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Yes.
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*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2019-2020 *~*~*~*
Started by Matthew9Thirtyfive
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Do you have enough hours for each that you can split them out into two activity slots? Alternatively, you could group the nonclinical service in with another nonclinical service.
Right, I didn't make a post because I was worried about that as well. Oh well!
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If you have plenty on nonmedical community service, then tag it Teaching. If your community service is on the sparse side, then tag it with Community Service/Volunteer- Not Medical/Clinical. Sometimes you get a choice and you can pick based on a strategy to appeal to as many schools as possible.
Perfect!
@gonnif @Catalystik Quick question regarding entering schools on AMCAS. I went to a junior college when I was in high school for a class during the summer. Should I click the "summer school only" option when entering the school or should I enter the time frame that I attended the school?
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HiHowAreYou
New Member
A publication, I am the PI - with people working under me.
For a clinical volunteering activity I had about 140 hours over 10 months that I stopped last August, so by the time of application, a year or more would have passed. If I put this as my most meaningful, would it raise eyebrows as to why I didn’t continue it? I did get a new clinical volunteering position this summer, though, but it’s only for one summer.
scorpion2020
Full Member
Hi I have a question regarding a volunteer project I was involved in.
Its a kinda unique project created by a medical student where we provide blood pressure testing at underserved areas. He has a website where it explains what we do as well as asking for funding. In this website, there is various pictures of me with the team and us taking blood pressure. Can I link this website in my activity slot? Have people done this before? I think it would be a good way to show the impact I have had on this volunteer project but I am also not sure whether it is appropriate to link a website.
Its a kinda unique project created by a medical student where we provide blood pressure testing at underserved areas. He has a website where it explains what we do as well as asking for funding. In this website, there is various pictures of me with the team and us taking blood pressure. Can I link this website in my activity slot? Have people done this before? I think it would be a good way to show the impact I have had on this volunteer project but I am also not sure whether it is appropriate to link a website.
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This thread is dedicated to the Activities section. Ask gonnif your question here: *~*~*~* Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2019-2020 *~*~*~*
Use the editor of the journal as the contact.
No. It won't raise eyebrows. Adcomms know there are various reasons why even a terrific volunteer opportunity can't be continued.
If it's about studying abroad, enter the hours you attended classes. If it's about traveling abroad/cultural exposure, you could enter your waking hours spent outside of the place you lived.
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Adcomms would prefer that you don't link to a site like that. Hone your description to reflect the impression you would like adcomms to get if they had viewed the site.
1) Yes.
2) Unfortunately, if you place the experience in a Leadership space, it should include only the timespan and total hours you were involved in the leadership role. Some options:
a) Split out the general membership in the organization and list it separately with its own timespan and total hours.
b) List the leadership alone in a Leadership space, but then give the backstory of general membership in the narrative, but without including those hours in the header's Total Hours space.
c) Keep the entire activity together under a suitable (maybe, Extracurricular?) tag, but include the title of the leadership position in the name you give the space. An advantage of this last option is that you could obscure the number of leadership hours, which are kind of low, by including all the hours together (membership plus leadership time) in the Total Hours space.
For a dance team I was the captain of, who is the best person to put as a contact?
Did you have a faculty advisor or faculty coach. a general academic advisor aware of your activity, a co-captain or other officer of the group?
Interesting, what if we have a photography portfolio posted on a well known website, should we refrain from using links?
I suggest you link only to a select representation of your own work, not to a more general website.
So could I just give my main roles then use the 1325 characters to explain how I've grown?
For example, use how I have to create a lot of concise data electronically and on-paper as how I became diligent with staying accurate for the whole department?
Yes.
Thank you for your help! Last question: I am going to stay at this job until I (hopefully) gain an acceptance to medical school. It isn't a repeated experience. So how do I fill out the start and end date? As well as hours? It's a FT job and I average 45 hours/week
You can use the Repeated feature to divide completed vs future hours, if you're somewhat sure of how long you'll stay. The End Month used could be May, in which case you'd use May for the Start Month of the future hours (or use June and June if you wait to fill it in until it's really the month of June, or the program won't let you save it.
As for the hours, make a good faith estimate of your hours using the hours/week, subtracting vacation time. The two timeframes will appear at the top of the activity space. You could perhaps be more accurate if you have access to your pay stubs.
Alternatively, if your future End Date is unclear, enter only the completed dates and hours in the Total Hours space. Then, at the end of the entry add, "Will work through the application season at 45 hours per week." You might want to use the second approach if you could quit anywhere from October to July if you get an acceptance.
No. I'm glad you asked as that is a no no for the Work/Activities section. If the injury and its treatment were part of your decision to go into medicine, you can mention it in the Personal Statement, though.
Spell it out once, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. After that, you can use the abbreviation. Keep in mind that everyone reading your application won't have a medical background. Certainly, there are some universally known abbreviations you could use, like MRI or UCLA. If your elderly relative understands the abbreviation, it might be OK to use without definition.
What is the best way to condense presentations/poster titles to fit into the 700 character space? I have 4 national conference posters with my name listed as one of the authors, but with the full title present and with the full author list I run out of space quickly. Is cutting the name to an abbreviated version or abbreviating the conference names acceptable?
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It's fine to abbreviate the title, and cut the authorship list out, just stating your place in the lineup, but don't abbreviate the conference name unless it's still very clear to your elderly relative where it took place. If you presented the same data at two venues, you might just list the more prestigious. If you were not the author who presented the poster, make that clear.
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deleted688779
I understand a general piece of advice is to not get too technical when it comes to research on the PS. But what about for the W/A section? Is it typical or advised to list some of the relevant lab protocol? If so, would it be appropriate to say "qPCR" or "Western Blots"? I'm not sure how I will be able to put those into layman terms without wasting characters. This is a most meaningful, if that makes a difference.
would it be okay to categorize a group fitness instructor job as leadership experience?
I suggest the first sentence be an explanation of your research that your older relative could understand. After that, you can get technical, but you don't want it to be so project-specific with a sea of jargon that an unrelated-field researcher's eyes will glaze over. Some schools will select an interviewer for you that knows your field and can grill you on minutia, and that would be the time to use verbal abbreviations.
Unless you are the supervisor of the other group fitness instructors, then no. It should be Teaching or Employment.
I was involved in a project, at least partially funded by the National Science Foundation and the US Dept of Education, where I made computer graphics/renderings that were used to test science education (the research part was a collab between us [in the college of math & sci] and the college of education of our university). While I was originally hired as part of an EPSCoR grant and am an author (not first) of a published research paper, I did not actually participate in research design or actually carrying out the research (which involved testing students on knowledge retention). I did participate in weekly team meetings, lead by the PI's. My involvement in this project spanned >5 years. My question is, is this "research"?
Edit: might be pertinent for you to know these were cellular/molecular biology educational material.
Edit: might be pertinent for you to know these were cellular/molecular biology educational material.
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From what you've described, it doesn't look like "Research" for AMCAS purposes. You might instead consider adding it to the Activities section under Employment, or even perhaps Teaching or Artistic Endeavors.
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1) You will find that the AMCAS program will not allow you to enter a future month and "save" it.
a) Since you've already engaged in research with the lab you plan on resuming in August, you might make a note at the end of that entry that you'll resume August 2019. Since you may not know your hours per week or how long you'll be there, or your role, it might be best to leave it at that. If you know some of that, you can include it.
b) This projected brand new activity can't be entered into a space and saved, since it's in the future. Or are you willing to wait to submit your application until you begin the new clinical volunteering? If not, save mention of it for Secondaries.
2) No, no, no. Only include those hours when you were engaged in scheduled program activities. No sleep. No grooming and socialization time. That would be looked on as major fluff and you'd cause eyebrows to rise.
1) It isn't a publication until it's accepted. It would be premature to list a manuscript with pending status.
2) If the posters were presented on campus, you can cite them in the Research entry. If they were accepted to a regional or national conference, they belong in their own Presentations/Posters slot.
Thanks for this! Just to follow up...
1) Is it true that projected hours are weighted with a grain of salt? I just hope that I won't be put at a disadvantage for not initially saying 1000 hours for research or another 200 hours for clinical volunteering on my primary, even though that is likely what I could end up by (hopefully) matriculation.
2) and then a non-related question: lets say I got paid for two on-campus jobs - dining hall worker and tutor. Is it okay to just say "Dining Hall Worker/Tutor on Campus" as the experience name or does it have to be "Undergraduate Jobs" and then describe them under?
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If I'm a little lacking in non-clinical volunteering, will it raise any eyebrows if I classify hospital administrative volunteering as non-clinical? It was mainly sitting in departments doing copying, stapling, clerical work, etc. It definitely didn't fit the "if you can smell patients" rule for clinical but I'm wondering whether it'll be seen as padding my non-clinical hours.
Yes, it's true that projected hours don't weigh into decision-making. Entering them is more of a signal of your intentions. And if a Contact validates that you have more hours than you listed as complete, they have the context to understand why. Many applicants include no future hours at all.
You volunteered. You weren't paid. You did the hospital a service that did not involve patient contact. It's fine for Community Service/Volunteer-Not Medical/Clinical.
I dont want to make a whole new entry for one of my publications because I wrote a lot about it in my most meaningful activity section. However, i did not have space to include the full details of the publication (title, names, date link etc), so would it be ok if I just put it with the rest of my awards in the award section?
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deleted804295
I had two very different roles and different titles associated within a single organization.
Should I list them as separate activities?
Should I list them as separate activities?
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deleted804295
Also should I list leadership positions that were very difficult to attain but that I dropped out of quickly due to lack of interest?
Pro: Cool leadership title
Con: Being asked why I left said organization
Pro: Cool leadership title
Con: Being asked why I left said organization
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deleted804295
Should working at an office that coordinates nursing homes be considered medical paid work?
Medically related roles:
1. Talking to the nursing home residents when they visit the office
2. Joining the nurses to help jot down health related notes notes
Non-Medical related roles:
1. Doing office clerk work
2. Making paychecks
Medically related roles:
1. Talking to the nursing home residents when they visit the office
2. Joining the nurses to help jot down health related notes notes
Non-Medical related roles:
1. Doing office clerk work
2. Making paychecks
Readers looking for research productivity won't look for it in Awards/Honors. Would you be able to fit an abbreviated article title, maybe the journal, and the PubMed ID# in the Research entry? You aren't obliged to give a full, formal citation.
How should I list my TA positions for PE classes? Just wondering how I should talk about it since Im afraid they might look down on PE. Have about 80 hrs total between cycling, ultimate frisbee, and rock climbing
Also should I list I was on the Deans list for a quarter even thought I do not have other academic awards to follow it up with
Also should I list I was on the Deans list for a quarter even thought I do not have other academic awards to follow it up with
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