Well I was going to have that as one entry to talk about it more but seperate out the shadowing into a group of its own. I didn't know if I really needed to list in two places that shadowing was part of the program.
My own thoughts, if it's part of SMDEP, include it for the SMDEP description. SHPEP and its predecessors have been around 30 years, so most of us won't have an issue with just including your shadowing hours during your program there. To that end, it doesn't really matter if you list as SMDEP because we know of the name change as well as changes in campuses that came with the focus towards more interprofessional careers and larger diversity scope. You can be accurate with the contemporaneous name and location in your description.
I'll give the variant opinion that you ought to have a dedicated Shadowing space, so adcomms will find it where they expect to see it listed. I feel it's best to divide the hours into Shadowing and, eg, Other, with the latter discussing the additional aspects of the program that will benefit your application.
Unless the narrative description applies to all the "Repeated" entries, like each job had the same description, it will be confusing to readers if you use that feature. As an alternative, maybe you can cut out the job description for those that readers would intuit, eg waitperson, retail clerk, childcare, dogwalker, etc.
It does! I've been a server at different restaurants so I described my years of serving in general. Would you say it's okay in my case or would it still be better to list the total hours?
See if you can make it work. Write a rough draft and ask someone else to read it and comment on whether it makes sense.
Let it be. You were fluffing your hours and should not have included the training time, which was not "Volunteering." If you'd asked, I might have suggested you mention the extra 30 hours as Training Time in your narrative, but not included this in the Total Hours space. On a positive note, having a verifiable 140 hours is sufficient to "check the box." Only if challenged should you explain the extra 30 hours. In a very humble way.
By checking the box you mean, the discrepancy won't make a huge difference in whether they question it or not?
I mean that you will still have fulfilled their expectation for involvement in that category, if they discover that only 140 hours are validated.
Thank you! Do you know if such discrepancies are likely to result in an offer of admission being rescinded?
If a significant concern were raised, you'd be given an opportunity to explain. At most schools, a 30 hour discrepancy would be tolerated. If there were multiple instances of "fluff" or outright disregard of truth, I'd have more concern.
I reviewed your metrics and other Activities in your WAMC thread and would agree about your concern of overemphasized research, considering the schools where you have the best chances of success. I would say Yes to your two suggestions. Further, you might fold #2 & 3 together (and maybe split out the Lab Manager position as Leadership, listing those hours separately if they are significant).
Thank you for the advice! I was hesitant to split out the Lab Manager leadership role given how much space I was using for research already, but I will play around with restructuring how you advised and it might make more sense to highlight the leadership as opposed to the specific research projects. The lab manager role was about 400 out of the 1000 total hours in that lab (not including the ~500 on the thesis project) so I do think it's a significant enough experience, and one of the grants I was awarded was for leadership in that lab as well.
I agree that you should highlight the Lab Manager leadership aspects if you split it out. Having 400 hours in that Leadership role is sufficiently meaty. This would be an excellent space to mention the leadership-related grant you received for that role.
I believe you filled out the future activity as was intended. Since it is a new capability of the application, adcomms are still adjusting to how it presents itself. An overlap of dates is understandable. Did you start the new activity later in July? Did you explain the end date of the first and the start date of the second at the new location?Just had an interview (yay!) but in my AMCAS I had an activity that hadn't started when completing my primary in May so it says "Completed Hours, 05/2022 - 05/2022, 0 hours" but then has the anticipted date to be 07/2022 - 06/2023 plus anticipated hours. My interviewer thought this was an error because the timeline didn't add up as I had work in another city that ended in early July, and basically they said it wasn't a big deal but it really threw me off and made me nervous. I thought that was how AMCAS directed us to do anticipated activites, but now I'm just overthinking but hoping it was just an issue with this interviewer? Idk I just need some reassurance here
Ok, that makes a lot of sense, thank you! And yes, unfortunately I was working/living in one city at the beginning of July and then moved/started a new job at the end of the month, so I imagine the timeline looks confusing. In all my "explain your gap year(s)" essays I explained it so I hope that helps when reviewing it on paper.
I am reassured. I think you'll be fine, since you were proactive on the matter.
1) Well, at least you have a form with your hours verified. Unless you have a faculty member/advisor aware of the activity and willing to be your Contact for verification, you will have to use yourself. In the narrative mention your form with Hours of Involvement listed and available if requested, since the organization does not permit outside contacts.
Were the Lit Reviews accepted and published in an off-campus journal, or were they a course requirement that you never shared elsewhere, besides turning them in to the professor? If the latter, I would not include them in the same space as your hypothesis-driven research. If the former, you can use "Publications."
1) Not if you have a variety of other entries. I don't see this experience as particularly enhancing your application, but Other would be the category to use, if you proceed.
Overall, your clinical experience is fine.
Thanks for your quick reply and help answering all the questions in this thread. It is very helpful to read through all the answers.
Yes.
You might divide them among Employment, Teaching, and Leadership to spread them out more and have space for explanations. Alternatively, use a Most Meaningful designation to get more characters.
That sounds like a great idea. Thank you for the advice!
It's never too early to enhance your activities. The entire application year should be approached as if you might need to reapply (or write impactful update letters, or have interview conversations about ongoing ECs), considering that fewer than 50% get accepted each year.
I have moved your question to this main thread about the Work/Activities section on AMCAS. This activity certainly seems like something you could classify as volunteering.
I suggest listing it under Hobbies (which doesn't require a Contact, unless you have some way to authenticate the activity-perhaps through a supervisor at the receiving organization?). You can make it clear through the Title and the description what the activity entails, the distributing organization, and who will benefit. You can enter the encompassing dates and total hours. It will be evident that this is an altruistic activity.
As you cannot validate this community service with a Contact who can attest to your involvement, and because you never thought to include it as “Volunteerism” anyway, you might consider listing it as a Hobby, which doesn’t require a Contact. Its value to your application would depend on your description of the activities.
The new cycle has not begun yet, but I am moving your question to the thread used for AMCAS work and activity questions for the current cycle.
I suggest you not label it Clinical as you were dealing with employees, not patients. Unless you were doing followup phone calls with those persons with clinical illness: In which case, as that would represent a small portion if your role, you could describe the percent if your time spent speaking with those who were ill within your job description. Let adcomms mentally assign that part of your duties to the clinical category.
Most of my day when we didn’t test, consisted of follow up with all the employees who tested positive, making them appointments and documenting their progress (symptoms), as the days progressed. Would then this part of the job be considered clinical?
Yes. Talking to sick folks on the phone about their symptoms “counts.”
Thank you for your help. Truly appreciate it.
