Post-secondary Experiences

[Bikini Princess]

Knowing what to include in postsecondary experiences is kind of difficult. Obviously you want med experience, research..but what about jobs?

I worked at a coffee bistro in college..should I include that? What about a modeling/advertising company? And how many post-secondary experiences should you aim for, it seems like ~14 is overwhelming and distract from the important ones.

If you presented at several research conferences, should you include them as part your research, or as a separate experience, under "conferences attended"? Or both? Any insight about this?

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[Tweetie_bird]

hey girl,
Re jobs: if you think that somehow, the coffee/bistro job impacted your life significantly or even helped so pay for college or something BIG like this, then include it. I had work as an office assistant for a few quarters while I paid my way through college, so I have to include that so admissions officers know that I wasn't sitting around getting "so so grades."

Papers/publications/abstracts go separately; if it was addressed at a conference, include the conference as a whole with the paper citation in the description section. if you feel the duties you did ASIDE from the paper (i.e. research) were significantly different from those included on your paper, then add a separate category.

For example--I did clinical research (obviously on patients). I had to do vitals, patient histories etcetc etc.

I was also allowed to write a paper on this eventually, that got published. EACH of those two things are significant enough (in my mind) to include as separate categories. I wish I could lump it all together, but 510 chars. is simply not enough to talk about my duties doing both, AND add a citation at the end.

Know what I mean?

 

[Tweetie_bird]

PS: I also think that you shouldn't be worried about "overwhelming them" with the amount of post sec exp. If they see that you have 15, and each of those is significantly different and contributed to your application in a unique way, they will look upon it favorably.

I personally have 15. I wish I could have had more, but I can only have fifteen. This is much shorter a list then they allowed in the previous years...so 15 is not that much.

 

[boo_yah]

I had a construction job for a summer and I put that down. Why? Well, it paid for a lot of my college expenses and I think it was good that I was employed and not just wasting time.
Anyway, I think you should put jobs.

 

[RT]

Jobs are important. Research and papers/conferences go separately. But if you attended many conferences or have multiple papers then putting them together is much better. Indicating your research duties is entirely up to you.

RT

 

[jkai]

I have volunteered at a hospital both in the summer and during the school year. What should I put down for average hours per week? Thanks