"padding" my activities?

[GCS-15]

Hi everyone,

I'm applying in June and had a quick question. Currently I have twelve activities (listed below). Should I include the ones where I had less than 100 hours? It was important to me and I enjoyed being in the club, I just don't want it to look like I'm "padding" my app. At the same time, I want to include it so I can talk about it, just don't know if it's worth mentioning. Basically what I'm asking is: do any of these activiites look like "padding"/should I delete them?

1) Student run clinic, board member: 660 hours
2) Club A, general member: 70 gours
3) AmeriCorps volunteer: 1,770 hours
4) Research Assistant: 160 hours
5) Nutrition Research Center, Intern: 150 hours
6) Club B, committee member: 200 hours
7) Shadowing program: 185 hours
8) Emergency Medicine Research: 200 hours
9) Club C, member: 60 hours
10) two hobbites
11) multiple Awards: dean's list, etc
12) one poster presentation

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[LizzyM]

Frankly, I consider the dean's list and other awards to be padding most of the time.
Your club membership looks to me like the equivalent of a one-hour meeting once a week for two academic years which is not anything to sneeze at. If it tells me something about your interests, it is valuable to see it there.

 

[BKNbkn]

10) two hobbites

2 hobbies? Might be seen as padding. Are they really meaningful or long-term?

A buddy of mine listed "camping" as a hobby, but he literally goes out into the wilderness with only an MRE, knife, fishing line, and flint & tinder. He says it was brought up several times during his interviews and was an excellent talking point.

YMMV

 

[GCS-15]

2 hobbies? Might be seen as padding. Are they really meaningful or long-term?

A buddy of mine listed "camping" as a hobby, but he literally goes out into the wilderness with only an MRE, knife, fishing line, and flint & tinder. He says it was brought up several times during his interviews and was an excellent talking point.

YMMV

The hobbies are directly in line with the rest of my app and have a lot to do with the other activities, so I thought I could include them. Also, I heard that some people like the hobby sections bc they get to know you better as an applicant? That's just what my reasoning was.


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[GCS-15]

Frankly, I consider the dean's list and other awards to be padding most of the time.
Your club membership looks to me like the equivalent of a one-hour meeting once a week for two academic years which is not anything to sneeze at. If it tells me something about your interests, it is valuable to see it there.

So even the club with 50-60 hours would be worth mentioning? I'm just worried that I'll come across as a box checker or someone that spreads them self too thin.


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[LizzyM]

So even the club with 50-60 hours would be worth mentioning? I'm just worried that I'll come across as a box checker or someone that spreads them self too thin.


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Clubs and hobbies help paint a picture of your interests other than the usual volunteering and research.

 

[GCS-15]

Clubs and hobbies help paint a picture of your interests other than the usual volunteering and research.

Thanks for all your advice! One final note: is there a stigma for listing involvement in professional sororities/fraternities? I had a good amount of leadership form this organization which I could also list.

 

[LizzyM]

Thanks for all your advice! One final note: is there a stigma for listing involvement in professional sororities/fraternities? I had a good amount of leadership form this organization which I could also list.

Go for it if it is leadership.

 

[Nucleophile1]

All of those look fine to me. As long as you have a genuine interest in them and feel comfortable talking about them in an interview, you should keep them.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

Frankly, I consider the dean's list and other awards to be padding most of the time.
Your club membership looks to me like the equivalent of a one-hour meeting once a week for two academic years which is not anything to sneeze at. If it tells me something about your interests, it is valuable to see it there.

Do you think its inappropriate to include awards from JROTC that are given to only one cadet in each grade level or one cadet in an entire battalion? In addition these awards are given throughout JROTC battalions across the U.S.

The reasons that give me pause are that JROTC takes place during high school and people may not be familiar with JROTC awards, and like the OP I dont want this to look like padding.

I didn't continue ROTC in college for a myriad of reasons but JROTC was a formative leadership experience for me and was the springboard for other leadership positions that I have held in college.

Also would you reccomend having this as one of my 15 activities if I was in it for all 4 years of high school? I was just planning on including the awards so that could be a potential topic that would be brought up in interviews.

 

[LizzyM]

The general rule is that what happened in HS goes on your application for college and you don't rest on your laurels but list things you did after HS on your medical school application. So, if you had leadership positions in college, you list those, and being recent and things you did as an adult, they will be noted and might be discussed in an interview. If you list JROTC things it looks like padding and it looks like you don't have enough recent things and are dredging up ancient history.

 

[Chromium Surfer]

The general rule is that what happened in HS goes on your application for college and you don't rest on your laurels but list things you did after HS on your medical school application. So, if you had leadership positions in college, you list those, and being recent and things you did as an adult, they will be noted and might be discussed in an interview. If you list JROTC things it looks like padding and it looks like you don't have enough recent things and are dredging up ancient history.

Thank you so much for the feedback!

 

[GCS-15]

Go for it if it is leadership.

Hi LizzyM, another quick question: will it seem awkward if my 3rd "most meaningul activity" only has ~110hours, even though I can express my interests and passion thoroughly when writing/talking about it? Do most applicants have activities in the 100-200 hours range? (my other two meaninful activities have 700 and 1700 hours)