Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
-
CycleTrack and SDN are teaming up to make medical school admissions more transparent and accessible! Read the announcement to learn how we’re supporting the future of CycleTrack’s free application-tracking tools .
*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2018-2019*~*~*~*
Started by Lucca
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
- Status
So I'm wondering if/how to list this in my application. I'm a caretaker of a seriously ill family member, if I estimate the hours spent on this I probably have 10,000 hrs(including pretty much living in the hospital while he was admitted for 2-3 months) doing this in the last 4 years. I will be talking about this in my personal statement, but I was wondering, I should I list this as an activity in my application? If so, should it be listed as "other"?
Last edited:
Some adcomms won't feel you should list it. I'm OK with it, so long as you don't use the Volunteer category, because you've dedicated a lot of time to this assistance that you could otherwise have spent on building your extracurriculars. "Other" is the most suitable tag.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Thank you. Do you think some adcomms would knock me(meaning is it a big risk) for listing it "other"? Also who do you suggest I list as a contact? Myself? It's my mother and I taking care of my dad.
Last edited:
1) If you want to invite a spectrum of opinion on your specific situation, post in the main PreMed Forum.
2) Use yourself as a Contact.
Edit: I am importing some adcomm past posts on the issue for you:
The above have agreed that including it in the PS or in Challenge essays is fine, however.
Last edited:
Thank you, I might post it there. What do you suggest I title it as? Is "Caregiver for Family member" okay?
I edited my last post to quote some other SDN adcomm members opinions on the issue.
That title sounds good.
Last edited:
D
deleted823360
I searched the thread and I believe this hasn't been explicitly addressed... apologies if this is addressed somewhere on the AAMC website.
I am listing the experience type "Honors/Awards/Recognitions" twice: once for academic awards/recognitions and once for research funding awards. For each, I plan to group my respective honors based on the category. However, we're only able to list one date and one contact.
How should we effectively group awards, then? For instance, one funding award is 2014 and another 2015 and each have their own contact that I would want to list. I was thinking of listing "May 2018" since all of these honors occurred before my application. For contact, I was planning on listing my pre-med committee chair who would be able to vouch for my honors.
Is this acceptable? Thank you.
To be clear: you're planning to use two spaces, Honors/Awards #1 for academic recognitions and Honors/Awards #2 for Funding Awards? Or did you mean that within a single Honors/Awards space, you'll have two categories, academic and funding?
D
deleted823360
Hi, sorry for not being clear. I will be using two separate spaces - unless you think it is acceptable to just group everything into one space.
If so, I still am confused about accurately filling out date/contact. Thank you for your help!
Thank you. I read that thread you're referencing and I've decided against including it, I'll just put in my PS. Thank you for your help 🙂
Honors/Awards #1 for Academic Recognitions: You can use the College Registrar for a Contact. They have a record of everything, like academic recognitions and scholarships. For date you can use when you graduated or the end of spring term (by which time they had all been earned. In the narrative you'd list each award in reverse chronological order, the date you got it, and you'd add an explanation if the award isn't universally recognized. If it was very competitive, try to give an indication of selectivity involved.
Honors/Awards #2 for Research Funding Awards: List them in reverse order. Link them with the topic. Put the most recent Contact in the header and the second in the narrative description. Use the date from 2015, by which time you'd received them both.
L
LoveBeingHuman:)
@Catalystik Would a misuse of ambiguous commas in the activities section (or personal statement for that matter) be harmful?
Can/should we group work experience? I've had 4 paid jobs throughout undergrad (with most simultaneously) but I don't want to waste available space that I could use for my other activities by listing them individually. Is grouping them all okay? They are all sort of related, in a sense (tutoring/consulting, grading, TA-ing etc.)...
Man, I forgot about not being repetitive between here and secondaries. I do have a story that I can tell that comes to mind though. I'm kind of nervous about repeating my activities in secondaries a little bit now. Should I look on the secondary thread for that advice or do you have advice on that?
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Is the contact title supposed to be Ms, Mrs, Dr, etc? Or is it the actual name of the position your contact holds (volunteer manager, secretary etc)?
Also, if we are going to be continuing an activity during our gap year but are not sure when it will end, what date should we put for the end date of the activity? In such a case, is the total hours supposed to be only those that have been completed or should I be including the future hours in this as well?
Also, if we are going to be continuing an activity during our gap year but are not sure when it will end, what date should we put for the end date of the activity? In such a case, is the total hours supposed to be only those that have been completed or should I be including the future hours in this as well?
NO! Unlike myself, most adcomms didn't have an English teacher for a parent.
It's fine to group them under Collegiate Work Experience or Short-Term Collegiate Employment, or some such. But if you don't have a dedicated Teaching space already, you might consider grouping those experiences (not the grading gig) into another space. If they all involved actual teaching, you can consider tagging the space with Teaching instead of Employment. In which case, put the word Paid in the title you pick for the space.
Tips on Secondaries lies outside the scope of this thread.
1) No. Do not enter the salutation. The contact title appears after the first and last name, so you'd enter a degree (RN, PhD, MD, eg) if relevant, a comma, then their work title, or whatever title is relevant to your relationship with them (Scout Master, Principal Investigator, Gastroenterologist, Business Owner/Manager, Volunteer Coordinator, etc).
2) If you aren't sure about the duration, rather than entering a distant end date, put an addendum in the narrative like, "Will continue xx hours/week at least through 12/2018." No need to guess at hourly totals. Better to be vague than to have angst over an unfulfilled near-promise down the line. (I'm sure you've seen those posts.)
1)The contact title for me actually appears before the first and last name 😕 but I guess I should still go with their position title for this one?
2) Alright, thanks! I will do that.
Attachments
1) I agree that on the online AMCAS application, the Title space comes before the name, but when you look at the Print version of your application, the Title appears after the name, with a comma inserted between automatically. If you did have a salutation that you wanted to appear before the first name, you'd have to include it as part of the first name, like,
Title: United States Army, First Name: Captain Mary, Last Name: Cohen
This would then appear on the printed version of your application as Captain Mary Cohen, United States Army.
Ugh I know, I'm spelling it out and then saying "(formerly SMDEP)" in case they're more familiar with the old name. Definitely going to describe it as well, thanks again for the advice!
Got a couple of quick questions.
1. I was a co-author on a project while doing undergraduate research, and for the Experience Name I'm putting:
Co-Authored Poster on Predictors of College Students Level of Nutritional Knowledge, but the entire name won't fit. How would you recommend I rename it? Should I just write Co-Author on undergraduate poster, or no?
2. For the Honor's society that I was a part of, for the experience name I'm putting it as:
Recognition for superior academic achievement.
That's fine for the name right?
1. I was a co-author on a project while doing undergraduate research, and for the Experience Name I'm putting:
Co-Authored Poster on Predictors of College Students Level of Nutritional Knowledge, but the entire name won't fit. How would you recommend I rename it? Should I just write Co-Author on undergraduate poster, or no?
2. For the Honor's society that I was a part of, for the experience name I'm putting it as:
Recognition for superior academic achievement.
That's fine for the name right?
1) It looks like you're about 16 characters over. Maybe: Poster on Predictors of College Students Nutritional Knowledge
2) That sounds a bit egotistical. Maybe: Academic Honor Society Membership. Then in the narrative state the criteria for being invited to join.
Yeah for the awards I wasn't sure how to name it, I wasn't trying to be egotistical lol. I went ahead and changed it to the name you suggested. For the poster, the name still won't fit. Also, now that "Co-Author" is no longer in the title, I have to mention that I was a Co-Author in the description, but I'm out of space as this is what I have right now:
I orally presented and displayed my research poster at the Western Psychological Association Convention to students and professors from multiple universities. At this regional convention, students and professors discussed and presented any research they conducted or contributed to in the field of psychology.
6 hours, 4/2013
Also:
4 hours, 2/2013
I presented the same poster at California State University Northridge's (CSUN) 17th Annual Student Research & Creative Works Symposium. This symposium was a student conference that featured oral and poster presentations. The purpose of it was to showcase excellence in scholarly research conducted by CSUN students across all academic disciplines.
You're right. I can only get 59 characters in the space. Co-Author on Nutrition Poster?
Catalystik, thank you again for your help. I had a quick question. On my AMCAS application, for ongoing activities, I listed my start date and put the end date in the future (August 2019 for example). For my hours, I put completed + projected in the "Total Hours" box, then in my description I started it off with "Completed: X hours, Projected: Y hours" to specify. Do you think this is okay? Just wanted to check I didn't make a mistake. Thank you again.
Yes, it's OK. You made the difference between completed vs projected hours clear in your entry. If you wanted to free up more characters for description in an AMCAS application, an alternative would be to use the Repeated feature so that completed vs future hours appear in the header above the narrative box. To make this work, you'd use the same month to end the first date span and to begin the second date span.
I was able to fit the following: Co-Author on Students Level of Nutritional Knowledge Poster.
Having said that, I don't have to mention in the description that I was Co-Author again right? I wrote on post #930 of this thread my description for the experience. Does it sound fine the way it is? Thanks
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
There's no way to change the order. The default is (reverse) chronological, but schools can reorder them any way they like depending on their prefered parameters.
No. But did you not plan to formally cite it with the authors in order?
FATCATSITSINABOX
President of Fat Cat Journal
Is there any value in listing posters/presentations where other authors may have presented?
You're saying that in the actual description box we have to write out all of the Author's name for the poster in alphabetical order? I didn't know we're supposed to do that, I thought we just say we Co-Authored on the presentation. Additionally, that would make it challenging since I'm out of characters for that description. How would I go about navigating this?
So I will be a reapplicant this upcoming cycle and have tried to improve my app from last cycle to be more competitive. I have a 3.92 gpa and retook my 507 (129,124,128,126) MCAT and am hoping for a 515+ (will find out next week). I have a wide range of clinical activities (2000+ hrs), research, and extracurriculars but was lacking nonclinical service activities last cycle. I tried to correct that by joining a more altruistic organization and have started volunteering weekly at a mobile vision clinic which serves local underserved populations and homeless shelters (~200hrs). My plan is to portray these vision clinics as something that I pursued for the sole purpose of helping underserved populations and am hoping that my regular involvement in this area will suffice in the eyes of the admissions committee and show that I actually care about people, which I definitely do! However, I realize that this experience still counts as a clinical volunteer experience and my question to you is, will portraying my involvement in this organization for the sole purpose of altruism make up for lack of nonclinical service hours? Thanks in advance 🙂
If you are on the author's list, you can claim it no matter who presented it. Just be sure to make it clear who presented it. Research is a team sport and it's important to give credit where it's due.
No, you don't have to fully cite it including the author's list, if you don't have the space to do so.
Your question would be more appropriately asked in the WAMC forum, but the answer would be school dependent. Serving those without economic resources is certainly a high form of community service, relative to other common experiences listed.
To get around the issue: Is it possible you can spin the experience to emphasize the nonclinical tasks you undertook so that you can list it as NonMedical? Most people seeking an eye exam are not sick or injured. They get an exam for the purpose of getting glasses. Volunteering might also have included set up and clean up, sorting donated glasses, entertaining kids while a parent was busy, managing records, etc.
I did an internship in my last semester of undergrad at a mental health facility dealing with individuals who had drug addictions and mental health issues. I did roughly ~110 hours.
I’m taking 2 gap years doing post bacc work while continuing my clinical/ non clinical volunteering and shadowing. Should I add this to my activities section even though it would be 2-3 years old activity?
I’m applying 2020, this activity was done in 2017.
I’m taking 2 gap years doing post bacc work while continuing my clinical/ non clinical volunteering and shadowing. Should I add this to my activities section even though it would be 2-3 years old activity?
I’m applying 2020, this activity was done in 2017.
It sounds worth including. Two to three years old is fine. Be sure you save Contact information.
If I'm including two separate activities under one umbrella activity name, do I list the contact information for each activity separately? How would I do this?
The Contact for the first listed experience goes in the header. The second Contact goes in the narrative box with the description of the second activity.
IMO, you should be fine with extensive hours of paid clinical experience on your application when it comes to covering adcomm expectations for patient interaction. For such an applicant, listing Nonclinical Community Service would be much more important. Is there any way you could spin the clinical volunteering (or parts of it) to emphasize the nonclinical elements and include those hours in the same space?
When adding a work experience to your list of activities, would you 1. right off the bat say you worked for instance part time while studying for the MCAT, or would you first describe your responsibilities at the job, and then throw in there that you did it while studying for the MCAT?
2. Should you mention how the skills you learned on your job would help you as a medical student or working with future patients, or not necessarily?
3. If my job entailed working in a warehouse and shipping, processing, and sending out orders, would Warehouse Worker or Associate be a good name for the description, or would there be a better way to name it?
2. Should you mention how the skills you learned on your job would help you as a medical student or working with future patients, or not necessarily?
3. If my job entailed working in a warehouse and shipping, processing, and sending out orders, would Warehouse Worker or Associate be a good name for the description, or would there be a better way to name it?
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
I don't think that having zero clinical volunteering on your primary application will hurt you, since you have extensive clinical job hours. Saving it for mention on Secondaries is fine.
1) I wouldn't necessarily mention the MCAT.
2) Not necessarily.
3) Either sounds good.
If you don't mention the MCAT, then how would they know that you were working while studying for the MCAT, which shows that you're good with juggling multiple things at once and having good time management skills?
Turns out I have a technical error in one of my activity descriptions where I wrote auto instead of allo talking about a study. Technically, I do work in both allo and auto transplants but the way the sentence reads it doesn't make sense. Is it worth addressing in secondaries pre-emptively where they ask if there's anything else I want them to know? Or best to just let it go unless it theoretically comes up in an interview setting?
Adcomms can connect the dots themselves, by knowing your MCAT date and evaluating your application to see how heavy a load you carried.
- Status
Similar threads
