*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2020-2021 *~*~*~*

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In terms of the work/experience name, should it be my title, i.e. if research "co-author, x study" or just "x study" and then I explain in the description that I co-authored it? Thanks.
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soroe said:
If I am part of a research team that wrote a paper and just submitted it to the Annals of Family Medicine, how should I convey that it has been submitted but we haven't heard back yet?
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soroe said:
In terms of the work/experience name, should it be my title, i.e. if research "co-author, x study" or just "x study" and then I explain in the description that I co-authored it?
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Is this the same research I re-quoted above, where the co-authored paper has not yet been accepted? If so, the title of the Research space should refer only to the research topic. If you mention the submitted paper, do so at the end of the research description in the narrative box. Something like Scholarly Investigation on [Topic] would be a good space title.
 
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If our study abroad program included medical school curriculum and medical-related experiential learning, and we took leadership roles within it (i.e. was blogger for the program), can it be a slot in work and activities? Or not because it was technically academic? Thanks
 
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soroe said:
If our study abroad program included medical school curriculum and medical-related experiential learning, and we took leadership roles within it (i.e. was blogger for the program), can it be a slot in work and activities? Or not because it was technically academic?
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Yes, you can discuss Study Abroad experiences in the Activities section. The tag of "Other" is most appropriate since the areas you want to discuss cover a number of designations.
 
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I have a separate Instagram page for casual photography. It's a little collection of favorite pics that I shot myself. I've listed landscape and coastal photography as a hobby on AMCAS. Can I put the @ in my experience description? It is not a meaningful experience but it is one of my favorite hobbies. Note: this is a public page solely for my photography. My private page is different.
 
masalaman10 said:
I have a separate Instagram page for casual photography. It's a little collection of favorite pics that I shot myself. I've listed landscape and coastal photography as a hobby on AMCAS. Can I put the @ in my experience description? It is not a meaningful experience but it is one of my favorite hobbies. Note: this is a public page solely for my photography. My private page is different.
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Best not to give the link, as adcomms won't have time to look at it carefully. And many won't want to click an unknown URL. Instead, describe what you would have wanted them to observe.
 
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Catalystik said:
Best not to give the link, as adcomms won't have time to look at it carefully. And many won't want to click an unknown URL. Instead, describe what you would have wanted them to observe.
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I was just going to say something like "if you'd like to view my photography, you may do so @randompage on Instagram". Obviously I'll put the actual page name. And yes, I will have a description of the hobby alongside this should I go through with it.
 
For the activities section I want to describe my clinical volunteering I've done at a few hospitals. I volunteered at around 3 locations pretty evenly, and I've amassed around ~300 hours. How should I go about consolidating them into one activity for the AMCAS? Should I just have a general description of volunteering (it was pretty much the same responsibilities at each facility) and should I just pick the most recent hospital to list as the contact? I'm just concerned that no one volunteer coordinator could confirm my 300 hours, since I've done around 100 each for each hospital.
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-Title: Multiple Hospital Volunteer Positions.
-Dates in the header can be all inclusive for all the gigs. Total Hours in the header is the total for all three.
-Header info should have most recent hospital and contact

-Narrative: Give general description that applies to all the positions.

-At the end (in reverse chronological order):
Hospital A (dates /sub-total hours
Also:
Hospital B (dates/sub-hours, contact name/phone
Hospital C (dates/sub-hours, contact name/phone

If you have space, you could mention the department you volunteered in, too.
 
Would it be seen as a red flag if I talked about overcoming burnout in my sport I competed in for 18 years for the adversity essays? Obviously I would put that I overcame it, but wondering if the fact I experienced burnout would be something I shouldn't include?
 
lstevens said:
Would it be seen as a red flag if I talked about overcoming burnout in my sport I competed in for 18 years for the adversity essays? Obviously I would put that I overcame it, but wondering if the fact I experienced burnout would be something I shouldn't include?
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This sounds more appropriate for a Challenge-type essay, rather than Adversity, but it's fine to use, since you overcame it, and ideally employed some useful strategies you can report.
 
Catalystik said:
Author Name(s). Name of Presentation. Poster or Paper presented at: Name of Conference; Date of Conference; Location of Conference.

Of course the citation need not necessarily be "proper." If you have many posters, you can abbreviate some of the elements as needed, so they all fit in one space.
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Hi Catalystik,
Thanks for all of your help on this site. I was concerned with what happens if medical schools cannot find your presentation given this citation. I entered my citation into google and nothing came up. Should you also provide a link to the presentation? Thanks!
 
HollowJ1 said:
I was concerned with what happens if medical schools cannot find your presentation given this citation. I entered my citation into google and nothing came up. Should you also provide a link to the presentation? Thanks!
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No. Adcomms will not want to follow an unknown link. Best to give enough info that it could be Searched out through other parameters, like the database of the sponsoring organization. If that doesn't work because the organization is too small, not well enough organized, or it never got indexed, etc, then rely on the PI you give as the Contact to attest to it for you.

Do some experimenting to see what search parameters you need to enter for your poster/presentation abstract to come up.
 
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Catalystik said:
No. Adcomms will not want to follow an unknown link. Best to give enough info that it could be Searched out through other parameters, like the database of the sponsoring organization. If that doesn't work because the organization is too small, not well enough organized, or it never got indexed, etc, then rely on the PI you give as the Contact to attest to it for you.

Do some experimenting to see what search parameters you need to enter for your poster/presentation abstract to come up.
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Awesome, Thanks for your help!
 
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Catalystik said:
This sounds more appropriate for a Challenge-type essay, rather than Adversity, but it's fine to use, since you overcame it, and ideally employed some useful strategies you can report.
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Great, thank you so much for your help and advice!
 
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Hello, I'm sorry I tried reading through the thread you have but there's so much and I'm so confused! I want to put undergraduate research in and a poster I'm just confused on how to put them in. I did a presentation at a symposium.

I also I'm wondering if I should put shadowing as most meaningful, I mean it was very meaningful to me but I was only able to do it for 10 hours due to COVID, my activities with the most hours are Research, Volunteering, and Work

I'm just super stressed out and don't know what to specifically put for things

@Catalystik
 
TigerLily223 said:
Hello, I'm sorry I tried reading through the thread you have but there's so much and I'm so confused!
1) I want to put undergraduate research in and a poster I'm just confused on how to put them in. I did a presentation at a symposium.

2) I also I'm wondering if I should put shadowing as most meaningful, I mean it was very meaningful to me but I was only able to do it for 10 hours due to COVID,
3) my activities with the most hours are Research, Volunteering, and Work

I'm just super stressed out and don't know what to specifically put for things

@Catalystik
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1) Read item 20, in post #2 of this thread to help you decide if the research, poster, and presentation should all go in one space, or two. Ask more questions if necessary.

2) If it was meaningful to you, it doesn't matter that it involved only ten hours.

3) The number of hours involved has nothing to do with deciding if an activity is meaningful, or not.
 
OKAY THANK YOU!

I also have one other question! When I fill out my research, Can I just mention that it is a continuation of my professor's past work, or do I have to cite his publication with other professors that did the original work?

@Catalystik
 
TigerLily223 said:
OKAY THANK YOU!

I also have one other question! When I fill out my research, Can I just mention that it is a continuation of my professor's past work, or do I have to cite his publication with other professors that did the original work?

@Catalystik
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You should give a brief description of the project you helped with. The prof's past work would not be of interest to adcomms. Then discuss your role and what you learned. Ideally, you are aware of the hypothesis, methods, how data was collected, analyzed, and conclusions drawn, though all those areas of scholarly investigation need not be included on the application (but could be brought up at interviews).
 
Catalystik said:
You should give a brief description of the project you helped with. The prof's past work would not be of interest to adcomms. Then discuss your role and what you learned. Ideally, you are aware of the hypothesis, methods, how data was collected, analyzed, and conclusions drawn, though all those areas of scholarly investigation need not be included on the application (but could be brought up at interviews).
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Okay once again THANK YOU!! You've brought my stress levels down a bit :)
 
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Okay so I shadowed a doctor but the contact information is of the administration at the hospital because I couldn't get in contact with any doctors individually it was an administration lady that helped me find a doctor so I only have her email. Do I put the doctor's name down? Or the administration lady name down?

@Catalystik
 
TigerLily223 said:
Okay so I shadowed a doctor but the contact information is of the administration at the hospital because I couldn't get in contact with any doctors individually it was an administration lady that helped me find a doctor so I only have her email. Do I put the doctor's name down? Or the administration lady name down?

@Catalystik
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Enter the Admin lady as the Contact and email. Refer to the doc's name and specialty in the narrative description.
 
Catalystik said:
Enter the Admin lady as the Contact and email. Refer to the doc's name and specialty in the narrative description.
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Okay thanks! and for dates, if I am still currently involved in something like work, volunteering - what do I put for end date?
 
TigerLily223 said:
Okay thanks! and for dates, if I am still currently involved in something like work, volunteering - what do I put for end date?
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I suggest dividing your dates and hours into two: Completed and Future, by using the Repeated feature (using the current month for both the end of date span #1 and the beginning of date span #2). The end of date span #2 can be no later than August 2021. Both will appear at the top of the Activity box.

Do you know how long you'll be involved in your work and volunteer activities?

If you have activities interupted by COVID restrictions, they would be entered differently.
 
Catalystik said:
I suggest dividing your dates and hours into two: Completed and Future, by using the Repeated feature (using the current month for both the end of date span #1 and the beginning of date span #2). The end of date span #2 can be no later than August 2021. Both will appear at the top of the Activity box.

Do you know how long you'll be involved in your work and volunteer activities?

If you have activities interupted by COVID restrictions, they would be entered differently.
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MY volunteer was interrupted by COVID I had 45 hours before Covid and I just started volunteering again in June so by the end of August I will have 58 I just put it as 103 hours in total and I work as a technician so I've been working since 2018 and since I was essential, I was still working during COVID
 
TigerLily223 said:
1) MY volunteer was interrupted by COVID I had 45 hours before Covid and I just started volunteering again in June so by the end of August I will have 58 I just put it as 103 hours in total and
2) I work as a technician so I've been working since 2018 and since I was essential, I was still working during COVID
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1) You could either use two date spans, or you could mention the interruption in dates in the narrative.

2) OK. Will you take time off before starting med school? In which case you'd enter an end date sooner than August 2021.

3) Do you have definite resume-dates for the shadowing yet?
 
Catalystik said:
1) You could either use two date spans, or you could mention the interruption in dates in the narrative.

2) OK. Will you take time off before starting med school? In which case you'd enter an end date sooner than August 2021.

3) Do you have definite resume-dates for the shadowing yet?
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Im sorry, what do you mean by definite resume-dates? I shadowed in January 2020 I was supposed to shadow again in March and April but COVID happened
 
Catalystik said:
Have you called to see if rescheduling the cancelled dates is possible?
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No, I just assumed that it was not possible, but if I do get them rescheduled for let's say later this year can I still put it in my application?
It was difficult trying to shadow before because I had a car accident in late January, so nobody could take me to go shadowing in any later dates. But now I have my own car so its possible again.
 
TigerLily223 said:
No, I just assumed that it was not possible, but if I do get them rescheduled for let's say later this year can I still put it in my application?
It was difficult trying to shadow before because I had a car accident in late January, so nobody could take me to go shadowing in any later dates. But now I have my own car so its possible again.
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If you had definite known shadowing dates scheduled, you could mention them in the narrative. Of course, your Contact may say it's too soon to say, but at least you could try. Known dates could also come in handy for relevant Secondary prompts or future update letters.
 
Catalystik said:
If you had definite known shadowing dates scheduled, you could mention them in the narrative. Of course, your Contact may say it's too soon to say, but at least you could try. Known dates could also come in handy for relevant Secondary prompts or future update letters.
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Okay I reached out to the person that helped me get a shadowing date before so il see if she can get back to me today because I am submitting my application today

For the poster, i put my name and contact for it correct? I did the research with my professor but I made the poster on my own and submitted it on my own. Although his name is on the poster as well


Another thing is I switched my major from Pharmacy in my sophomore Year and I was on the executive board for Pre-Pharmacy Club. Should I mention that in my application? Since It was for pharmacy?
 
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TigerLily223 said:
1) Okay I reached out to the person that helped me get a shadowing date before so il see if she can get back to me today because I am submitting my application today

2) For the poster, i put my name and contact for it correct? I did the research with my professor but I made the poster on my own and submitted it on my own. Although his name is on the poster as well


3) Another thing is I switched my major from Pharmacy in my sophomore Year and I was on the executive board for Pre-Pharmacy Club. Should I mention that in my application? Since It was for pharmacy?
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1) :thumbup:

2) Make the professor your Contact. The more objective person is best.

3) That it was for a Pharmacy Club isn't the issue, but rather was it a true demonstration of leadership: what initiatives you took, how you changed things for the better, did you have an impact. If all you did was show up and vote, it won't enhance your application, and you might consider omitting it..
 
Catalystik said:
1) :thumbup:

2) Make the professor your Contact. The more objective person is best.

3) That it was for a Pharmacy Club isn't the issue, but rather was it a true demonstration of leadership: what initiatives you took, how you changed things for the better, did you have an impact. If all you did was show up and vote, it won't enhance your application, and you might consider omitting it..
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okay, thank you so much! Hopefully, I won't run into any more problems today before I submit my application, but if I do ill reach out!
 
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TigerLily223 said:
okay, thank you so much! Hopefully, I won't run into any more problems today before I submit my application, but if I do ill reach out!
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Hurrying to submit can be a bad idea. I suggest you print out your application from Main Menu>Print (and save a copy) and proofread by reading it aloud to help catch small typos and date inconsistencies that will haunt you if you review it again after submitting.

Once submitted, the Activities area and PS are on the list of things you cannot change.
 
Catalystik said:
Hurrying to submit can be a bad idea. I suggest you print out your application from Main Menu>Print (and save a copy) and proofread by reading it aloud to help catch small typos and date inconsistencies that will haunt you if you review it again after submitting.

Once submitted, the Activities area and PS are on the list of things you cannot change.
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Since transcripts take weeks to process, when should a good time to submit be? I just don't want to be too late!
 
TigerLily223 said:
Since transcripts take weeks to process, when should a good time to submit be? I just don't want to be too late!
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Your application won't enter the verification cue until your transcripts are marked as received and you have submitted your application. What is the status if your transcripts?
 
Catalystik said:
Your application won't enter the verification cue until your transcripts are marked as received and you have submitted your application. What is the status if your transcripts?
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My transcripts are received, that was the first thing I did a month ago
 
Catalystik said:
Then you're ready to submit and pay fees for your application when you're sure it's as perfect as you can make it.
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Okay so would the schools see the application right away or will it take weeks for it to be sent to the schools? Does AAMC process my application?
 
TigerLily223 said:
okay I will do that thanks!

just one more question, i volunteered at a refugee center for a class but it was only for 2-3 hours. Is that worth being put down if it was only that long? Im not putting it as something meaningful but something i had done
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I would not suggest listing it on its own, but you could group it with another nonmedical community service activity. If you have space in the box.
 
Catalystik said:
I would not suggest listing it on its own, but you could group it with another nonmedical community service activity. If you have space in the box.
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How do I group things together do I just write both kinds of volunteering in the title box?
 
TigerLily223 said:
How do I group things together do I just write both kinds of volunteering in the title box?
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Ideally, the title you give the space would be generic enough to allude to both the descriptions.

After the first description, you'd write, "Also on [date], for 2 hours I worked at a refugee camp at [location] as a [role]. [Contact name and email.]"

You would include the two hours in the Total Hours space at the top.
 
Catalystik said:
Ideally, the title you give the space would be generic enough to allude to both the descriptions.

After the first description, you'd write, "Also on [date], for 2 hours I worked at a refugee camp at [location] as a [role]. [Contact name and email.]"

You would include the two hours in the Total Hours space at the top.
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so when it asks for contact whos contact information do I put?
 
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