Should I include any of these activities on my application?

[highspeed983]

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I am working on my work & activities, and I am conflicted about whether I should include these three activities. I have seen different advice across SDN/Reddit.

Potential activity 1:

Through my clinical work, I have developed a physician mentor who does some work in research. We are in the process of writing a review article with the hope of submitting it this summer. I have done a great deal of work on this paper and will be the second author. My application should be submitted before the manuscript is submitted. Additionally, we are planning on using the article to leverage some grants & are thus writing protocols together. It seems like the consensus on SDN is not to count work done on a review as research, but we are moving more towards answering a genuine scientific question.

Potential activity 2:

I have developed a fairly close relationship with a professor at school. Although I do not work in her lab, she asked if I would like to help her write a primary research article. The publication may be accepted before my primary application is in, although I am not counting on it. I will be a middle author. I wouldn't count this as research as I am not in her lab, but I am doing a great deal of work on this paper that may or may not be submitted before my application is in.

Potential activity 3:

As part of my undergrad coursework, I am assigned a PI and work in their lab for a semester. My work is graded, although I actively contribute to their research work. At the end of the semester, we have a formal poster presentation on our work done in the lab at a university-wide research presentation.

So, would any of these count as an activity that I would include on my primary?

 

[GoSpursGo]

The first two sound like research activities. Activity 1, while writing a review isn't "research," the part where you're coming up with grants/protocols is research even if it's just in the planning stage. Activity 2 is definitely research even if you didn't do the wet lab portion.

Activity 3 is just coursework and can be found on your transcript. You probably should find a place to list your poster though.

 

[highspeed983]

The first two sound like research activities. Activity 1, while writing a review isn't "research," the part where you're coming up with grants/protocols is research even if it's just in the planning stage. Activity 2 is definitely research even if you didn't do the wet lab portion.

Activity 3 is just coursework and can be found on your transcript. You probably should find a place to list your poster though.

How should I go about phrasing the second activity description? All I am doing is writing a paper based on data that she understands and I don't... I especially do not know how to include it if I do not have a publication with it yet.

As for the first activity, would I include hours spent on writing the review or just the hours spent on other things for the hours in the activity section?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

So germane to your question is not how you should describe each activity, but what value any of these activities might have in reviewing your application. Of course, you are the only one who determines the value of the activity to include it as one of your more important 15 activities on your AMCAS application. Will there be a LOR associated with any one of these activities? If so, you may want to think about including it.

In other words, you have to make that value judgment before you spend more time fretting over the language.

 

[Catalystik]

I am working on my work & activities, and I am conflicted about whether I should include these three activities. I have seen different advice across SDN/Reddit.

Potential activity 1:

Through my clinical work, I have developed a physician mentor who does some work in research. We are in the process of writing a review article with the hope of submitting it this summer. I have done a great deal of work on this paper and will be the second author. My application should be submitted before the manuscript is submitted. Additionally, we are planning on using the article to leverage some grants & are thus writing protocols together. It seems like the consensus on SDN is not to count work done on a review as research, but we are moving more towards answering a genuine scientific question.

Potential activity 2:

I have developed a fairly close relationship with a professor at school. Although I do not work in her lab, she asked if I would like to help her write a primary research article. The publication may be accepted before my primary application is in, although I am not counting on it. I will be a middle author. I wouldn't count this as research as I am not in her lab, but I am doing a great deal of work on this paper that may or may not be submitted before my application is in.

Potential activity 3:

As part of my undergrad coursework, I am assigned a PI and work in their lab for a semester. My work is graded, although I actively contribute to their research work. At the end of the semester, we have a formal poster presentation on our work done in the lab at a university-wide research presentation.

So, would any of these count as an activity that I would include on my primary?

Mentioning a research protocol in development will not add value to your application.

A manuscript that has been accepted for publication will add value to your application. Referring to a submitted manuscript or one in progress does not. Secondaries or update letters are a means of mentioning a paper's acceptance after you submit your Primary application.

A Research activity as referred to in #3 may be entered under a Research tab, even though it is also on your transcript. A campus poster that is required and not picked for inclusion through a selective process does not add much value, but many will mention it on their application regardless.

 

[GoSpursGo]

How should I go about phrasing the second activity description? All I am doing is writing a paper based on data that she understands and I don't... I especially do not know how to include it if I do not have a publication with it yet.

As for the first activity, would I include hours spent on writing the review or just the hours spent on other things for the hours in the activity section?

Well... for the second, then you should work on understanding what you're writing. And if you include it as a research activity, I would say that you are analyzing data from a study on x,y,z as part of a larger project in the lab. I wouldn't specifically say that you're just writing the paper since as others have said having a manuscript in prep isn't anything noteworthy. But if you're contributing to a project at the level that you would receive authorship... I'm not sure how that ISN'T research even if you're coming in at the very end.

For the first I would only list the hours spent on other things.

 

[mudfud26]

List publications (full citation with DOI) and posters as separate activity. There is a category for publications as well as a separate category for posters and conference presentations (0 hours). Wet lab research activity can be listed as an activity with hours. It's important to be able to talk about any of these things on a knowledgeable basis because interviewers will ask questions about your research and that TA activity you listed from 8 years ago (speaking from experience).