*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2018-2019*~*~*~*

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Its instagram and tumblr. Nothing on there is inappropriate and I would totally provide my username if needed (won't on here tho cuz dont wanna dox myself).
No, definitely don't post it here.

I'm not familiar with those forms of social media. Do they require an account before you can see any content? Do you have your own dedicated area for your posts or are they mixed in with other people's advice? Could you prove your username was YOU? Would you include it on the application as, say, Teaching or Artistic Endeavor (if there is a lot of writing), or more like Hobbies since you won't have a contact?
 
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No, definitely don't post it here.

I'm not familiar with those forms of social media. Do they require an account before you can see any content? Do you have your own dedicated area for your posts or are they mixed in with other people's advice? Could you prove your username was YOU? Would you include it on the application as, say, Teaching or Artistic Endeavor (if there is a lot of writing), or more like Hobbies since you won't have a contact?
I would list it as a hobby. And I guess its kinda like facebook layout where you can see stuff on a wall and if you click on my content, I have my own dedicated page that has all of my stuff and nobody else. And no account needed because all of my profiles are public so anybody can google my user name and see whats on there (except facebook obviously cuz I use that for friends only)
 
For research entries, how much real estate should I use to describe the ~actual research, delving into our specific study questions and techniques, vs a more general description like "drafted an IRB proposal, completed a literature review, recruited participants" etc etc, vs describing what we gained/learned from the experience?

also, is it ok to have 3 separate research activities? i don't particularly want to combine them, but perhaps i should
 
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I would list it as a hobby. And I guess its kinda like facebook layout where you can see stuff on a wall and if you click on my content, I have my own dedicated page that has all of my stuff and nobody else. And no account needed because all of my profiles are public so anybody can google my user name and see whats on there (except facebook obviously cuz I use that for friends only)
After googling the names of these two sites and learning about them, I think it would be fine to list your involvement under Hobbies, along with some sort of "mission statement" if it has a unified theme.
 
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For research entries, how much real estate should I use to describe the ~actual research, delving into our specific study questions and techniques, vs a more general description like "drafted an IRB proposal, completed a literature review, recruited participants" etc etc, vs describing what we gained/learned from the experience?
Use one sentence to explain the project in lay language your mom would understand. Get technical after that if you like, but parse it down to be as susccinct as possible. You need to fit your role into the space, too, and maybe some of the techniques you learned. Then impact or what you learned (if you choose & if you have space). Your limit on details will be the 700 character cutoff point. Be sure to include that you navigated the IRB process or wrote for a grant.
 
I think it would be fine to list under Hobbies, along with some sort of "mission statement" if it has a unified theme.
My application overall is about increasing LGBT+ visibility and healthcare resources in underserved areas (I have a rural background and we had almost no LGBT health resources) so I would tie it into increasing visibility because I didnt see anybody like me serving as physicians when I was growing up and it was slightly discouraging when people said "oh well most gays go into nursing. Why aren't you doing that?"
 
For an activity that I will continue doing throughout the application cycle, should I list the number of hours currently earned or the number of hours I project to have by matriculation?
 
I have volunteering experiences where I was only at the location for the volunteering itself. I was not there for any personal reasons (I assume it won't be seen as voluntourism; locations include rural areas in-state and rural areas of disaster relief 3-4 states over).

Is it safe to say that each day spent volunteering was 24 hours? One was quite literally done from waking up to going to bed. Another was from waking up 6am to finishing at sun-down. Breaks at 6am to sun-down event were taken for meals/showers.

Edit: Thank you!
 
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Use one sentence to explain the project in lay language your mom would understand. Get technical after that if you like, but parse it down to be as susccinct as possible. You need to fit your role into the space, too, and maybe some of the techniques you learned. Then impact or what you learned (if you choose & if you have space). Your limit on details will be the 700 character cutoff point. Be sure to include that you navigated the IRB process or wrote for a grant.

Hmm. Thanks, this is very helpful.
Is there anyway I could PM you my description in question? I actually have 3 different research experiences that I'm trying to include and want to be sure that I'm highlighting these skills (especially since I don't mention research much in my PS as a motivation for medicine) but not being redundant. If not, I understand.

Any thoughts on if having 3 research experiences in different fields is ok, or if I should absolutely join them under one heading, perhaps as an MM.
 
Dear @Catalystik ,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. Right now I am gathering opinions about whether "the most meaningful experiences" section should be treated as essays or plain listing of my duties. What do you think? Should I be creative or stick to briefly explaining what exactly I did?

Thank you very much, once again!
 
For an activity that I will continue doing throughout the application cycle, should I list the number of hours currently earned or the number of hours I project to have by matriculation?
Ideally you'd differentiate between hours completed and hours projected, either by using the Repeated feature (same month ends the first span and begins the second) or by listing completed hours in the header and saying in the narrative what your future plan is. If the future hours are in any way uncertain, best to leave them off and just say that it's your intention to continue the activity through xx/yy/zz.
 
I have volunteering experiences where I was only at the location for the volunteering itself. I was not there for any personal reasons (I assume it won't be seen as voluntourism; locations include rural areas in-state and rural areas of disaster relief 3-4 states over).

Is it safe to say that each day spent volunteering was 24 hours? One was quite literally done from waking up to going to bed. Another was from waking up 6am to finishing at sun-down. Breaks at 6am to sun-down event were taken for meals/showers.
Do not count the time you slept, ate, or engaged in personal grooming or socialization with co-volunteers.
 
I actually have 3 different research experiences that I'm trying to include and want to be sure that I'm highlighting these skills (especially since I don't mention research much in my PS as a motivation for medicine) but not being redundant. If not, I understand.

Any thoughts on if having 3 research experiences in different fields is ok, or if I should absolutely join them under one heading, perhaps as an MM.
Ideally, each research project would have its own space. As that's not always possible grouping them into 1-2 spots would be fine. Or you can make them MM and put them all in one spot to get more description space.

Sorry but reviewing entries is outside the intended scope of this thread. And my PM box is closed anyway.
 
Ideally, each research project would have its own space. As that's not always possible grouping them into 1-2 spots would be fine. Or you can make them MM and put them all in one spot to get more description space.
I think I'll try to keep them separate, then! Hopefully it won't seem too redundant when I list the responsibilities of my role, which were similar across the position. Thanks!
 
Dear @Catalystik , Right now I am gathering opinions about whether "the most meaningful experiences" section should be treated as essays or plain listing of my duties. What do you think? Should I be creative or stick to briefly explaining what exactly I did?
Either bullet points or narrative description is acceptable to use, depending on what communicates best what you'd like to convey. But if you start with one format, you should maintain it for that entire space (700+1325 characters).
 
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Ideally, each research project would have its own space. As that's not always possible grouping them into 1-2 spots would be fine. Or you can make them MM and put them all in one spot to get more description space.
I didn't know this was recommended. I currently have 14 entries. I have tried to limit the number of entries I include so adcoms don't have to read through more than necessary.

I have 2 research projects in one entry while keeping a third in its own. The third I learned a lot more from and I had much more to say about it than the other two. Should I split the other 2 research projects up just to keep the projects separate? One carries a lot more significance (made good friends, more involved in the project personally) to my application than the other.

Edit: gotcha, thank you again!
 
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I didn't know this was recommended. I currently have 14 entries. I have tried to limit the number of entries I include so adcoms don't have to read through more than necessary.

I have 2 research projects in one entry while keeping a third in its own. The third I learned a lot more from and I had much more to say about it than the other two. Should I split the other 2 research projects up just to keep the projects separate? One carries a lot more significance (made good friends, more involved in the project personally) to my application than the other.
I think your word "recommended" is too strong. There isn't one right way to do it. If keeping a research entry on its own would make for a boring space, then by all means, group it. Succinct is good!
 
Hey @Catalystik if you have a free moment I'd really appreciate your input

So another undergraduate in my research lab and I wrote a chapter for our PI's inorganic chemistry textbook and helped (and when I say 'helped' I mean did on our own :laugh:) with the editing, writing abstracts, preparing the bibliographies, and making figures for all of the other chapters. We're listed in the Acknowledgements as the authors of the chapter we wrote along with our pictures, but not as authors for the overall book (ie if you google the book, it just says our PI is the author so we would not appear in the citation).

I know acknowledgments don't really count for anything, but considering the amount of work that went into putting this textbook/chapter together I was wondering if there was a way for me to list this on AMCAS? My PI has said that he will include it in his LOR, so if he does that could I list this as a publication for just the chapter I helped write? Or should I mention it some other way?

Thanks for helping us all out here, you rock!
 
Hey @Catalystik if you have a free moment I'd really appreciate your input

So another undergraduate in my research lab and I wrote a chapter for our PI's inorganic chemistry textbook and helped (and when I say 'helped' I mean did on our own :laugh:) with the editing, writing abstracts, preparing the bibliographies, and making figures for all of the other chapters. We're listed in the Acknowledgements as the authors of the chapter we wrote along with our pictures, but not as authors for the overall book (ie if you google the book, it just says our PI is the author so we would not appear in the citation).

I know acknowledgments don't really count for anything, but considering the amount of work that went into putting this textbook/chapter together I was wondering if there was a way for me to list this on AMCAS? My PI has said that he will include it in his LOR, so if he does that could I list this as a publication for just the chapter I helped write? Or should I mention it some other way?

Thanks for helping us all out here, you rock!
If the PI comes through with mentioning that you wrote the book chapter in his LOR, you'll be fine to claim coauthorship for it in a Publications space and to properly cite it. Hopefully the PI will also give you credit for the other contributions you made to his book.

If you got paid for the work you did, alternatively you could mention it all in an Employment space (hopefully supported in an LOR).
 
I have a publication that was sent back for some revisions but they're very straightforward and it should be accepted after the revisions are done (which will be completed over this summer). Can I list this as a publication under AMCAS and just write in the description that it's accepted with revisions?

Also I got this summer funding award for summer research. The application had us write up a proposal for the research we'll be doing. I'm unsure whether to list this under awards or just stick it under my one research activities box description. I sorta ran out of space in my research one already so might have to make a separate one for it. I still have a few slots open though so that wouldn't be a big deal.
 
I know this has probably been answered already, but who do we put for contact info in the work/activities section if it’s a personal hobby, or something like tutoring?


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I know this has probably been answered already, but who do we put for contact info in the work/activities section if it’s a personal hobby, or something like tutoring?


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hobbies doesn't ask for a contact.

For something like tutoring, if it was through the university put whoever paid you down. If it was private I'd say just list yourself but not sure on that.
 
1) I have a publication that was sent back for some revisions but they're very straightforward and it should be accepted after the revisions are done (which will be completed over this summer). Can I list this as a publication under AMCAS and just write in the description that it's accepted with revisions?

2) Also I got this summer funding award for summer research. The application had us write up a proposal for the research we'll be doing. I'm unsure whether to list this under awards or just stick it under my one research activities box description. I sorta ran out of space in my research one already so might have to make a separate one for it. I still have a few slots open though so that wouldn't be a big deal.
1) a. If it was "Accepted with minor revisions" you can list it (but if they are minor, why will it take until the end of the summer?).
b. "Should be accepted" isn't a category I'd include in a Publications space.
c. Then there's "Accepted with major revisions" which also should not be included as many of them never get resubmitted.

-If you feel it's in one of the categories that's questionable, and if you already have a Publications space, you might cite it in that space with the exact wording of the status of the manuscript according to the communication that was received (and keep a copy of that letter or email in your possession).

2) Put it under Awards/Honors and use the extra space to describe the planned project. Insert zero hours into the Total Hours space. It's OK to include the $$ amount of the award.
 
who do we put for contact info in the work/activities section if it’s . . . . something like tutoring?

For something like tutoring, if it was through the university put whoever paid you down. If it was private I'd say just list yourself but not sure on that.
You could also list a long-term tutee or their parent, or a person who referred clients to you, or a teacher if there is a cluster of clients from the same class.
 
1) a. If it was "Accepted with minor revisions" you can list it (but if they are minor, why will it take until the end of the summer?).
b. "Should be accepted" isn't a category I'd include in a Publications space.
c. Then there's "Accepted with major revisions" which also should not be included as many of them never get resubmitted.

-If you feel it's in one of the categories that's questionable, and if you already have a Publications space, you might cite it in that space with the exact wording of the status of the manuscript according to the communication that was received (and keep a copy of that letter or email in your possession).

2) Put it under Awards/Honors and use the extra space to describe the planned project. Insert zero hours into the Total Hours space. It's OK to include the $$ amount of the award.

Thanks! Putting it under awards did seem to make the most sense.

For the revisions there's a couple of experiments we have to run that will take a few weeks each just because they deal with live mice studies but they're mainly just various controls. I was told it should be complete by July by the person I work with in lab but things always take a few weeks longer than expected so I'm assuming by end of summer. But I'm not sure what the exact listing is, I'll check and if it seems questionable I won't list it. If it's considered minor revisions I'll do what you said. I worked a lot on the project itself but won't be too involved with the revisions since the summer funding I received was for to work on a different project, so I'm not entirely certain of the specifics.
 
Also another question, I have a leadership experience in an organization that I'ce been a part of for a few years now (where I've held previous leadership positions). I've also volunteered around 100 hours with this same organization (serves underserved populations). I think total I'll have about 11 to 12 activities. One of my other activities involves couple hundred hours (have to add them up still but I'm estimating around 500 hours) of volunteering that was long term since junior year of high school and over summers and each break during college. Those are my two biggest non clinical volunteering things.

Knowing that would you suggest I separate the leadership and volunteering aspects of the first one or keep them together? If I separate them it would probably be about 50 hours per semester of the leadership position (total of 150 hours) and then 80-100 of the volunteering (100 may be on the high end but will have to check).
 
I have a leadership experience in an organization that I'ce been a part of for a few years now (where I've held previous leadership positions). I've also volunteered around 100 hours with this same organization (serves underserved populations). I think total I'll have about 11 to 12 activities. One of my other activities involves couple hundred hours (have to add them up still but I'm estimating around 500 hours) of volunteering that was long term since junior year of high school and over summers and each break during college. Those are my two biggest non clinical volunteering things.

Knowing that would you suggest I separate the leadership and volunteering aspects of the first one or keep them together? If I separate them it would probably be about 50 hours per semester of the leadership position (total of 150 hours) and then 80-100 of the volunteering (100 may be on the high end but will have to check).
If you were to divide out the leadership component of the first mentioned activity, it looks like each of two spaces would have a significant number of hours to list, so using two spots seems reasonable, with the side benefit of more space to discuss the various roles you took.
 
I was told it should be complete by July by the person I work with in lab but things always take a few weeks longer than expected so I'm assuming by end of summer. But I'm not sure what the exact listing is, I'll check and if it seems questionable I won't list it. If it's considered minor revisions I'll do what you said. I worked a lot on the project itself but I won't be too involved with the revisions since the summer funding I received was for to work on a different project, so I'm not entirely certain of the specifics.
The fact that you will not be personally involved makes listing it iffier (to me) as you have no control over timing and specifics. If you can't pin down the responsible person to a definite plan, consider waiting and using a publication as a most excellent highlight of a future update letter during the application season.
 
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I know we're supposed to put down classes in the order they appear in the transcript, which is what I've been doing. But for some reason certain semesters have classes that are out of order... is this fine? All of my semesters are still in chronological order, it's just that a few of the classes have been rearranged for some reason.
Don't worry about it. This is a bug reported in the AMCAS software for about the last three seasons. Ignore it and move on.

[Transcript issues are better Searched out or asked in the general AMCAS Questions thread here: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2018-2019*~*~*~* ]
 
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I am currently in a bit of a conundrum, looking for some advice:

I would like to lump together my lacrosse coaching experiences, but one of them was paid and one was volunteer. How do you suggest I categorize this (i.e. Paid Employment - Not medical) as the larger portion of the hours was paid but I did have about 40 hours of volunteer work for another school.

If you don't suggest lumping I could always split this up but I have 14 entries already and would like to keep it as concise as possible.

Thank you in advance.
 
I would like to lump together my lacrosse coaching experiences, but one of them was paid and one was volunteer. How do you suggest I categorize this (i.e. Paid Employment - Not medical) as the larger portion of the hours was paid but I did have about 40 hours of volunteer work for another school.

If you don't suggest lumping I could always split this up but I have 14 entries already and would like to keep it as concise as possible.
Coaching is considered to be a form of teaching. You could list both in a Teaching space and make clear that one was paid and the other volunteer in your descriptions.
 
I served as a manuscript reviewer for a physician-level certification course and was wondering if this would best fit under "Publications," though I didn't actually publish anything; "Recognition" as I am acknowledged in the manuscript or just "other."

Many thanks.
 
I served as a manuscript reviewer for a physician-level certification course and was wondering if this would best fit under "Publications," though I didn't actually publish anything; "Recognition" as I am acknowledged in the manuscript or just "other."
I would not list it under "Publications" or "Honors/Awards". "Other" would work. If you got paid, you could also pick "Employment".
 
I've been involved in both a club sport (more serious) and intramural sports (just for fun) all 3 years of undergrad so far. Should I list these as extra curriculars?

For the club sport we traveled and faced other teams at other schools. We had 3 practices a week for 2 hours each.

For intramural it was a bunch of different sports that I just made teams with my friends and played other teams at our school. About 1 to 2 games per week for an hour. Roughly a ~7 hour commitment per sport (did 3 to 4 of them per year for 3 years so between 60-80 hours total). Won a few of them if that matters.

Also should I list club and intramurals together or separately.
 
I've been involved in both a club sport (more serious) and intramural sports (just for fun) all 3 years of undergrad so far. Should I list these as extra curriculars?

For the club sport we traveled and faced other teams at other schools. We had 3 practices a week for 2 hours each.

For intramural it was a bunch of different sports that I just made teams with my friends and played other teams at our school. About 1 to 2 games per week for an hour. Roughly a ~7 hour commitment per sport (did 3 to 4 of them per year for 3 years so between 60-80 hours total). Won a few of them if that matters.

Also should I list club and intramurals together or separately.
If you have the space, you might list the club sport on its own (hopefully there's a captain or faculty advisor to act as Contact) and the less-formal intramural sports under Hobbies (as you won't need a Contact) or Extracurricular.
 
If you have the space, you might list the club sport on its own (hopefully there's a captain or faculty advisor to act as Contact) and the less-formal intramural sports under Hobbies (as you won't need a Contact) or Extracurricular.

Yep there was an advisor who should have a log of everything even though they weren't very involved, but they can at least confirm everything. I do still have a 3 spaces so I'll separate them, thanks!
 
1. Is it worth it listing a shadowing experience in China?
2. If I combine all my shadowing experiences, can I include an upcoming one that is scheduled in July.
 
1. I have one poster as a result of my research but I did not present it myself, just listed as an author. Is it worth giving it its own spot if I have no other publications/posters and making it explicitly clear that I did not present it, or should I just mention it with the research?
2. Under hobbies I was going to mention playing trivia at restaurants in my community but realized that might come off as trying to disguise bar trivia. Should I just not mention it?

Thanks!
 
1. Is it worth it listing a shadowing experience in China?
2. If I combine all my shadowing experiences, can I include an upcoming one that is scheduled in July.
1) So long as there is more US physician shadowing listed, you can include international shadowing, too. Of course, you will leave yourself open to interview questions about "Compare and contrast healthcare systems in the two countries," if you include it.

2) How many US shadowing hours will you have completed, and how many more do you anticipate adding starting in July?
 
1. I have one poster as a result of my research but I did not present it myself, just listed as an author. Is it worth giving it its own spot if I have no other publications/posters and making it explicitly clear that I did not present it, or should I just mention it with the research?
2. Under hobbies I was going to mention playing trivia at restaurants in my community but realized that might come off as trying to disguise bar trivia. Should I just not mention it?

Thanks!
1) If the poster was presented at a campus event, mention in the affiliated Research entry. If it was a regional or national conference, put it in a Posters/Presentations space. Regardless, give credit to the actual presenter, even if you just refer to them as the third author, or somesuch.

2) You could just not mention where you play it, but still include it with other hobbies. If there is a category at which you excel, mention it.
 
1) If the poster was presented at a campus event, mention in the affiliated Research entry. If it was a regional or national conference, put it in a Posters/Presentations space. Regardless, give credit to the actual presenter, even if you just refer to them as the third author, or somesuch.

2) You could just not mention where you play it, but still include it with other hobbies. If there is a category at which you excel, mention it.
Thanks!!
 
I currently have 60 hours volunteering at a homeless shelter and plan to continue to volunteer until I get accepted (fingers crossed). I expect around 150 hours by then, Fall 2019. Do I just list the 150 hours with a completion date of Fall of next year? Do I note anywhere that my current hours are only 60?
 
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I currently have 60 hours volunteering at a homeless shelter and plan to continue to volunteer until I get accepted (fingers crossed). I expect around 150 hours by then, Fall 2019. Do I just list the 150 hours with a completion date of Fall of next year? Do I note anywhere that my current hours are only 60?
I suggest you make it clear that you have 60 hours done at the time of applucation. You can do this by using the Repeated feature to divide your Total Hours into completed vs future hours, using the current month as the end of datespan1, but also the beginning of datespan2. Or, you can list only the completed hours in the header and note the future hrs/week and projected hours in the narrative.
 
I suggest you make it clear that you have 60 hours done at the time of applucation. You can do this by using the Repeated feature to divide your Total Hours into completed vs future hours, using the current month as the end of datespan1, but also the beginning of datespan2. Or, you can list only the completed hours in the header and note the future hrs/week and projected hours in the narrative.

Thank you, Cat! I do have one more question though. My military experience has given me a lot of clinical hours. Should I list this under military service or paid clinical work?
 
My military experience has given me a lot of clinical hours. Should I list this under military service or paid clinical work?
Those who were active military recently can break their time down into multiple categories, if applicable, like Military, Leadership, Teaching, Awards/Honors, and if it's distnctive enough to be different from what you want to say about military service, eg, Employment-Clinical. Each would have their own hours and dates, not double counting the hours.
 
1) So long as there is more US physician shadowing listed, you can include international shadowing, too. Of course, you will leave yourself open to interview questions about "Compare and contrast healthcare systems in the two countries," if you include it.

2) How many US shadowing hours will you have completed, and how many more do you anticipate adding starting in July?

I am an NIH postbac, and I currently have ~40 hours of shadowing at programs the NIH. These are all MD/PhD observations, and I'm expecting to continue and reach ~130 hours by the end of next May. This is without counting hours in China and hours at the scheduled shadowing.

The shadowing in China was one week, ~40 hours. The upcoming one in July will also be one week, ~40 hours.

I am specifically applying to only MD/PhD programs if that matters.
 
If I combine all my shadowing experiences, can I include an upcoming one that is scheduled in July.
I am an NIH postbac, and I currently have ~40 hours of shadowing at programs the NIH. These are all MD/PhD observations, and I'm expecting to continue and reach ~130 hours by the end of next May. This is without counting hours in China and hours at the scheduled shadowing.

The shadowing in China was one week, ~40 hours. The upcoming one in July will also be one week, ~40 hours.

I am specifically applying to only MD/PhD programs if that matters.
I think you are fine to include it at the end your narrative list of shadowing experiences, as an addendum (location, contact, anticipated hours). But I would not include it in the Total Hours of the header.

For the NIH shadowing which is ongoing, use the Repeated feature to divide completed vs future hours. All of it will show up in the header on two lines.

Side comment: you will have way more shadowing than you need, especially for MD/PhD. About 50 hours is the average listed.
 
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