Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Ah okay awesome! Do I just include the 9999 hours for everything overall? Or should I split the hours by activity? Even then some of the hours would still be quite large and probably need the 9999 designation. For example I have been reading since I was a child, and have definitely put it at least 9999 hours into my physical recreation activities.
Hours for hobbies aren't important, nor is dividing them into subtotals. It's just important that you have them. The 9999 suggests that the hours are not known and that rough calculations aren't possible. Adcomms will be more interested in how much involvement you had in college, anyway. You might consider adding recent hours/per week of leisuretime activities, if you are so inclined.
Oh okay. So I should put the weekly time commitment in the activity description, and have the 9999 for the overall time or just leave it blank?
I don't think it will let you leave it blank. I wouldn't enter a zero. So your first suggestion is best.
Thank you very much!
No problem.
If you want to keep everything through this organization in a single space, your options would be to list it under either Other or Extracurricular, then make it clear through the name of the activity (and your description) that it includes both medical and nonmedical community service. This is not an ideal solution unless you have other listings under each of those tags already. It would be far better to split it into two dedicated spaces with the more appropriate and specific tags.
Sounds good!
1) A submitted abstract is not guaranteed to be accepted and really doesn't belong on the application. But if you feel compelled to mention it anyway, put an addendum about it at the end of your affiliated Research entry.
You might list them just as you would multiple shadowing gigs in a single space (see example in post #2). Use a name for the space that applies to all of them, like Other Short-Term Collegiate Employment. Use the header for info about the most recent. Give a brief description about that first job and role. Continue to list them in reverse chronological order, preceding each with date span, hours/week, and total hours, then job description (role isn't needed if it's intuitive from the job name), location, and contact. If you run out of space to give all the usual details, you can add at the end, "Also held jobs as Menards cashier, Olive Garden wait staff, and lab rat handler for three succeeding summers, 30-40 hours/week each."
A question about whether to apply lies outside the scope of this thread. Perhaps you could start a thread in the WAMC forum (What are my chances), giving more details, along the lines suggested in the sticky at the top of that forum. Feel free to tag me from there, though there are other "Chancers" that will be happy to reply.
Yes, you would include similar information in the narrative space for the second activity as you did for the first (as you suggested), including name of organization and location if they differ and dates. Also give a subtotal of hours for each location, as then you can put a grand total in the Total Hours box for both experiences.
Maybe it won't be a deal breaker, but some adcomms might wonder if there's a reason you don't want that organization to be contacted to legitimize the activity. Isn't it possible to slightly shorten the first description to squeeze it in?
It's fine to cover the same activities in the PS and MM areas, though most would try to cover different territory in each and try to vary the vocabulary where an overlap of information is necessary.
Will you replace the activity with other employment?
Yes I do plan on replacing it with another job as soon as everything gets figured out and I have only filled out two secondary applications. We have been given an estimate of at least December until the restaurant is ready to open which I plan to go back and work when it is done. Since I worked mostly during the summers I did distinguish between completed hours but since I was planning on working there all year, I did add future hours from the start day of May 2016-August 2017.
Future hours aren't much regarded as it's well known by adcomms that unanticipated bumps in the road can happen. So distinguishing Completed vs Future was a good move in your case.
Thank you so much for the quick response and help! This definitely takes some stress off everything. Thanks again!
1) You may include Dean's List, but keep in mind that your transcript speaks for itself as to your academic accomplishments, so it's not adding anything to your application. Most would group it with other recognitions if they mention it at all. If you elect to include it, you would enter zero hours, as you did not sit at a ceremony to accept a plaque or certificate. Your college Registrar would be the Contact (for all collegiate recognitions in the space).
You may list them under Conferences Attended, but they will be of little benefit to your application unless you presented at or organized the conference. Their value to you comes more from the application of the lessons learned and demonstration of enhanced leadership skills within activities in which you became involved in the real world.
Thanks for your fast reply and the insight. I was elected SGA president after, and i have that listed as one of my 15, does that demonstrate application? And if so can I keep the 3 conferences listed?
SGA Prez is a clear application of leadership. You may keep the entry listing the three conferences, if so inclined, as it won't hurt you, but if you have any other not-yet-listed activity demonstrating a trait desirable in a future doc, switch it out. Even a Hobbies entry has more value in adcomm eyes.
Great, thanks for the advice. Was just debating the merits of the conferences before i pulled the trigger on submitting.
Happy to help.
I have to admit that I've never seen anyone use up less than half the allotted characters for every single Activities entry, but having some succinct entries is not so uncommon. I'm guessing that with so few words, you didn't express much in the way of impact and insights gained, but perhaps you compensated with what you said in the PS. Regardless, while some reviewers will feel it reflects poorly that you failed to use the extra space allowed for Most Meaningful comments as suggested, it's possible some time-challenged adcomms will appreciate a minimum of verbiage, or won't really notice, (or won't care).
If brief descriptions are good enough for Chuck Norris, surely others will follow . . . .
Most likely you would classify it as Employment, but you have the choice of picking Teaching, instead, if you feel it would better balance your application or carry forward the story you're conveying about yourself. You'd also have the option of splitting the two jobs of Teacher and Tutor into two separate categories.
What is your paid patient care job? How many dedicated shadowing hours can you claim? Are any of them in an office-based setting?
(Assuming you are not a distance scribe🙂 You are already more than fine for clinical experience, so if you wish to discontinue the medical volunteering, there'd be no downside considering your long-term (1+ years and counting) paid scribing and nonmedical community volunteerism. Many would consider the scribing to cover the shadowing expectation as well, but not all. So it's good you have some dedicated shadowing, too. About 50 hours of that is adequate. Perhaps a contact in the ED could connect you with an office-based primary care doc for 8-10 hours.
