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*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2019-2020 *~*~*~*
Started by Matthew9Thirtyfive
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Had you used the EMT license with a position (job or volunteer), you could have mentioned it in that activity listing. Since you never used it, there's no point in including it.
Got it, thank you!!
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When logging hours for the activities we are doing throughout the summer, do we only log how many hours we have done to date and put the end date as this month (ex. June 2019) and then create a separate entry using June 2019 as our start date and our end date being August 2020? Or would be log our hours as being inclusive of the summer (and in the description put how many hours have currently been completed and how many will be completed this summer) and then create a new entry from August 2019- August 2020?
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
I suggest you use the #1 option with the Repeated feature so both date spans and total hours (completed and future hours for this coming summer) appear in the header of the space, putting the end date as August 2019 for the second datespan. Then in your narrative, state that you "plan to resume the activity June-August 2020, hours not included above." I suggest being vague about next summer's plans, as who knows what might interfere, eg, getting accepted to a med school that starts in June or July.
If you attempted the #2 approach, you'd find that the AMCAS program won't allow you to enter a future month.
1. Thank you so much! Would I do option 1 for this situation as well? I am a teaching assistant for Biochem this summer. School has only been going on for 2 weeks so I have done roughly about 8 hours of work, but class goes until August 2019 where I will have roughly completed 40 hours.
2. Also, for TAing would I only count the number of hours that I am lecturing or can I include the hours I spend preparing slides and material?
1) Yes, or maybe you'd consider saving it for Secondaries, since you have so few hours. Alternatively, you could tack it onto another teaching activity, and mention the current and future hours in the narrative, stating, "Anticipate 40 hours total, not included above."
2) Prep hours may be included in the header's Total Hours, but your Contact may not be able to attest to those, so be sure to break down the teaching hours and the prep hours in your description.
For one of my most meaningful activities, I volunteered in an organization called for example green frog partnership. We were associated with helping residents of this place called green frog apartments.
In the first sentence of my description, I accidentally wrote green frog partnership (instead of apartments) provides housing for _____. and later I explain what green frog partnership does for those residents.
Should I email schools after I'm verified about the minor mistake? or just leave it alone? @Catalystik
In the first sentence of my description, I accidentally wrote green frog partnership (instead of apartments) provides housing for _____. and later I explain what green frog partnership does for those residents.
Should I email schools after I'm verified about the minor mistake? or just leave it alone? @Catalystik
From what you've presented, I don't think this minor typo will take away from readers' ability to understand the service you were involved in. So I think you can let it go. If a Secondary provides a relevant prompt, you can give corrected information, but I don't think you need to call attention to the mistake by pointing a finger at it.
greatjoyousday
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For some of my entries I am needing to combine more than one activity into the section (i.e. "Undergraduate Employment" has 4 different jobs under it). Because of the need to list contact info for each job, I'm finding it really hard to say anything substantial about any of the jobs other than a short "customer service" or "developed strong prioritization skills". I don't get to expand on that and explain why. Is this okay? Should I ditch my very short explanation of my job responsibilities in order to say more about why the job was significant? I have this same problem with Undergrad Clubs and Non-clinical Volunteering. Thank you for the help!
1) Yes, as many undergrad jobs are fairly self-explanatory, and some maybe had no significance beyond earning money.
2) If the job is self-explanatory, you can drop description and role completely and move on to other comments or leave more characters for more significant employment that gave teamwork or leadership opportunities, deployed characteristics desirable in a med school candidate, or had more responsibility.
thank you!
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When I was listing my “awards” on the W/A section I put “Commandants list” and “Distinguished honor graduate” for each military school I have been in and clarified things like “Number 1 of 175” and “Number 4 of 230.” I did this as a way of kind of contextualizing the associated grades on my transcript. Does that add value/help contextualize?
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Yes, it adds value to know what competition you were up against.
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907914
To make room for that with character count I got rid of all of my scholarships (mostly need based and military/veteran). Was that a good choice?
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Only merit-based related to college achievement should be mentioned in Awards/Honors. You saw that there was another place on the application to enter how you paid for school. So taking out the others was a very good choice.
I was a member of Greek Life, and held multiple leadership positions.
Would I list this as Leadership and include all hours I have put in to my sorority, including those not in a position?
Or list it as two experiences as "Leadership" and "Extracurricular Activities"?
Would I list this as Leadership and include all hours I have put in to my sorority, including those not in a position?
Or list it as two experiences as "Leadership" and "Extracurricular Activities"?
Thanks in advance for the help!
One of my ECs is kinda all-encompassing and involves clinical volunteering, health outreach and education, and physician shadowing. I am planning on designating it as my most-meaningful and plan to write about all the facets of this org in my entry. However, should I still list it under my shadowing entry as well? Are redundant entries generally okay to have?
Speaking of shadowing, I have also accumulated hours from "informal" shadowing from a hospital volunteer program (where shadowing during the shift was one of the activities we were permitted to do--as such I was able to observe rounds and procedures). In this case, how should I describe this experience in the app? I'm thinking of designating it under the shadowing tab as a form of informal shadowing, but idk if adcoms look unfavorably at that type of experience rather than actual, designated shadowing. Any help would be appreciated!
One of my ECs is kinda all-encompassing and involves clinical volunteering, health outreach and education, and physician shadowing. I am planning on designating it as my most-meaningful and plan to write about all the facets of this org in my entry. However, should I still list it under my shadowing entry as well? Are redundant entries generally okay to have?
Speaking of shadowing, I have also accumulated hours from "informal" shadowing from a hospital volunteer program (where shadowing during the shift was one of the activities we were permitted to do--as such I was able to observe rounds and procedures). In this case, how should I describe this experience in the app? I'm thinking of designating it under the shadowing tab as a form of informal shadowing, but idk if adcoms look unfavorably at that type of experience rather than actual, designated shadowing. Any help would be appreciated!
If you want a Leadership-Not Listed Elsewhere entry, it should not include the dates or hours of the affiliated activity. Either split it into two spaces, each with its own dates and Total Hours, or mention the leadership in the same space with the Extracurricular listing, adding the word, "Leadership" to the title of the space so it won't be missed. Don't double count any hours.
1) Since this is likely to be documentable shadowing for which you have the required Contact, I strongly suggest you carve out the shadowing hours (not double-counting them) and discuss it first in a designated Shadowing space. You can still refer to the shadowing component in your description of the affiliated activity during your MM discussion. After bringing it up you might add something like, "shadowing (listed elsewhere) . . ."
2) After the description of the formal shadowing in a Shadowing space, you might add, "Also, I informally shadowed physician rounds and procedures 2/18-7/18 in [facility] with multiple staff physicians for about YY hours."
I like it!
Refer to it vaguely, like, mediocre performance (not specifically, like I got a C-). There's no benefit to pointing your finger at an acne lesion on your chin to emphasize it, when it might not get close inspection otherwise.
So quick question, if conducted an independent project in lab with some supervision from my PI and put in significant number of hours. I got a university grant to do research, like a stipend, would I be a research assistant or undergraduate researcher. Debating what to put in experience name. Any suggestions?
In this situation, I think you're justified to call yourself a researcher. Mention the grant, and how competitive that application process was. Maybe name it Researcher (or Investigator) into [problem, topic, or discipline]. Try to give a hint about what the project dealt with.
I know this was touched a bit in the introduction post, but wanted to just do a last-minute check before I go about submitting.
Regarding newly joined activities.. how should these be handled? I have a couple of groups I joined very recently: one is community service projects around the city, but haven't had an opportunity to do any of the events just yet; another is very recently joined an animal shelter as a volunteer, but haven't even been able to complete orientation yet. Should I just leave these out altogether? Or mention/only mention in secondaries?
Thanks!
Regarding newly joined activities.. how should these be handled? I have a couple of groups I joined very recently: one is community service projects around the city, but haven't had an opportunity to do any of the events just yet; another is very recently joined an animal shelter as a volunteer, but haven't even been able to complete orientation yet. Should I just leave these out altogether? Or mention/only mention in secondaries?
Thanks!
You can save them so you have something fresh to mention in Secondaries.
Or, you could tack mention of them onto the end of a related activity in the same category, especially if you can make a connection between the two, like "During this activity I saw there was a need for [xxxx] so I have joined [Organization] and will become active [date]."
I submitted yesterday and just noticed that I made a mistake on my hours (and they're now too low). Is this something I could correct in secondaries or am I just out of luck?
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deleted972488
How big of a mistake? Like putting 15 instead of 150? Or like putting 100 instead of 105?
250 instead of 350
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deleted972488
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What was the category you tagged the Activity with?
I have an activity that has been in the works for a while and I'm starting in two weeks. I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to use my 15th slot to just explain that I'm starting it soon, in two sentences what I expect to be doing, and that it would be the subject of an update if admissible.
What percent of those screened are found to have an abnormal test?
Screening a normal population, rather than "patients" makes this iffy to use for a clinical activity. Considering that you've taken on a leadership role with the group, I suggest you consider listing under Leadership. Or, alternatively Volunteering-Not Medical/Clinical (if you are weaker in that category). Let adcomms reading it make up their own minds. Some WILL give you points in the clinical category, but you won't be felt to be upselling the activity for the rest of them that don't feel that way.
1) You are active in the organization, but not yet mentoring, which may take many months to begin. I suggest that you do not list it under Teaching (of which mentoring is a form), but using
a) Extracurricular or
b) Volunteer Not Medical/Clinical or
c) Leadership (the latter only if you list only the dates and hours of your leadership role) as the category instead.
Within that space you could mention the future plan to take on a mentee when you are matched. Considering the distant future when that might occur, I suggest refraining from projecting mentoring hours, but the potential time commitment could be inserted as X hours per week for Y weeks.
I don't feel it would be appropriate to use a space for a not-yet-begun activity.
You could save it so you have something fresh to mention in Secondaries.
Or, you could tack mention of it onto the end of a related activity in the same category, especially if you can make a connection between the two, like "During this activity I saw there was a need for [xxxx] so I have joined [Organization] and will become active [date]."
Thanks for the sage advice! It's completely unrelated to anything else I have on my app, so looks like I'll just leave it for secondaries
it's tagged as clinical volunteering but the title was "Volunteering and Leadership with X organization". It's also one of my MM so I have a lot of description of what I actually do. I have another 270 hours of clinical volunteering.
edit: the 270 hours is in two additional organizations/activity slots, in case that was unclear
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deleted972488
I can’t imagine 450 vs. 550 total clinical volunteering hours being make-or-break, but some schools ask for an update of your activities on the secondaries and it would be appropriate to mention the extra hours if you want.
@EmbryonalCarcinoma and @Catalystik Thanks to both of you! Makes me feel a little less bad about the typo I didn't catch
Is it acceptable to say ER or ED without typing it out? I assume most people know what they are but I do not want to make the wrong assumption.
Like, erectile dysfunction?
) Mention all three positions, but there is no need to explain the role of a position that is universally understood. Expand on your notable contributions/initiatives for any of the offices you held.
2) I think that would result in a very confusing entry. I suggest you keep the two organizations separated in their own spaces.
If the volunteer component of Organization #1 was significant, you have the option of separating out the volunteer hours into their own space and entering the leadership roles in a Leadership-Not Listed Elsewhere space with their own dates and hours.
You could wait until the Internship starts and then give it its own space, but you won't have much to say.
You could save it for Secondaries so you have something fresh to relay.
Or you could tack mention of your acceptance into the program onto the end of another recent similar activity, with your start date.
All shadowing should be in one space. MD schools don't care if docs are MD or DO. See my example in post 2, item #10 of this thread.
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One of my activities took place at a children's hospital, and I have it marked as most meaningful. Would it be wise to put in my explanation for this that I am interested in pediatrics which is partly why I found this experience meaningful?
There was a volunteer course at one of my colleges that shows up on my transcript. Should I also add to my work and activities?
Should I draw direct comparisons to how my soft skills would help in medical school/medicine in general?
1) You have to walk a fine line about avowing a future specialty plan. Instead of stating a plan to go into pediatrics, say what you liked about the activity that might draw you to specializing in the treatment of kids. But stay apparently open-minded. Adcomms know 80% change their minds before applying to residencies.
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