesn't really matter.) The Contact is the Registrar of your school, who has a record of all of them.
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Your GPA speaks for itself, so you needn't squeeze PBK in somewhere.
1) See my example of a Shadowing listing on page 2, #58. Just mention a procedure if it made an impression on you, and only if you have space, if you want to include "impact" comments, as the latter should take priority.
I TA'd for 2 semesters (two years ago), is it worth including on my AMCAS?
I am definitely close enough to "SMELL" the patients but I don't want to portray something that it isn't.
I volunteer at an HIV/AIDS group home that focuses on rehabilitating the patients to be able to live independently. I take patients to the local library, community events, doctor appointments, and remind them to take their medicine to name a few things. Would this be clinical volunteering?
Thank you for your help!
I volunteer at an HIV/AIDS group home that focuses on rehabilitating the patients to be able to live independently. I take patients to the local library, community events, doctor appointments, and remind them to take their medicine to name a few things. Would this be clinical volunteering?
Thank you for your help!
non-clinical volunteering
Thank you gonnif!
Hello. I am filling out my shadowing. I have 3 doctors listed that I had extensive shadowing with, contact information is provided. Can I also put at the end that I shadowed a Family Medicine and Allergist for 6 hours each with no contact info? Also would an allergist be considered primary care?
hey so I talked about three important experiences and how they pushed me towards becoming a physician in my PS. I made sure to discuss mainly how it affected my decision making to going towards becoming a doctor. Should I make all three my meaningful experiences and discuss other parts about it? Like day-to-day stuff and more technical stuff. THanks!
Hi guys,
For the Meaningful selections, the entries are divided into 1) Experience Description and 2) Experience Summary. I was told to treat these as an extension of the Personal Statement and write in essay form, which I did, BUT I did not insert the description in the first box and experience in the second box, I kind of blended it (but did answer both). What do you guys think? Will that be a problem?
For the Meaningful selections, the entries are divided into 1) Experience Description and 2) Experience Summary. I was told to treat these as an extension of the Personal Statement and write in essay form, which I did, BUT I did not insert the description in the first box and experience in the second box, I kind of blended it (but did answer both). What do you guys think? Will that be a problem?
I went to Honduras with my church for a week to help out a small community by doing stuff like laying concrete, building latrines, etc. Would it be better to list the total amount of hours I was there, or the total hours we were actually helping the community?
Hi! If I have one entry for all of my undergrad jobs (about 7 total), who should I be listing as the contact? Is it ok to list myself, and if not, who should be listed? There isn't really room to list the contact for each job, and honestly some of these jobs are super old so I don't know if I can dig up the contact info
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When describing experiences, due to character limits, is using abbreviations such as "&" and "w/" appropriate?
You may portray art as a near-lifetime hobby, but the more recent involvement is more interest to adcomms. For hours you might enter a 9999 and in the narrative state that hours are unknowable (which is fine as it doesn't matter for a hobby anyway). If your art is shared with a wider audience, consider using the Artistic Endeavors tag instead.
You may do so, but it isn't necessary. Everyone won't have an interest in looking at it, but some might.
1) Yes.
2) An allergist is not a primary care doc, but sometimes provides longitudinal care.
Activities touched on in the PS can still be denoted as MM (but don't feel obliged to if you've said all that's important). MM activities should still have the basics included, like description if not obvious, your role, and technical stuff in some instances (like research). Then talk about insights, impact, lessons learned, where to go from there, and maybe anecdotes different from what you related in the PS. There can be some overlap, but minimize it and use different vocabulary to make it seem fresh.
As long as the expected elements are included, you'll be fine.
If you are listing this as a community service, then only include the hours you spent doing helpful things. Sleep wasn't one of them.
Then just list yourself in the header, but maybe add a more objective contact for the most recent 2-3 inclusions to add legitimacy.
Using "&" is fine in the title. I'd use the more formal form in the narrative. You can use abbreviations if they are universally understood (like MRI). For others, spell it out and then give the abbreviation in parentheses when first used.
Yes, you can add new schools (and pay for them) after initial submission. You will be asked to recertify the application each time you do this.
That is my interpretation as well. I think you tagged the club sport correctly by using Extracurricular.
Thank you Catalystik~ So I actually tried to call offices to give them a heads up if any school would want them to verify my physician shadowing. However one of the physicians I've shadowed quite a few years back has retired and I don't think they have any records of my shadowing nor up-to-date contact information for him.
Another problem is the emergency room I shadowed also had difficulty with retrieving my hours. I got redirected to three different managers three times and haven't heard back from them yet (called several times). I did mention my ER experience a bit in my PS but I'm still worried if it'll be a problem if schools tried to contact them but couldn't get any of my information. I really want to submit my application ASAP in the next few days but I also don't want this to be a problem. All my other contacts should be fine. Any advice?
Another problem is the emergency room I shadowed also had difficulty with retrieving my hours. I got redirected to three different managers three times and haven't heard back from them yet (called several times). I did mention my ER experience a bit in my PS but I'm still worried if it'll be a problem if schools tried to contact them but couldn't get any of my information. I really want to submit my application ASAP in the next few days but I also don't want this to be a problem. All my other contacts should be fine. Any advice?
1) Make a note that this physician is now retired and don't insert a contact.
2) Do you have any shadowing experience that can be verified so you can list it first? Is there anyone else you can use as a Contact, like your advisor, another shadower there when you were, an ER clerk or RN? If all else fails, use yourself.
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I spent a significant amount of time with an Athletic Trainer and observed his work with athletes for hundreds of hours over several years. Most of this time was while he was treating minor tissue/joint injuries, doing prehab/rehab, or writing treatment protocols. I currently have this categorized as clinical observation, but should that category be reserved strictly for physician observation? If so, would it be best listed simply under "other"?
1. Would it be bad to list video games as a hobby? afraid of some sort of stigma against them and causing trouble.
2. I created a activity called X, Y, Z organizations ( the names are actually there) and talked about what I did in them. Is is ok to list myself as a contact for them because there is no 1 contact for them.
3. I also created an activity various volunteering with orgs and talked about what I did in them and listed myself as a contact
2. I created a activity called X, Y, Z organizations ( the names are actually there) and talked about what I did in them. Is is ok to list myself as a contact for them because there is no 1 contact for them.
3. I also created an activity various volunteering with orgs and talked about what I did in them and listed myself as a contact
Yes I do have other shadowings that can be verified and they're listed first. I was the only person shadowing in the ER at the time and I don't have any other contacts. I didn't bring up the shadowing experience with my advisor or anyone else except for my family and a friend who is a pharmacist. Should I list my friend instead or is that looked down upon?
(I did my best to try to search this thread and others for an answers, so sorry for if this is a duplicate!) I'm first author on a paper for research I did while I was in high school. I list the publication as one of my activities, but should I also include the research itself, since it was done in high school? (For context, I'm applying MD/PhD so I do talk about that research in my Significant Research Experiences essay)
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