*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2021-2024 *~*~*~*

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For most secondary prompts (challenge, failure, adversity, diversity, community service, leadership, etc.) my other activities offer much more significant anecdotes, both in terms of my narrative and just the objective contribution of the activity. Would the anything else essay be an appropriate place to put this/would that be a beneficial way of wording it?
Yes.

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If you have the space, list them, focusing on the college-based requirements for annual renewal. If they were highly selective, give some indication of that if you have the statistics.
Thank you! Would it be appropriate to list the monetary amounts received for each scholarship to give an indication of their values, or does it not matter?
 
Would it be appropriate to list the monetary amounts received for each scholarship to give an indication of their values, or does it not matter?
If they are significant, then yes. Keep in mind that there's another part of the application where you list the percent of your education covered by scholarships, though (if space is limited for mentioning specific amounts).
 
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I am passionate about climate change and have been an advocate since teenage years. I participated at an international environment conference at 16 and I post on social media about climate change and what my friends could do to fight it. I also conducted a research as part of my class on climate change and I try to live a zero waste lifestyle where I don’t use plastic and compost and make my own things. It’s a big part of who I am and I’d like to include that in my application. Should I include all of it under a “hobby” or what would be an appropriate experience type? Thank you!
 
I am passionate about climate change and have been an advocate since teenage years. I participated at an international environment conference at 16 and I post on social media about climate change and what my friends could do to fight it. I also conducted a research as part of my class on climate change and I try to live a zero waste lifestyle where I don’t use plastic and compost and make my own things. It’s a big part of who I am and I’d like to include that in my application. Should I include all of it under a “hobby” or what would be an appropriate experience type? Thank you!
Hobbies seems like too mild a tag for your avocation. Perhaps use Other, and name it something like Climate Change Advocacy?
 
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Thoughts on combining scribing + shadowing as one entry on the application. Both don’t need to be necessarily explained to adcoms, and I need to cut down to save space for other more impactful parts of my story. Would this be permissible under a neutral title? Should I keep them as separate entries? I wish we could instead just check a box that we shadowed and hours instead of using an activity for it....
 
Thoughts on combining scribing + shadowing as one entry on the application. Both don’t need to be necessarily explained to adcoms, and I need to cut down to save space for other more impactful parts of my story. Would this be permissible under a neutral title? Should I keep them as separate entries? I wish we could instead just check a box that we shadowed and hours instead of using an activity for it....
Ideally, shadowing should be in it's own separate Shadowing slot, as some schools value it highly and will be looking for it under such a label. One could also use Paid Employment-Medical/Clinical, but adding the words & Physician Shadowing (assuming some dedicated shadowing time in addition to your work hours and ignoring the fact that shadowing is in another category) in the title of the space. A quick read-over might miss it there, though. The Other tag is a possibility, but dilutes the impact of both clinical employment and the shadowing, and again courts the possibility of both being missed. Did you have any other thoughts?
 
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I am looking for input on if/how I should be listing an in-progress review article in AMCAS Work and Activities section, writing about it in secondaries, etc. Some info:

-I am 4th author of 8
-I created all the figures, did some editing, and filled in holes wherever more information or further review/citations was needed
-The manuscript has been submitted for review, not yet been accepted
-I have seen people saying to list not-yet-accepted articles along with one of the research slots, not as a whole new slot for publications. However, in my case my research and this paper are completely unrelated. I had reached out to someone as I was interested in their area of research and they mentioned this lit review they were starting and took me on, so it is completely separate experience from my lab work.
-I have a second lit review that will soon be submitted for peer review as well, but in a completely different area of research as well. So would I still list the 2 papers together?

I understand that accepted or published papers and research-based (as opposed to lit review) are more ideal. But I would simply like to showcase the things I have done (unless omitting entirely is better of course), so I was wondering does this count as publications, and if so, what would be the most appropriate and transparent way to go about displaying them?
-Omitting mention of the manuscript in review and the manuscript in progress is the best course. You don't know when or if they will be accepted, or by which journals. It may take multiple submissions for them to find a publisher.
-If they are accepted for publication, only then are suited for a Publications space.
-Waiting until you are told of an acceptance and notifying schools that accept updates is recommended.
-If you feel compelled to mention the manuscripts regardless, consider discussing them both in a space tagged "Other" and naming it, perhaps, Science Writing.
 
For two of my volunteering activities, I took up a leadership role. For one activity, I have 50 hours of leadership and 93 for other. Would it be best to place volunteering and leadership under the same activity with leadership hours stated in the description?

You can list the Leadership activity separately to highlight them, and if you need more room for descriptions (entering the dates and hours for leadership only, and not double counting them in the Volunteer entries). Or you can keep them with the affiliated Volunteer activity, to keep the context, include all the dates and hours, and mentioning the leadership role in the name of the space so it won't be overlooked.
 
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Hello! Would you recommend labeling a volunteer activity with the same free clinic org as clinical or nonclinical community service if it is 50% food bank and 50% scribing?
 
Would you recommend labeling a volunteer activity with the same free clinic org as clinical or nonclinical community service if it is 50% food bank and 50% scribing?
As each category is important to your application, and because they will be scored separately, I recommend using two spaces, each with its own label, even though they are with the same organization. If you are short on spaces, you can potentially group the food bank volunteering with another Nonclinical community service endeavor.
 
Hey guys I have 2 questions. I'm volunteering at the food bank when I can and I have volunteering experience teaching science to kids at an undeserved school district and tutoring. Should I lump these all into one category or separate them since they are all different from each other?

Also would you guys suggest following medical school headquarters advice about focusing more on telling stories about how things impacted you like work and research rather than what you did at those places? I see his point for things like when I was a cashier or research but I'm not sure if I should do that for everything.
 
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1) I'm volunteering at the food bank when I can and I have volunteering experience teaching science to kids at an undeserved school district and tutoring. Should I lump these all into one category or separate them since they are all different from each other?

2) Also would you guys suggest following medical school headquarters advice about focusing more on telling stories about how things impacted you like work and research rather than what you did at those places? I see his point for things like when I was a cashier or research but I'm not sure if I should do that for everything.
1) Both are nonclinical volunteering/community service, so they can be grouped in one space, but if you have enough hours for each for them to stand alone, or if you need more room for description, use two spaces.

2) I am not in favor of filling the Activities area with personal stories. Occasionally is fine. As part of a MM entry, it's fine. But I would not use it as your usual approach. See previous discussion on this Tips thread re this issue: #99, #120, #122.
 
1) Both are nonclinical volunteering/community service, so they can be grouped in one space, but if you have enough hours for each for them to stand alone, or if you need more room for description, use two spaces.

2) I am not in favor of filling the Activities area with personal stories. Occasionally is fine. As part of a MM entry, it's fine. But I would not use it as your usual approach. See previous discussion on this Tips thread re this issue: #99, #120, #122.
Thanks I'll keep it to most meaningful essays and maybe the cashier one since I did that job for 4 years and have a few stories that may make them laugh
 
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Hello! I was involved in an organization on my campus (voting related) that was a paid leadership position for several non-consecutive semesters, but I remained involved as a member and volunteered during the other semesters. I also was very involved in registering people to vote in underrepresented communities outside of this campus organization, so perhaps I can just lump all of the on/off campus voting volunteering together and keep the employment separate? I just don't want to confuse anyone with the paid/volunteering split (and I'm low of work and activity spaces!).
 
I was involved in an organization on my campus (voting related) that was a paid leadership position for several non-consecutive semesters, but I remained involved as a member and volunteered during the other semesters. I also was very involved in registering people to vote in underrepresented communities outside of this campus organization, so perhaps I can just lump all of the on/off campus voting volunteering together and keep the employment separate? I just don't want to confuse anyone with the paid/volunteering split (and I'm low of work and activity spaces!).
Yes. I think it would be appropriate to split out your Voters' Advocacy into Leadership/Paid Employment and also a Volunteer/Community Service space. You might consider using the Repeated feature for your dates since involvement was not sequential. If there's other community service-not medical/clinical, perhaps you can group them into one space if you're short on slots.
 
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I am reapplying this year and I have a few questions about how to improve my activities section.

1. I was a member of a student volunteer organization on campus for three years, two of which I was in a leadership position. On my prior application, I listed this as volunteering, and mentioned my leadership position in the description. I do not have anything currently listed in the leadership category. I am pretty low on volunteer hours, so is it worth it to take any hours out of this category by making a separate leadership entry?

2. I volunteered at my parish donation resale shop throughout high school and started volunteering there again in September. I was only planning on entering the hours for my volunteer experience since starting again in September, but I fear that this will make it look like I only did this volunteering to boost my application and not because I was back home and able to do it again. Since I did not include this volunteering on my first application, and it will significantly increase my volunteer hours, I am worried that it will actually hurt my application. Should I include my high school hours or just mention in the description that I volunteered there throughout high school?

3. I am a medical scribe for a primary physician, but I have also scribed for some other physicians at the clinic as necessary. I have not shadowed since high school, but I have been scribing for physicians for over a year. Will my scribing experience make up for my lack of shadowing, or should I include shadowing some of the other physicians at the clinic, or even include physicians shadowed in high school?
 
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I have some activities where I felt that I was able to make a impact/achieve accomplishments that went beyond the line of duty (not basic job description, and in my opinion, super cool things to mention). However, discussing these accomplishments lead to not having room to discuss how the activity impacted me. Thus, the adcoms are only able to learn what I achieved, along with notable things I did for the activity, but nothing about me. Is it more important to focus on how I made an impact on my activity or how my activity impacted me (at the expense of leaving out specific achievements)? Thank you.
 
I have some activities where I felt that I was able to make a impact/achieve accomplishments that went beyond the line of duty (not basic job description, and in my opinion, super cool things to mention). However, discussing these accomplishments lead to not having room to discuss how the activity impacted me. Thus, the adcoms are only able to learn what I achieved, along with notable things I did for the activity, but nothing about me. Is it more important to focus on how I made an impact on my activity or how my activity impacted me (at the expense of leaving out specific achievements)? Thank you.
Either type of impact statement can be important, depending on what you have to say. Tailor each Activity space to best represent you and what you want to convey. Don't use a formulaic approach that doesn't vary from space to space.
 
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I am reapplying this year and I have a few questions about how to improve my activities section.

1. I was a member of a student volunteer organization on campus for three years, two of which I was in a leadership position. On my prior application, I listed this as volunteering, and mentioned my leadership position in the description. I do not have anything currently listed in the leadership category. I am pretty low on volunteer hours, so is it worth it to take any hours out of this category by making a separate leadership entry?

2. I volunteered at my parish donation resale shop throughout high school and started volunteering there again in September. I was only planning on entering the hours for my volunteer experience since starting again in September, but I fear that this will make it look like I only did this volunteering to boost my application and not because I was back home and able to do it again. Since I did not include this volunteering on my first application, and it will significantly increase my volunteer hours, I am worried that it will actually hurt my application. Should I include my high school hours or just mention in the description that I volunteered there throughout high school?

3. I am a medical scribe for a primary physician, but I have also scribed for some other physicians at the clinic as necessary. I have not shadowed since high school, but I have been scribing for physicians for over a year. Will my scribing experience make up for my lack of shadowing, or should I include shadowing some of the other physicians at the clinic, or even include physicians shadowed in high school?
1) Volunteer hours >>> Leadership hours. A dedicated Leadership space is important if you are applying to the most-selective "Top" schools, but not at the expense of solid community service hours. For all others, keeping the leadership activity with the affiliated Volunteer or Employment space is good, as it helps put the position in better context. I do recommend including mention of the position in the name you give the activity, the date or date range when you assumed the responsibility, and some discussion of it in the space.

2) Use the Repeated feature to list the HS hours, current hours, and future hours (so, three separate date ranges and Total Hours, all of which will appear at the top of the space. Mention the HS involvement as part of the backstory in the description and why you've resumed the activity. Be sure your Contact is onboard with whatever hours you are claiming.

3) Many schools will look at in-person scribing as covering any shadowing expectation. Unfortunately, some want to see dedicated shadowing, so I recommend you have a Shadowing space. Using the other docs in the practice for that purpose is fine (but don't double count the hours). You can briefly mention the HS shadowing in the space, but don't include them in the Total Hours blank (with a note "not included in above hours." And don't bother with a Contact for the HS hours.) If your scribing was in-person, be sure to specify that in your description.
 
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I will be working at a camp for children with cancer this summer. The job is mostly to make sure the kids have some fun but there will be some medical component due to the population (not actually providing medical care but emotional and assisting with some daily functions that you wouldn't find in a traditional camp). Is this considered clinical or non- clinical?
Unless it's wound/ostomy/catheter/nebulizer care, administering medication, taking blood samples, giving injections, etc, it's probably not clinical.
 
I have been a competitive rock climber since I was five-years-old, and still climb > 10 hours a week. In the 21 odd years I have been rock climbing, I have accrued well over 10,000 hours. I have some very interesting details of my rock climbing that I think would interest the adcom - how should I list hours? Only from college onwards or from childhood?
OPTIONS:
The college involvement and thereafter will be of most interest to adcomms, so estimate those, but do refer to the lifelong involvement as part of the backstory of your sport.

Alternatively, you might use the Repeated feature to break down the hours of involvement into multiple time spans, like childhood, HS, college, and thereafter (maximum of 4 are allowed), but you'd likely be inexact in your estimates going back so far.

**Whatever choice you make, a solution to "unknowable hours" problem would be to insert a 99, 999, or 9999 into the Total hours space.
 
Hi, quick question regarding the posters/publications category. I have researched at a lab for the past 3 years and have somewhere upwards of 1500+ hours. As of right now, I have presented two posters at school confrerences, 1 poster at an eastern regional conference in my field, and 1 abstract at a western regional conference in my field.

However, we recently submitted a MS in which I am first author. This is an original research paper in the basic sciences and not a review or case study paper.

I’m already going to include the other posters/abstract in a single posters/publications category, but can I also list the submitted MS as a “MS in Review at X research journal”? I know it won’t hold that much weight, but it is the culmination of my work over the past 3 years/my honors thesis and so I am unsure of what to do.
 
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Hi, quick question regarding the posters/publications category. I have researched at a lab for the past 3 years and have somewhere upwards of 1500+ hours. As of right now, I have presented two posters at school confrerences, 1 poster at an eastern regional conference in my field, and 1 abstract at a western regional conference in my field.

However, we recently submitted a MS in which I am first author. This is an original research paper in the basic sciences and not a review or case study paper.

I’m already going to include the other posters/abstract in a single posters/publications category, but can I also list the submitted MS as a “MS in Review at X research journal”? I know it won’t hold that much weight, but it is the culmination of my work over the past 3 years/my honors thesis and so I am unsure of what to do.
Are the posters/abstract derived from the same project as the submitted manuscript? Has your honors thesis (based on the same data as the submission) been "defended and accepted" by the faculty?
 
Yes, the 3 Posters and 1 Abstract all are derived from this same manuscript. My honors thesis was more or less the same thing as what we submitted for the MS and has been defended/accepted + recommended for the highest distinction by my committee. Therefore, I wanted to group all of these together under a single publications/posters section. The MS would be formatted something like: “Authors, MS title, in Review at X research journal.”
 
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Yes, the 3 Posters and 1 Abstract all are derived from this same manuscript. My honors thesis was more or less the same thing as what we submitted for the MS and has been defended/accepted + recommended for the highest distinction by my committee. Therefore, I wanted to group all of these together under a single publications/posters section. The MS would be formatted something like: “Authors, MS title, in Review at X research journal.”
Since they are all related, I think its reasonable to mention the accepted thesis and submitted manuscript in the same Presentions/Posters space, if you make the connection clear. Do not use a Publication space, as this would be premature. Also, consider refraining from mentioning the journal, as it may take multiple submissions before an acceptance is offered.
 
Thanks for the advice - I really appreciate it! That makes perfect sense.
 
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Hi, my name is in a paper, but my name is not necessarily on the authorship line its under a named group. For example the authorship line looks like this author 1, author 2, author 3, "group name" (you would see my name in the group if you scroll over it and in the author information section)

I was wondering if this was appropriate to categorize it under "publication" or should I just not mention this at all? If its appropriate to categorize it as publication, how would I describe it since my name is not exactly in the title of the publication?
 
Hi, my name is in a paper, but my name is not necessarily on the authorship line its under a named group. For example the authorship line looks like this author 1, author 2, author 3, "group name" (you would see my name in the group if you scroll over it and in the author information section)

I was wondering if this was appropriate to categorize it under "publication" or should I just not mention this at all? If its appropriate to categorize it as publication, how would I describe it since my name is not exactly in the title of the publication?
What was your contribution to the project? What was your contribution to the paper? Is the paper searchable on PubMed through your name?
 
What was your contribution to the project? What was your contribution to the paper? Is the paper searchable on PubMed through your name?

I helped contribute to the data collection and generation. Minimal. I want to say no.
 
If you are not PubMed searchable, it might be hard to make a case for authorship, unless the PI claims you are an author in their LOR. Would they?

Ah, I see. I would say they would definietly vouch for me.
 
Would you list a club sport where you played in national tournaments against other universities as intercollegiate athletics? By the definition of intercollegiate it seems like it would be, but I'm not sure if that's reserved for NCAA only. At all schools in the league we were in there were no NCAA teams for this sport, so technically everyone was playing at the highest level possible at their schools (some of which are large state powerhouses in other sports).
 
Would you list a club sport where you played in national tournaments against other universities as intercollegiate athletics? By the definition of intercollegiate it seems like it would be, but I'm not sure if that's reserved for NCAA only. At all schools in the league we were in there were no NCAA teams for this sport, so technically everyone was playing at the highest level possible at their schools (some of which are large state powerhouses in other sports).
To me it would be a legit tag to use, if you make the distinction that this is a club sport, and explain as you have here, but if you get pushback from others, you could use Extracurricular as the tag, instead.
 
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I have worked at three biotech companies over the course of 5 years since graduating college. All companies were in the field of biomedical sciences (either pharma or diagnostics). What is the best way to categorize this? Obviously it was paid employment, it was medical in the sense that it was medical technology, though it wasn't clinical. And it certainly was lab and research work. My impression is I could make a case for any of the three but what would reflect the experience in the best way?
 
I have worked at three biotech companies over the course of 5 years since graduating college. All companies were in the field of biomedical sciences (either pharma or diagnostics). What is the best way to categorize this? Obviously it was paid employment, it was medical in the sense that it was medical technology, though it wasn't clinical. And it certainly was lab and research work. My impression is I could make a case for any of the three but what would reflect the experience in the best way?
I'm classifying my work in industry as research because thats predominantly what I did. If you were primarily working in a lab and ended up with pubs or something I would say research. If you were primarily on the business side or something I would say employment non-medical. I wouldn't say anything medical since you're not dealing with patients or anything. But that's just my plan.
 
I have worked at three biotech companies over the course of 5 years since graduating college. All companies were in the field of biomedical sciences (either pharma or diagnostics). What is the best way to categorize this? Obviously it was paid employment, it was medical in the sense that it was medical technology, though it wasn't clinical. And it certainly was lab and research work. My impression is I could make a case for any of the three but what would reflect the experience in the best way?
Do you have another entry for Research?
Do you plan to group the three together? If so, is this a Most Meaningful space?
Was the research hypothesis-based, using the scientific method, and did you get potentially publishable results? Or did you acquire a patent?
Did you have a primarily leadership role at any of the three? If so, do you already have a Leadership space?
 
To me it would be a legit tag to use, if you make the distinction that this is a club sport, and explain as you have here, but if you get pushback from others, you could use Extracurricular as the tag, instead.
I'll probably put intercollegiate unless anyone else here starts to hate on me for it, but make it clear it was not varsity (which should also be clear from the time commitment I imagine not being as bad).
 
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Do you have another entry for Research?
Do you plan to group the three together? If so, is this a Most Meaningful space?
Was the research hypothesis-based, using the scientific method, and did you get potentially publishable results? Or did you acquire a patent?
Did you have a primarily leadership role at any of the three? If so, do you already have a Leadership space?
Not at the moment, I did intern/unpaid work at two University labs that I could put under research. My work at biotech I'm putting as three entries since they were three different jobs and different companies. I was an author on a paper published by one company I worked at, and an author on a paper at an academic lab I interned at. The first company I worked at I was doing research that was potentially publishable and patents were filed, however, the company was not very well run and never published while I was there and I was not on the patents that were filed, nor was the principal scientist on the project for some reason.

I guess it depends how you define leadership. My title was senior research associate but I lead the development, tech transfer and training of CLSs in several key protocols (DNA extractions and parts of carrier screen tests) in the CLIA lab before we got licensure. I also managed a clinical trial in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama Birmingham. I don't have leadership experience in other areas (I was not in team sports or clubs).

Should I break off some of those leadership aspects into separate entries?
 
Not at the moment, I did intern/unpaid work at two University labs that I could put under research. My work at biotech I'm putting as three entries since they were three different jobs and different companies. I was an author on a paper published by one company I worked at, and an author on a paper at an academic lab I interned at. The first company I worked at I was doing research that was potentially publishable and patents were filed, however, the company was not very well run and never published while I was there and I was not on the patents that were filed, nor was the principal scientist on the project for some reason.

I guess it depends how you define leadership. My title was senior research associate but I lead the development, tech transfer and training of CLSs in several key protocols (DNA extractions and parts of carrier screen tests) in the CLIA lab before we got licensure. I also managed a clinical trial in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and University of Alabama Birmingham. I don't have leadership experience in other areas (I was not in team sports or clubs).

Should I break off some of those leadership aspects into separate entries?
For AMCAS, I'd encourage you to spread out the research activities into Research, Paid Employment-Not Medical/Clinical, and Leadership (at least one of each) as well as Publications.

For the Baylor/Alabama clinical trial, did you personally interact with current patients, and if so, how?
 
Can you put future hours in AMCAS and could you possibly give an example. I'm sure this is in here somewhere but I'm new here and this site isn't very user friendly when you are trying to find an answer to a specific question.
 
Can you put future hours in AMCAS and could you possibly give an example. I'm sure this is in here somewhere but I'm new here and this site isn't very user friendly when you are trying to find an answer to a specific question.
Is this for an activity in which you are currently engaged but plan to continue into the application year, or for one that won't start until after you've submitted?
 
Is this for an activity in which you are currently engaged but plan to continue into the application year, or for one that won't start until after you've submitted?
I have one I am currently involved in and plan on continuing until matriculation and one that is for a food pantry where I do a food drive every summer but it won't be til after I already submit my application
 
I have a) one I am currently involved in and plan on continuing until matriculation and b) one that is for a food pantry where I do a food drive every summer but it won't be til after I already submit my application
a) -You can use the Repeated feature to differentiate completed hours vs future projected hours for an activity in which you are already engaged, by using the current month as the End Date for the first date span and then again as the Start Date for the future hours.

-Alternatively, put the entire date span in the header until 8/2022, but make clear in the description which hours are already completed.

b) Do you have any other similar activity where you could tack this plan to the end of another description, with perhaps a segue as to what inspired the involvement? Alternatively, save it for Secondaries and update letters.
 
How would you list research that was done for credit during the school year but was paid over the summer? All research was done in the same lab for the same PI. Altogether it amounts to more than 1000 hours, 400 were paid.
 
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