Also forgot to mention that I have two misdemeanors on my medical school application (one for underage drinking, the other for driving without insurance (totally did not know I did not have insurance papers in my car, it was kind of my dad's fault) but it seems these are no longer on my record. Do I still share them on my ERAS application under the misdemeanor section? It doesn't seem like too big of deal to me to include them so I kind of feel like I should.Getting ready to apply for residency this cycle and have questions regarding the activities section. Do you all include important activities from college (research, volunteering, any unique experiences)? What about gap year experiences? Also under description, do you just describe the activity or can you also list any important take away points on how it developed you as a person/applicant?
Thanks for the advice. I spoke with my advisor yesterday and she said to not include anything in the description under my "experiences" section. Instead just list the activity and if they are interested in what I did then they can ask during the interview. This didn't make sense to me as I felt I should at least put a little description for each experience I had then maybe elaborate more during the interview. What do you all think? Leave the description blank or add a few sentences?Every application is a story. What is your story? Include things that are relevant to the story. If you did research in medical school then I would also include college research. Similarly, if there is a clear theme to your volunteering that runs through college and medical school then maybe the college stuff is worth including. Gap year = college for the purposes of this discussion, it's either "medical school" or "prior to medical school." The description was mainly an elaboration of what I actually accomplished (titles don't mean much if you didn't actually do anything) although if there was a significant take away that naturally came to me I probably included it. Definitely didn't force anything.
For the misdemeanors, I would talk to your school about how to handle it. My gut says if they have been expunged that you should not include them but I don't know enough to answer confidently especially since you did have to document them on AMCAS.
I guess it could be specialty specific but that sounds like bad advice to me. If they don't care about the activity, they can simply not read the description. I would think having a description when the reader doesn't want one is much better than not having one when they do.Thanks for the advice. I spoke with my advisor yesterday and she said to not include anything in the description under my "experiences" section. Instead just list the activity and if they are interested in what I did then they can ask during the interview. This didn't make sense to me as I felt I should at least put a little description for each experience I had then maybe elaborate more during the interview. What do you all think? Leave the description blank or add a few sentences?
