recording ecs

[wjin06]

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I'm currently a college freshman and was wondering how to start recording ecs like volunteering. Should I record hours, dates? How will I prove this when application roll around? Do I write everything down, like every event??

 

[saki0005]

I'm currently a college freshman and was wondering how to start recording ecs like volunteering. Should I record hours, dates? How will I prove this when application roll around? Do I write everything down, like every event??

I keep a list that starts from highschool. It makes filling out AMCAS and secondaries a lot easier. When I did list my un-paid activities for these applications, I only listed the big ones - like when I had racked up a lot of hours or if it was a cause important to me. If I remember correctly, AMCAS has a limit of volunteer activities you can enter.

 

[wjin06]

Whoa, since HIGH SCHOOL? Isn't that a long time ago? Do they still care about that?
And do they go by number of hours or how long (dates,) you did it?

I keep a list that starts from highschool. It makes filling out AMCAS and secondaries a lot easier. When I did list my un-paid activities for these applications, I only listed the big ones - like when I had racked up a lot of hours or if it was a cause important to me. If I remember correctly, AMCAS has a limit of volunteer activities you can enter.

 

[Emergency!]

Whoa, since HIGH SCHOOL? Isn't that a long time ago? Do they still care about that?

Key - SINCE high school. If you are a traditional student, college activities are fine. They don't really want to see high school activities unless you won the nobel prize or something.

Remember, its about QUALITY not QUANTITY. Adcoms can recognize activities that are just there to make an application look good.

You are limited to 15 spaces for EC's. However, you can and should group similar ones (i.e. - they don't want an individual entry for every time you made the dean's list).

Get involved in activities/volunteer work that you care about. Those experiences will mean more to you, and that will show on essays and in interviews.

 

[saki0005]

I've continued to volunteer at some of the same organizations since highschool...those are the only one's I included in my applications. The rest of my experiences were during my college years. In my opinion, I think what matters to the adcoms is the duration and that you've had medically related volunteer experience (not that other volunteer opportunities don't matter). What kind of experiences have you had so far?

 

[lorelei]

Just keep a running list of what you've done and particular cool things. Don't bother with specific hours and dates (unless you do something big like present a paper; you'd want to recall the date of that).

volunteering at X Hospital, 2002-2004, 4 hrs/wk
-->shift chair when needed

student government, 2003-2005
-->student body pres, 2004
-->organized carnival, May 2005

That sort of thing. I wish I'd done it, because when I went to fill out my AMCAS I had to spend a week trying to think of all my activities, and realized later that I left some out.

 

[wjin06]

What if it's like, hospital volunteering during high school, but I no long er volunteer at that hospital? I started a thing in my town that incorporated high schoolers in a city-wide annual cultural event. Is that worth remembering?

 

[saki0005]

What if it's like, hospital volunteering during high school, but I no long er volunteer at that hospital? I started a thing in my town that incorporated high schoolers in a city-wide annual cultural event. Is that worth remembering?

So you like developed the program and everything?

 

[wjin06]

Yeah, I'm not sure it's staying around but it did for the year I was there.

 

[saki0005]

Yeah, I'm not sure it's staying around but it did for the year I was there.

sure then...I would probably include it.
But like everyone else said...just keep a list of the volunteer programs that were really important to you. By AMCAS time you'll have a good idea of the 15 ec's you'll want to list