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

[sonder88]

Wait are stories actually discouraged in W&A's for entries like tutoring, or MA, or covid contact tracer where they have well-known roles? I have been using a lil story in each of mine with a personal takeaway.

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[Catalystik]

Wait are stories actually discouraged in W&A's for entries like tutoring, or MA, or covid contact tracer where they have well-known roles? I have been using a lil story in each of mine with a personal takeaway.

I discourage them. I don’t know any other admissions officer who enjoys reading little stories in space, after space, after space . . . It gets tedious. Instead, they should be used with reserve and with a light touch. JMO.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Wait are stories actually discouraged in W&A's for entries like tutoring, or MA, or covid contact tracer where they have well-known roles? I have been using a lil story in each of mine with a personal takeaway.

Yes IMO. Note, my opinion.

The role of W/A is to be a standardized RESUME. The descriptions should be similar to what you write in a resume, maybe in a paragraph style and not necessarily a bullet form. You have more latitude with the longer MME entries.

Give the screeners reasons to believe you are fluffing up your activities by telling stories in W/A so they can recommend denying your file for further consideration. It risks coming across as less than professional or serious.

EDIT P.S. I beg you, don't end each description with some Aesop Fable moral. My eyes have rolled for miles from applicants who try way too hard with their personal takeaway. Worse, you may sound like you are trying too hard to impress the committee.

 

[FOBhypebeast]

Hi everyone!

I was a teaching/learning assistant for several semesters in different classes (biology, anatomy, physiology) and plan on making my anatomy teaching experience as one of my most meaningful activities. Would it be recommended to split up these activities into separate entries (anatomy + biology/physiology) or keep them as a single entry?

Thank you.

 

[Catalystik]

I was a teaching/learning assistant for several semesters in different classes (biology, anatomy, physiology) and plan on making my anatomy teaching experience as one of my most meaningful activities. Would it be recommended to split up these activities into separate entries (anatomy + biology/physiology) or keep them as a single entry?

If it is Teaching in general that is MM for you, then you could group the three activities. If there was something uniquely impactful about Anatomy, you might give it its own space and group the other two.

 

[FOBhypebeast]

If it is Teaching in general that is MM for you, then you could group the three activities. If there was something uniquely impactful about Anatomy, you might give it its own space and group the other two.

Great, thanks!

 

[amoxicillin_resistant]

Hello! I had a question regarding the formats of the prompts (sorry if this has been asked before)

My personal responses typically follow a somewhat rigid structure in that they:

1. introduce my activity, generally with a hook or summary of how I discovered certain activity e.g phlebotomy
2. What I did in specifics, the impact I made
3. How it correlates to being a physician in the future/how it grew me

Will this format be seen as stale and corny? I want to be professional but am a tad worried that I might come across very templated :/

 

[Catalystik]

Hello! I had a question regarding the formats of the prompts (sorry if this has been asked before)

My personal responses typically follow a somewhat rigid structure in that they:

1. introduce my activity, generally with a hook or summary of how I discovered certain activity e.g phlebotomy
2. What I did in specifics, the impact I made
3. How it correlates to being a physician in the future/how it grew me

Will this format be seen as stale and corny? I want to be professional but am a tad worried that I might come across very templated :/

Correlating every activity to being a physician will come across poorly. Use it sparingly. Also be flexible with your plan for a rigid format. Variations will make the section more enjoyable to read. If your “hook” is a brief story, that will get old if used in every space.

 

[RuggedShark]

I have been listed as 13th coauthor on a paper published in a national journal. I don't want to overstate my role, though I did put a fair amount of work into it. The guide at the beginning of this thread says to make a separate entry in AMCAS for it. Should I still do so for this one? For what it's worth, the title is really long and would take up a lot of my "research" entry. Thank you!

I'm leaning yes mostly for space constraints but wanted to check.

Hi there, following up on my own post. This is the only publication I'm including, so I have plenty of space in my W/A entry. Should I give a description of my role in it? Or just the title of the paper? I don't think I saw this anywhere. Thank you again!

 

[Catalystik]

Hi there, following up on my own post. This is the only publication I'm including, so I have plenty of space in my W/A entry. Should I give a description of my role in it? Or just the title of the paper? I don't think I saw this anywhere. Thank you again!

The title of the paper alone would be usual, but a description of your role in getting the pub ready to submit would be fine. Your role in the project should be included in the affiliated Research space.

You might use these criteria as a guideline for what to include: ICMJE | Recommendations | Defining the Role of Authors and Contributors

 

[Bryce4358]

Hi everyone,

I am having difficulties writing about my experiences. I completed a graduate program in physiology where I logged nearly 4,000 hours of research. In my research, I not only wrote a thesis, but I was also the lab manager where I worked on multiple graduate and undergraduate student projects. Additionally, I attended 7 conferences, gave 3 oral presentations, and 4 poster presentations while also publishing 3 papers (2 primary author and 1 co-author). I do not want to take up several spots in my experiences section because I was also active in the community in terms of volunteering (both clinical and non-clinical), I coached sports, I founded a graduate organization and was the board member of 3 other organizations, and taught human anatomy and human physiology for 4 semesters.

How would one go about compiling all of your research experiences into maybe 1-2 sections? I figured that I would have one experience solely for research and lab management (meaningful) and the other section would include my conferences, publications, and projects (non-meaningful).

Additionally, I think that research should be a meaningful experience. My other two meaningful experiences are set to be teaching courses, and finally, serving as the founder of a graduate student representation committee. Do you think that this is okay or should I make one or two of them non-meaningful and list my clinical research coordinator job (post-graduation) and some clinical volunteering as meaningful?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Catalystik]

Hi everyone,

I am having difficulties writing about my experiences. I completed a graduate program in physiology where I logged nearly 4,000 hours of research. In my research, I not only wrote a thesis, but I was also the lab manager where I worked on multiple graduate and undergraduate student projects. Additionally, I attended 7 conferences, gave 3 oral presentations, and 4 poster presentations while also publishing 3 papers (2 primary author and 1 co-author). I do not want to take up several spots in my experiences section because I was also active in the community in terms of volunteering (both clinical and non-clinical), I coached sports, I founded a graduate organization and was the board member of 3 other organizations, and taught human anatomy and human physiology for 4 semesters.

1) How would one go about compiling all of your research experiences into maybe 1-2 sections? I figured that I would have one experience solely for research and lab management (meaningful) and the other section would include my conferences, publications, and projects (non-meaningful).

Additionally, I think that research should be a meaningful experience. My other two meaningful experiences are set to be teaching courses, and finally, serving as the founder of a graduate student representation committee. 2) Do you think that this is okay or should I make one or two of them non-meaningful and list my clinical research coordinator job (post-graduation) and some clinical volunteering as meaningful?

Thanks in advance!

1) I suggest a minimum of two spaces. Using a MM space for most of the research endeavors is suitable (to include posters and presentations not related to your pubs-not using full citations). Be sure the title you give the space includes mention of the Manager position (if you don't want to split out the Leadership component and give it its own space). The second related space should be Publications. The thesis and the conferences-attended list can be cut out (IMO) unless space remains. Read item 20 in post #2 of this thread for further tips on managing the Publication space and what can be squeezed into it.

2) Teaching courses and serving as the founder of a graduate student representation committee are fine as the other two MMs.

 

[blissworm]

I imagine if the three you have chosen already are genuinely your most meaningful its better to leave them. Also, 6/15 AMCAS slots of research probably is a strong enough indicator for your interest in research, assuming you have more than 20 hours in each lol. Plus, the three you have already sound interesting.

 

[Bryce4358]

1) I suggest a minimum of two spaces. Using a MM space for most of the research endeavors is suitable (to include posters and presentations not related to your pubs-not using full citations). Be sure the title you give the space includes mention of the Manager position (if you don't want to split out the Leadership component and give it its own space). The second related space should be Publications. The thesis and the conferences-attended list can be cut out (IMO) unless space remains. Read item 20 in post #2 of this thread for further tips on managing the Publication space and what can be squeezed into it.

2) Teaching courses and serving as the founder of a graduate student representation committee are fine as the other two MMs.

Thank you for your advice!!

 

[toastedbutter]

Copying my question here since this might be more appropriate:

My application is research heavy, and I'm applying to very research heavy schools. I posted a WAMC thread in the past which helped me construct my school list. For reference, six of my 15 AMCAS entries are some kind of research. I'm getting letters of recommendation from two of my research advisors, and I plan to discuss the research I'm interested in when relevant questions present themselves in the secondaries. With all this in mind, even though a lot of the research I've done has meant a lot to me and has helped me grow in many ways, I didn't want to talk about research more in my primary since I am deliberately applying MD only. I wanted to highlight different parts of my background, and talk about other experiences that have also, truly, been very meaningful to me. I settled on three experiences- being an outreach coordinator for a local youth science program, the president of an international science organization, and the clinical job I had. I've written my MME statements for each and think they really reflect why it experiences were transformative for me.

One of my trusted friends, who helps me review my writing, suggested that this would be a red flag because I'm so research heavy yet I'm not designating a single research experience as MME. Now I'm not sure what to do.

Should I choose one of my research experiences as MME? If so, should I choose one of the experiences linked to one of the advisors writing my letters, or a different one? Finally, which of the three experiences should I remove to make room for the third MME? Thank you

 

[Catalystik]

My application is research heavy, and I'm applying to very research heavy schools. I posted a WAMC thread in the past which helped me construct my school list. For reference, six of my 15 AMCAS entries are some kind of research. I'm getting letters of recommendation from two of my research advisors, and I plan to discuss the research I'm interested in when relevant questions present themselves in the secondaries. With all this in mind, even though a lot of the research I've done has meant a lot to me and has helped me grow in many ways, I didn't want to talk about research more in my primary since I am deliberately applying MD only. I wanted to highlight different parts of my background, and talk about other experiences that have also, truly, been very meaningful to me. I settled on three experiences- being an outreach coordinator for a local youth science program, the president of an international science organization, and the clinical job I had. I've written my MME statements for each and think they really reflect why it experiences were transformative for me.

One of my trusted friends, who helps me review my writing, suggested that this would be a red flag because I'm so research heavy yet I'm not designating a single research experience as MME. Now I'm not sure what to do.

Should I choose one of my research experiences as MME? If so, should I choose one of the experiences linked to one of the advisors writing my letters, or a different one? Finally, which of the three experiences should I remove to make room for the third MME? Thank you

I disagree with your friend. That you didn't pick a research space as MM doesn't mean it is unmeaningful. Obviously it is/was since you're giving so many spaces to discussing it (totaling far more than 1325 characters).

 

[toastedbutter]

I disagree with your friend. That you didn't pick a research space as MM doesn't mean it is unmeaningful. Obviously it is/was since you're giving so many spaces to discussing it (totaling far more than 1325 characters).

Thank you, that is encouraging.

 

[chilly_md]

I imagine if the three you have chosen already are genuinely your most meaningful its better to leave them. Also, 6/15 AMCAS slots of research probably is a strong enough indicator for your interest in research, assuming you have more than 20 hours in each lol. Plus, the three you have already sound interesting.

Should I choose one of my research experiences as MME? If so, should I choose one of the experiences linked to one of the advisors writing my letters, or a different one? Finally, which of the three experiences should I remove to make room for the third MME? Thank you

I copied over the response from your previous thread as this is the more appropriate location for your question (as you had guessed).

 

[respiir-ati0]

hi everyone,

i went crazy with my hours during covid because i had a lot of free time, never took a summer off in college. as a trad student how can i make sure my hours add up? i am worried i will have to deflate my hours because they look unrealistic. i worked FT and most of my classes were online so i had a lot of time to do ECs.

 

[chilly_md]

hi everyone,

i went crazy with my hours during covid because i had a lot of free time, never took a summer off in college. as a trad student how can i make sure my hours add up? i am worried i will have to deflate my hours because they look unrealistic. i worked FT and most of my classes were online so i had a lot of time to do ECs.

What do the totals look like and over what time span?

 

[respiir-ati0]

What do the totals look like and over what time span?

summer 2020 to now (may 2023):

president of a club with leadership spanning over covid: 2000 hours
clinical job #1: 600 hours
clinical job #2: 530 hours
clinical job #3 (in progress just started): 239 hours
volunteering (non clinical totals): 500 hours
clinical volunteering: 600 hours -- did a lot of homework on these shifts lmfao
research: 400 hours

some other things omitted but... ;/

 

[toastedbutter]

summer 2020 to now (may 2023):

president of a club with leadership spanning over covid: 2000 hours
clinical job #1: 600 hours
clinical job #2: 530 hours
clinical job #3 (in progress just started): 239 hours
volunteering (non clinical totals): 500 hours
clinical volunteering: 600 hours -- did a lot of homework on these shifts lmfao
research: 400 hours

some other things omitted but... ;/

So in three years you have about 4,870 hours of activities. Doing 3 years times 12 months a year times 4 weeks a month, that's about 33 hours a week. Reasonable if that includes ALL your extracurricular work outside of class. I would lower the hour estimate on the club leadership somewhat if you're worried.

 

[respiir-ati0]

So in three years you have about 4,870 hours of activities. Doing 3 years times 12 months a year times 4 weeks a month, that's about 33 hours a week. Reasonable if that includes ALL your extracurricular work outside of class. I would lower the hour estimate on the club leadership somewhat if you're worried.

thanks so much. adding in my nonclinical jobs its about 38 hours a week. given online classes & taking a semester off w/ 2 part time semesters, is this unrealistic? i did commit these hours and if asked my references would definitely confirm them, i just dont want to seem too overambitious

 

[toastedbutter]

thanks so much. adding in my nonclinical jobs its about 38 hours a week. given online classes & taking a semester off w/ 2 part time semesters, is this unrealistic? i did commit these hours and if asked my references would definitely confirm them, i just dont want to seem too overambitious

I mean I think its fine but having 1500 vs 2000 hrs in the club wont make that much of a difference in its perceived value but will lower the weekly hours a lot for your totals

 

[respiir-ati0]

I mean I think its fine but having 1500 vs 2000 hrs in the club wont make that much of a difference in its perceived value but will lower the weekly hours a lot for your totals

makes total sense-- thanks so much for the help veer

 

[chilly_md]

makes total sense-- thanks so much for the help veer

Yeah I agree with veer_. Even putting it at 1000 hours for the leadership still makes it come across as a strong activity and probably lowers the weekly hour totals.

 

[respiir-ati0]

Yeah I agree with veer_. Even putting it at 1000 hours for the leadership still makes it come across as a strong activity and probably lowers the weekly hour totals.

it just feels tough-- as a trad applicant I've put in a lot of hours but it is wild to know that some of my peers are claiming 1000-1500+ hours for multiple activities also as traditional applicants. I've recorded my hours to a T and i feel like i will still be a worse applicant!

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

Sorry I'm not the most familiar with SDN. Please tell me if I've posted in the wrong place or should label it differently.

Activity questions:
1. I already have 15 activities but I also have a publication associated with my research activity (most meaningful). Should I list it as "publication" and talk about my research activity in the description or should I list it as "research" and talk about my publication. Or should I remove something else and list the pub separately.
2. Going off that, I have a publication in review. Would it be appropriate to include that in my activities and how should I list it?
3. I have two activities where I initially held a role for a long time, then I got promoted to a "higher up" role very recently. Should I list the title that is more "superior" or the role that I held for longer? I have more to say about the role I held longer but when adcoms look at activity titles it might be better to see the higher ranking role.

Course questions:
1. When it comes to placement tests (placing out of a language) if it doesn't show up on my transcript but still counted as my language credit, does this go on AMCAS?
2. I am a chem major that did research for credit. It was marked as research credit in the chemistry department as it was for my major but the research itself was bio research. Do I classify as chem or bio?
3. I finished undergrad in 3.5 years and had 24 credits coming in from APs. My advisor nonspecifically referred to that my status shouldn't necessarily be freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, because based on my credits. What should I label everything as then?

 

[GoSpursGo]

Sorry I'm not the most familiar with SDN. Please tell me if I've posted in the wrong place or should label it differently.

Activity questions:
1. I already have 15 activities but I also have a publication associated with my research activity (most meaningful). Should I list it as "publication" and talk about my research activity in the description or should I list it as "research" and talk about my publication. Or should I remove something else and list the pub separately.
2. Going off that, I have a publication in review. Would it be appropriate to include that in my activities and how should I list it?

For both of these I would just list the research experience, and then list the pub and the pending pub in the description.

3. I have two activities where I initially held a role for a long time, then I got promoted to a "higher up" role very recently. Should I list the title that is more "superior" or the role that I held for longer? I have more to say about the role I held longer but when adcoms look at activity titles it might be better to see the higher ranking role.

Higher rank and then describe in total

Course questions:
1. When it comes to placement tests (placing out of a language) if it doesn't show up on my transcript but still counted as my language credit, does this go on AMCAS?

No

2. I am a chem major that did research for credit. It was marked as research credit in the chemistry department as it was for my major but the research itself was bio research. Do I classify as chem or bio?

Whatever it shows up as on your transcript

3. I finished undergrad in 3.5 years and had 24 credits coming in from APs. My advisor nonspecifically referred to that my status shouldn't necessarily be freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, because based on my credits. What should I label everything as then?

It ultimately doesn't really matter. I'd probably say Freshman for first semester, sophomore for semesters 2-3, junior for 4-5, and senior for 6-7. But just about anything you choose that seems reasonable would be fine.

 

[LunarPhoenix42]

For both of these I would just list the research experience, and then list the pub and the pending pub in the description.

Higher rank and then describe in total

No

Whatever it shows up as on your transcript

It ultimately doesn't really matter. I'd probably say Freshman for first semester, sophomore for semesters 2-3, junior for 4-5, and senior for 6-7. But just about anything you choose that seems reasonable would be fine.

Thank you!!

 

[Emh_omega-323]

Super nitpicky question here but I'm a non-trad and most of my contacts no longer hold the same position, one of the companies doesn't even exist. Should "Contact Title" be their past title at that organization? Will I run into any trouble with emails that don't match up to the organization I worked/volunteered for? Obviously in the case where the company no longer exists, a company email is not an option but I can get a personal one.

 

[Catalystik]

Super nitpicky question here but I'm a non-trad and most of my contacts no longer hold the same position, one of the companies doesn't even exist. Should "Contact Title" be their past title at that organization? Will I run into any trouble with emails that don't match up to the organization I worked/volunteered for? Obviously in the case where the company no longer exists, a company email is not an option but I can get a personal one.

I don’t think there’s one correct answer to this, but I would prefer to have you use the title held when you interacted with the Contact. If it’s wildly different now, you can comment about it in your description in a brief aside. An alternative is to use yourself as the Contact. Don’t worry about an email mismatch.

 

[Emh_omega-323]

Thanks! One more thing I apologize if this has been addressed somewhere. I'm old enough that I'm not including any activities from college as they're really too old to be relevant to my experience now. So while I definitely have teaching and leadership, it was in the context of paid employment. Should these things be listed as paid employment or as leadership or teaching? Will the lack of explicit leadership and teaching be a problem if all are listed as employment?

 

[Emh_omega-323]

Actually, two more... would you frown on using an older experience as a most meaningful? It's 6 or 7 years old but very unique and altered the course of my life.

 

[Catalystik]

Thanks! One more thing I apologize if this has been addressed somewhere. I'm old enough that I'm not including any activities from college as they're really too old to be relevant to my experience now. So while I definitely have teaching and leadership, it was in the context of paid employment. Should these things be listed as paid employment or as leadership or teaching? Will the lack of explicit leadership and teaching be a problem if all are listed as employment?

It’s your choice what category to use, but if the leadership is just a portion of the employment, best to use Employment, but include the leadership role in the name you give the activity and further elaborate in the narrative space. Alternatively, split out the leadership role and list it separately with its own dates and Total Hours (taking care not to double list those hours). If you were employed as a teacher, best to call it Employment but include the type of teaching in the name of the space.

 

[Catalystik]

Actually, two more... would you frown on using an older experience as a most meaningful? It's 6 or 7 years old but very unique and altered the course of my life.

I would not frown on using an old activity as MM when it was so impactful.

 

[wanteditall]

Where should I put my publications in the AMCAS application? Sorry if this has been covered before, but this process is new to me.

 

[respiir-ati0]

hi all, i know the whole "if you can be close enough to a pt" saying for clinical/med exps- i do have them so I'm not trying to stretch my hours or anything. i am also a BLS/ACLS/PALS instructor, and it is a paid job. i feel like it is weird to list as non medical because it does have translational applications? what would you list it as?

 

[chilly_md]

Where should I put my publications in the AMCAS application? Sorry if this has been covered before, but this process is new to me.

We utilize a main AMCAS Work and Activities thread for questions like this as they pop up frequently. Please see Post #2, Item 14 on the first page. Item 20 may also apply to you and would be worth reading.

 

[chilly_md]

hi all, i know the whole "if you can be close enough to a pt" saying for clinical/med exps- i do have them so I'm not trying to stretch my hours or anything. i am also a BLS/ACLS/PALS instructor, and it is a paid job. i feel like it is weird to list as non medical because it does have translational applications? what would you list it as?

Non-medical employment in my opinion. There are no patients and these tend to be in a classroom setting.

 

[deadpool5860]

I volunteered as a Research Assistant in a psychology lab on campus. During my time there, I helped with research projects that the lab conducted. I also designed my own research project and was awarded a fellowship to help fund the project. I then presented a poster about the results of this project at my university's research symmposium. Could all of this be included as three entries in extracurriculars? One for the RA, one for the fellowship and project, and one for the poster presentation?

 

[Catalystik]

I volunteered as a Research Assistant in a psychology lab on campus. During my time there, I helped with research projects that the lab conducted. I also designed my own research project and was awarded a fellowship to help fund the project. I then presented a poster about the results of this project at my university's research symmposium. Could all of this be included as three entries in extracurriculars? One for the RA, one for the fellowship and project, and one for the poster presentation?

You could get it all into one space. Or use two, with one being Research and the other Awards/Honors for the fellowship (if you have a lot to say about it. A campus poster should be included with the Research entry. See item 20 in post #2 of this thread.

I think using three spaces would be fluffing it up unnecessarily.

 

[Avi8Med]

Hello!

Research is probably the most prominent activity on my application. I worked at 1 lab during my gap year that I took to do a research fellowship in clinical research (neurosurgery), but first started working there before the pandemic. The 2nd research experience is basic science, and was also done over 4 years. To put a long story short, the basic research resulted in 1 3rd author publication that was unrelated to my main project (I helped my PI's graduate student with her project) and 4 poster presentations at national conferences, 2 first/presenting author. The clinical research resulted in 2 poster presentations from 2020, the abstracts of which were published in supplemental issues of peer-reviewed journals affiliated with those conferences.

1. Do the published abstracts qualify as "publications?" Should I list them under the publications banner, or under presentations/posters? Given that there is a published abstract, should I list this as my citation or rather the fact that those 2 projects were presented (note: not presented by me, although I was 2nd author on the abstract)?

2. Should I explain my publication at all in my publication entry, given that it is not really for the same project that I described in my already-written research description but is still from the same lab?

3. I have 2 first-author abstracts that I just submitted to a national conference for which acceptances/rejections will come back in mid-June--is there any way to specify this? Or is it inconsequential to list anything until the results actually come?

4. In order to have 2 separate entries for my pub and presentations, I would need to cut another activity. I spent 35 hours volunteering at COVID vaccination drives/clinics, and also have listed a long-time musical hobby where I have performed in community settings as another. I was leaning toward cutting the vaccination clinics, as I feel that my music is a very important aspect of my identity. However, I'm not sure if describing the extra clinical volunteering especially given how much of an impact the pandemic has had on all of us would be more impactful to my candidacy as a med school student specifically.


My other questions are about categorizing my activities.

1. I have 3 non-clinical volunteering opportunities, but currently they are all not classified this way. 1 is classified as leadership, since I was a board member at a local charity mission that I had significant volunteer experience with prior to being a board member.
The other 2 are volunteering as an online spelling tutor for an organization I am very familiar with, and volunteering in inner city schools to teach reading and math. I currently have both listed under "teaching", but I am debating listing my the city school volunteering in non clinical volunteering since otherwise, there would technically be no nonclinical volunteering listed explicitly on my activities section.

2. I was employed as a peer tutor at my school. Should I list this as non-clinical paid employment or teaching?


Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

 

[Catalystik]

A. Research is probably the most prominent activity on my application. I worked at 1 lab during my gap year that I took to do a research fellowship in clinical research (neurosurgery), but first started working there before the pandemic. The 2nd research experience is basic science, and was also done over 4 years. To put a long story short, the basic research resulted in 1 3rd author publication that was unrelated to my main project (I helped my PI's graduate student with her project) and 4 poster presentations at national conferences, 2 first/presenting author. The clinical research resulted in 2 poster presentations from 2020, the abstracts of which were published in supplemental issues of peer-reviewed journals affiliated with those conferences.

1. Do the published abstracts qualify as "publications?" Should I list them under the publications banner, or under presentations/posters? Given that there is a published abstract, should I list this as my citation or rather the fact that those 2 projects were presented (note: not presented by me, although I was 2nd author on the abstract)?

2. Should I explain my publication at all in my publication entry, given that it is not really for the same project that I described in my already-written research description but is still from the same lab?

3. I have 2 first-author abstracts that I just submitted to a national conference for which acceptances/rejections will come back in mid-June--is there any way to specify this? Or is it inconsequential to list anything until the results actually come?

4. In order to have 2 separate entries for my pub and presentations, I would need to cut another activity. I spent 35 hours volunteering at COVID vaccination drives/clinics, and also have listed a long-time musical hobby where I have performed in community settings as another. I was leaning toward cutting the vaccination clinics, as I feel that my music is a very important aspect of my identity. However, I'm not sure if describing the extra clinical volunteering especially given how much of an impact the pandemic has had on all of us would be more impactful to my candidacy as a med school student specifically.


B. My other questions are about categorizing my activities.

1. I have 3 non-clinical volunteering opportunities, but currently they are all not classified this way. 1 is classified as leadership, since I was a board member at a local charity mission that I had significant volunteer experience with prior to being a board member.
The other 2 are volunteering as an online spelling tutor for an organization I am very familiar with, and volunteering in inner city schools to teach reading and math. I currently have both listed under "teaching", but I am debating listing my the city school volunteering in non clinical volunteering since otherwise, there would technically be no nonclinical volunteering listed explicitly on my activities section.

2. I was employed as a peer tutor at my school. Should I list this as non-clinical paid employment or teaching?

A) 1) See item #14 in post 2 of this thread.
2) Yes.
3) Don't bother including them on the Primary. Save the details for future update letters or Secondaries prompts (where appropriate).
4) See item #20 of the second post in this thread, as you may be able to include (some of) the presentations with the related pubs. You might also be able to mention presentations in the related Research space. Definitely don't cut the music hobby.

Having only 35 hours at the COVID clinic makes it a weak activity; perhaps you can save it for a suitable Secondary prompt or tack it onto some other nonclinical volunteering entry.

B) 1) The "Common Wisdom" is to use as many of the tags as you can, since you don't know what each school will focus on. Using a Nonclinical Volunteer/Community Service tag trumps Teaching/Tutoring. Definitely list the city school volunteering as non clinical volunteering. If you are short on spaces, the spelling tutor gig can go in the same slot. If you do that, refer to both activities in the name you give the space.
2) Use Employment-Not Medical/Clinical. Include the words Peer Tutor in the title of the space.

 

[Avi8Med]

A) 1) See item #14 in post 2 of this thread.
2) Yes.
3) Don't bother including them on the Primary. Save the details for future update letters or Secondaries prompts (where appropriate).
4) See item #20 of the second post in this thread, as you may be able to include (some of) the presentations with the related pubs. You might also be able to mention presentations in the related Research space. Definitely don't cut the music hobby.

Having only 35 hours at the COVID clinic makes it a weak activity; perhaps you can save it for a suitable Secondary prompt or tack it onto some other nonclinical volunteering entry.

B) 1) The "Common Wisdom" is to use as many of the tags as you can, since you don't know what each school will focus on. Using a Nonclinical Volunteer/Community Service tag trumps Teaching/Tutoring. Definitely list the city school volunteering as non clinical volunteering. If you are short on spaces, the spelling tutor gig can go in the same slot. If you do that, refer to both activities in the name you give the space.
2) Use Employment-Not Medical/Clinical. Include the words Peer Tutor in the title of the space.

Thank you for the helpful response! Will keep this in mind.

 

[Avi8Med]

A) 1) See item #14 in post 2 of this thread.
2) Yes.
3) Don't bother including them on the Primary. Save the details for future update letters or Secondaries prompts (where appropriate).
4) See item #20 of the second post in this thread, as you may be able to include (some of) the presentations with the related pubs. You might also be able to mention presentations in the related Research space. Definitely don't cut the music hobby.

Having only 35 hours at the COVID clinic makes it a weak activity; perhaps you can save it for a suitable Secondary prompt or tack it onto some other nonclinical volunteering entry.

B) 1) The "Common Wisdom" is to use as many of the tags as you can, since you don't know what each school will focus on. Using a Nonclinical Volunteer/Community Service tag trumps Teaching/Tutoring. Definitely list the city school volunteering as non clinical volunteering. If you are short on spaces, the spelling tutor gig can go in the same slot. If you do that, refer to both activities in the name you give the space.
2) Use Employment-Not Medical/Clinical. Include the words Peer Tutor in the title of the space.

Apologies, I have a quick follow-up. Since I would list the abstracts published in peer-reviewed journals under "publications," would I also list the corresponding poster/oral presentations under "posters/presentations"? Type of presentation is not given by the abstract citation, but I also don't know if this becomes redundant. Thank you!

 

[Username88]

Hi, I have a question regarding Dean's List and hobbies on the AMCAS. Space isn't an issue as I have three out of max 15 slots available.

I had a really low GPA in freshman year, so my cGPA is only 3.67; however, over the next three years I got Dean's List for every semester. Should I list Dean's List as a way of showcasing how my GPA bounced back? It's mentioned in my transcript but not in bold (quite honestly it's hard to read!)

In addition in the older work/activities threads there is mention of hobbies to make you stand out, including some that were only from high school. I got a black belt second degree in kajukenbo in high school but did not continue past that and did not formally restart or take any classes past that, though I practice by myself from time to time. Would that be okay to list in the work/activities to make me slightly stand out, or not?

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[Catalystik]

Apologies, I have a quick follow-up. Since I would list the abstracts published in peer-reviewed journals under "publications," would I also list the corresponding poster/oral presentations under "posters/presentations"? Type of presentation is not given by the abstract citation, but I also don't know if this becomes redundant.

If you list an abstract under Publications, you would NOT also list it in Posters/Presentations. In the Publications slot, you would add an addendum after the citation that the data was also presented at . . . .

 

[Catalystik]

I have a question regarding Dean's List and hobbies on the AMCAS. Space isn't an issue as I have three out of max 15 slots available.

2) I had a really low GPA in freshman year, so my cGPA is only 3.67; however, over the next three years I got Dean's List for every semester. Should I list Dean's List as a way of showcasing how my GPA bounced back? It's mentioned in my transcript but not in bold (quite honestly it's hard to read!)

2) In addition in the older work/activities threads there is mention of hobbies to make you stand out, including some that were only from high school. I got a black belt second degree in kajukenbo in high school but did not continue past that and did not formally restart or take any classes past that, though I practice by myself from time to time. Would that be okay to list in the work/activities to make me slightly stand out, or not?

1) Yes. To highlight the achievement it's OK to mention how/why your study skills/motivation/time management changed to allow for this improvement.

2) Yes, so long as you continue to engage in the hobby periodically during the college years, even if on your own.

 

[Username88]

1) Yes. To highlight the achievement it's OK to mention how/why your study skills/motivation/time management changed to allow for this improvement.

2) Yes, so long as you continue to engage in the hobby periodically during the college years, even if on your own.

Thank you for the advice!

Regarding adding the Dean's List, would it make sense to describe a bit about why I put it in? For example, saying that I had a low GPA freshman year and my grades bounced back. Also, I have no idea of how many hours to put on it; I was thinking somewhere around 10? Or maybe just 1