Should I list ancient experiences?

[LiveUninhibited]

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How much weight should I attach to how recent an experience was to put it on AMCAS? Or do experiences "expire" in the view of admissions coms. For example, if I did shadowing in high school, should I consider listing it? I do have more recent shadowing, but still. If my research is over 3 years ago, does it still "count?" It's not that I haven't been doing anything in the meantime, it's just that certain types of experiences (e.g. research) are a bit dated.

 

[Ponger]

The rule of thumb is don't list anything from High School unless the activity carried over to college. E.g. you started volunteering at the Red Cross in High School and became a volunteer supervisor in college or something of that nature.

Anything starting from the summer after HS is fair game.

 

[drizzt3117]

The rule of thumb is don't list anything from High School unless the activity carried over to college. E.g. you started volunteering at the Red Cross in High School and became a volunteer supervisor in college or something of that nature.

Anything starting from the summer after HS is fair game.

I think it's ok to list things from HS if they are extraordinary. Other than that, don't bother.

 

[Ponger]

I think it's ok to list things from HS if they are extraordinary. Other than that, don't bother.

Oh, right. If you cured cancer in High school, that is fair game too 😛

 

[Artimacia]

I would have to agree with the carrying over and extraordinary ECs. For example, I start doing Relay for Life in my junior year of high school. I'm going to mention it because I did it my junior and senior year, then in my freshman and sophmore (being a committee chair) years in college (not to mention continuing after this year).

 

[pride4jc727]

I would only take experiences you did from college onward. If you start to use high school, then it would seem from the POV of adcoms and med schools that you are using them as fillers. However, I did list two of my HS experiences only because I continued to them and progressed in them respectively. For example, I am a karate student and I earned a 3rd degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and was promoted from an assistant instructor to a full fledge instructor. In addition, I also used my experience here as a starting point for my personal statement on the AMCAS. Pretty much, unless it has a significant on you and your pursuit of medicine as your career, I would not include high school experiences. Adcoms are most interested in what you have done now and in the recent past.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I did boyscout stuff the summer between high school and college so I will probably list that along with getting my eagle scout then.

However, I was really active in my community in high school and organized toy drives, blood drives, school president for a few years and other BS and that will NOT be listed in any way. No one cares about that stuff. If I didn't do philmont in between high school and college than I wouldn't even list my eagle, so I am marking a clear difference. Once I graduated high school, none of that stuff mattered from when I was there.