Question for non-trads

[PreciousHamburgers]

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If you have taken a few gap years, how do you handle the secondary essay prompts that ask you to list your activities since graduation, but only give you maybe 150-200 words. I have done so much in the past FIVE years, I couldn't possibly go into any detail about any of them. Could I literally just LIST them all?

How have you dealt with this?

 

[OneTwoThreeFour]

If you have taken a few gap years, how do you handle the secondary essay prompts that ask you to list your activities since graduation, but only give you maybe 150-200 words. I have done so much in the past FIVE years, I couldn't possibly go into any detail about any of them. Could I literally just LIST them all?

How have you dealt with this?

Broad strokes: right after graduating I attended a post-bacc for a year. I then obtained a job working for X for a year. I then moved to ??, where I did Y. My time off allowed me to perform research, work with patients, and truly understand that medicine was the right choice for me.

So, a step up from a pure list, but still a list.

 

[sazerac]

Answer in a manner that sounds intriguing, but leaves out so many details that they will want to interview you just to get the rest of the story.

Speaking from experience. I landed a private interview with the dean of admissions at one school, and she basically threw my application with years of gap adventures in my face and said "WTF? Explain please".

Result: accepted

 

[familyaerospace]

Might have been better to ask this in the NT forum.

I cannot imagine how I could summarize 10 years in 150 words or less unless I just listed things.

 

[Shjanzey]

Isn't there a worklist/activities section with 15 slots? I basically gave a list of all jobs I held over ten years within one of those slots. I had plenty of EC's to list for the other slots, and I don't think adcoms want to read a dry list of corporations I have earned a living from.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Isn't there a worklist/activities section with 15 slots? I basically gave a list of all jobs I held over ten years within one of those slots. I had plenty of EC's to list for the other slots, and I don't think adcoms want to read a dry list of corporations I have earned a living from.

Yes, I did that as well. I am talking about secondaries though. For example, SUNY Downstate asks:

"If there were periods longer than 3 months, from the time you graduated from high school to now, when you were not employed full-time or in college full-time, please briefly describe your activities. (Limit 150 words)"

150 words?! That would be less than a word for each experience, if I were to list them all!

 

[Shjanzey]

Yes, I did that as well. I am talking about secondaries though. For example, SUNY Downstate asks:

"If there were periods longer than 3 months, from the time you graduated from high school to now, when you were not employed full-time or in college full-time, please briefly describe your activities. (Limit 150 words)"

150 words?! That would be less than a word for each experience, if I were to list them all!

I think maybe you are complicating things a bit. Here is some advice.

Make your past work experience overlap as much as possible. If you were "unemployed" for 1 - 2 months in the past, just make the dates you switched jobs conjoin. Why? Because it is a waste of time to say "I was looking for a job for 2 months." That type of questioning is for undergrads who generally take the summer off to travel, have fun, research, etc. Non-trads generally are busting their humps trying to get a job to meet their financial obligations.

If you have multiple volunteering experiences that are similar in nature, put them all in one slot, list them and annotate the number of hours for each one.

Write down all your secondary questions and the answers you have written to them. Re-use for other secondary applications. After a while the questions repeat, and trying to remember what you wrote down several days ago can be annoying. Being a non-trad I doubt you have 3 hours per day to spend on each secondary as well.

Ultimately the most important slots that you should focus on are your 3 most significant experiences.

 

[familyaerospace]

Yes, I did that as well. I am talking about secondaries though. For example, SUNY Downstate asks:

"If there were periods longer than 3 months, from the time you graduated from high school to now, when you were not employed full-time or in college full-time, please briefly describe your activities. (Limit 150 words)"

150 words?! That would be less than a word for each experience, if I were to list them all!

Oh well that is very different in that case, I am not sure I would have anything to list.

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

I think maybe you are complicating things a bit. Here is some advice.

Make your past work experience overlap as much as possible. If you were "unemployed" for 1 - 2 months in the past, just make the dates you switched jobs conjoin. Why? Because it is a waste of time to say "I was looking for a job for 2 months." That type of questioning is for undergrads who generally take the summer off to travel, have fun, research, etc. Non-trads generally are busting their humps trying to get a job to meet their financial obligations.

If you have multiple volunteering experiences that are similar in nature, put them all in one slot, list them and annotate the number of hours for each one.

Write down all your secondary questions and the answers you have written to them. Re-use for other secondary applications. After a while the questions repeat, and trying to remember what you wrote down several days ago can be annoying. Being a non-trad I doubt you have 3 hours per day to spend on each secondary as well.

Ultimately the most important slots that you should focus on are your 3 most significant experiences.

This isn't what I am talking about. I already submitted my primary application.

 

[Shjanzey]

This isn't what I am talking about. I already submitted my primary application.

The second part of my reply talks about secondaries. Keep reading

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

The second part of my reply talks about secondaries. Keep reading

Yes, but it doesn't help me write about the last five years in 150 words.

 

[Gauss44]

I plan to list only my most impressive and to say so. It's going to be a nice list like the kind you would see on a professional website, deal sheet, etc.

 

[Shjanzey]

Yes, but it doesn't help me write about the last five years in 150 words.

Make a list, be brief.

 

[AspiringERMD]

If you have taken a few gap years, how do you handle the secondary essay prompts that ask you to list your activities since graduation, but only give you maybe 150-200 words. I have done so much in the past FIVE years, I couldn't possibly go into any detail about any of them. Could I literally just LIST them all?

How have you dealt with this?

I agree with what's been said above, and I don't really have anything to add, but I wanted to say that I love your SDN handle, and I know the reference 🙂

 

[QofQuimica]

One of the skills you're being evaluated on when you do your secondaries is your ability to follow directions. If they ask you to list what you've been doing for the past five years since you graduated from college in 150 words or less, then make a list of what you've done that is less than 150 words, and don't go into detail. If you can't fit every single thing you've done onto your list, no problem. Cut the less important activities out, and keep pruning things away until the rest fits within the word limit.

I'm now approaching 20 years since graduating college. I've earned four graduate degrees, worked at several jobs domestically and abroad, finished a residency, published a book, participated in dozens of activities, volunteering, etc. But if I had to outline what I've done in the past two decades in 150 words or less, I could still do it; not all of those things I've done are equally important/interesting, and some can be left out or just mentioned in a word or two. So you can certainly compress five years' worth of activities to 150 words; you just have to be more selective and brief with what you include. It really is that simple.