Repetition in PS and Activities Sections

[frosty42]

**PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE**

Recently reviewed my PS with my premed advisor and he said I shouldn't list my AmeriCorps VISTA position as most meaningful because I spoke about it a lot in my PS.

My other 2 most meaningful are study abroad (talking about going to my immigrant family's home country) and clinical research (where I worked with patients for the first time and was exposed to the impact of health disparities & stigma against severe mental illness).

My advisor said I should replace AmeriCorps with being my university's equestrian team captain because it shows a leadership aspect and because I don't talk about being a lifelong equestrian in my PS at all.

Being an equestrian has definitely been a huge part of my life and I have a lot to say about being captain, but I felt like it would come off wrong if I didn't highlight my AmeriCorps position as most meaningful.

A lot of what I wanted to say about AmeriCorps I did already say in my PS, but it's 1700 hours over a full year of service so I thought it seemed wrong to not include it as most meaningful.

Should I actually be more strategic about which activities I highlight? I was treating my PS and my work/activities as completely separate because I didn't want the fact that a certain activity was highlighted in my PS to dissuade me from talking about what was actually personally meaningful to me.

Any advice?

I don't have a ton of trust in my premed advisors, unfortunately, as they've steered myself and several of my friends wrong in the past.

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[Med Ed]

Your application should be logical and coherent. If your time in AmeriCorps was truly a most meaningful experience, it is logical to designate it as such and discuss it in your PS. Taken together, these elements of your application then form a coherent theme.

The premed advisor has good intentions, but he is overthinking/over-strategizing this.

 

[husky_doc16]

If you are worried about repetition, you can highlight different takeaways or learning experiences from AmeriCorps in your Personal Statement compared to the meaningful experiences section. This way, you can further elaborate on your time in AmeriCorps. I agree with Med Ed that this will help create a theme in your application. At the end of the day, shape your application into a narrative that's most fitting to you, regardless of what other folks say. If your gut tells you to not list being an equestrian as a meaningful experience, don't do it.