Questions about AMCAS work/activities

[Signifier]

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I know there is a hefty 70+ page post on entering AMCAS activities, with lots of good advice. I have looked at it, I would just like to ask some active posters some questions about entering activities on the AMCAS. Apologies if this is not the right place to pose these questions.

1) Do we list hobbies? I play the guitar; I also love hiking and camping. These things keep me sane but I don't think they directly relate to my desire to pursue medicine.
2) Do we list research experiences and publications separately or together? Do we list research experiences not resulting in publication? (Sorry)
3) Long or short? Jessica Freedman's article (see link below) says to use all 1325 characters if you can; adcom readers can simply opt to skim. Many folk in the big AMCAS activities post seem to think otherwise (To quote LizzyM: "No need for the pronoun. Keep it short and sweet").

Advice from folks who have filled out their 15 activities already is much appreciated.

Freedman's article:
.http://www.studentdoctor.net/2009/05/medical-school-admission-lessons-learned/.

Thanks.

 

[runawayclock]

1) Do we list hobbies? I play the guitar; I also love hiking and camping. These things keep me sane but I don't think they directly relate to my desire to pursue medicine.

Depends on the level at which you pursue the hobby. Are you in an outdoors club (then you could list it as a club activity)? Do you teach guitar lessons? Do you play in a band/compose? If you do something competitively or participate in shows/exhibits/whatever or make a living off it then i think it's a serious enough pursuit to write about. Otherwise, just mention it in your interview.

2) Do we list research experiences and publications separately or together?

Up to you. I had too many things i wanted to list that were from different organizations (i was a little everywhere) so I compacted my stuff down to differen projects. I listed each research project as a different activity and in the description put down any posters/presentations/conferences. But if you wanted to emphasize how much work you did at one place for a long time, as in, if you stayed with the same PI for like 3 years and did several pubs, i would do research as 1 activity and group all the pubs from a single problect as another activity.

Do we list research experiences not resulting in publication? (Sorry)

Yes. Unless it was because you were only there for like 3 weeks, i would list it even if you didn't end up on a pub.

3) Long or short? Jessica Freedman's article (see link below) says to use all 1325 characters if you can; adcom readers can simply opt to skim. Many folk in the big AMCAS activities post seem to think otherwise (To quote LizzyM: "No need for the pronoun. Keep it short and sweet").

Take as much as you need to fully explain the activity, but you don't need an essay. I just did point form.

 

[LizzyM]

1) Please list hobbies and artistic endeavors. It helps shows that you are multidimentional and often provides something that the interviewer can bring up as a warm-up question.

2) Yes, list research and publications separately. List research even if it does not result in pubication.

3) Times change. The first year that the greater number of characters was permitted, reviewers thought it was too much. At this point, a few years later, the application reviewers are growning used to the longer descriptions and I'm willing to admit that those can be effective and are acceptable.

 

[Signifier]

Those responses are much appreciated. Thank you both.

I thought as much for #3. The list research & publications separately thing is a bit unexpected, but I'll heed the advice. Earlier, 15 was too many; now it's not enough 😉

 

[Signifier]

Actually, I want to push you on this Lizzy because I can't get it to make sense to me. If you're still reading, why would I write about research and publication separately? I did a SURF program and the research directly resulted in discoveries, presentations and a publication. To my mind this seems like it should be 1 entry, and within I describe the research and what came of it.

If I did them separately, I would have one entry describing the research and presentation, and one describing the publication... but what would the publication one say? "This was a publication resulting from the research I did at..."?

Sorry to be a gadfly here. Thanks to anyone who can comment.

 

[LizzyM]

The experience section is a series of entries and each is tagged with one of about 18 tags. One tag is "resesarch" and another is "publication or presentation". Now, many application reviewers will skim an application looking for research and publication. If each is clearly labeled, it's a snap and you get rated highly. If an item labeled research is there but no item labeled "publication" there might be a snap judgment that the applicant has no publications. Result: You just screwed yourself.

Devote one entry to your SURF and one entry to your publication(s). That leaves 13 more for other experiences.

You enter the citation in the free text field with a note: work done in the SURF program Summer 20--.