*~*~*~*Tips for Entering your "Work and Activities" in AMCAS*~*~*~*

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Hey guys, Just a quick question, hopefully it hasn't been asked before. Would it be unwise to include activities that I will be participating in in the near-future? I am only asking because I will be starting my Master's clerkship in a medical clinic in August, but I'd like to submit my application before then. Would it be better to hold off with that information for possible interviews? I wasn't sure how to handle that activity. Thank you!
 
tides55 said:
Hi guys, I have a quick question on categorizing some volunteering.

I volunteer with a non-profit org called A Kid Again, which is sort of like Make a Wish, and it sponsors kids with chronic and life-threatening illnesses on trips to concerts and stuff. We do hospital visits once a month for the terminally ill children, which probably falls under clinical. However, the other volunteering involves stuff like reading books, face-painting, running craft booths at the events. These kids do have chronic illnesses, but they're not necessarily confined to the hospital setting. This wouldn't count as clinical volunteering, correct?

Also, I volunteered some time at an Alzheimer's care center.... would this be clinical or non-clinical?
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The A Kid Again sounds more like non-clinical but exceptionally good. Definitely play up the hospital aspect in the description

LizzyM has two criteria she talks about (see here http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=8282422&postcount=1956)
1. Are you close enough to smell patients?
2. Are you regularly around people with prescription-writing privileges?

The Alzheimer's thing counts as clinical. See this thread http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=826829
 
myrtillerose said:
Hey guys, Just a quick question, hopefully it hasn't been asked before. Would it be unwise to include activities that I will be participating in in the near-future? I am only asking because I will be starting my Master's clerkship in a medical clinic in August, but I'd like to submit my application before then. Would it be better to hold off with that information for possible interviews? I wasn't sure how to handle that activity. Thank you!
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Yes, it is unwise to include future activities.

You should absolutely never include any future activity as its own entry on AMCAS. You can't enter a future date into the application for a reason.

If you really want to mention it then you should only make a small mention of the activity at the end of the description of a closely related entry on AMCAS.

Read the conversation between a user named candav and Catalystik starting here http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11089465#post11089465 for a reason why it's bad to include future activities
 
Hi, first post but I've been lurking on this forum for a while. Before I ask a question I want to thank everyone for the excellent advice and pointers. I can't imagine how much more difficult this process would be without help like this.

Ok so my question is this. I was a mentor/judge for a few school science fairs. Would this go under teaching/tutoring or nonmedical volunteer?
 
pez319 said:
Hi, first post but I've been lurking on this forum for a while. Before I ask a question I want to thank everyone for the excellent advice and pointers. I can't imagine how much more difficult this process would be without help like this.

Ok so my question is this. I was a mentor/judge for a few school science fairs. Would this go under teaching/tutoring or nonmedical volunteer?
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It sounds to me like nonclinical volunteer. You could swing it as teaching/tutoring if your mentoring work was a big part of it.
 
sector9 said:
It sounds to me like nonclinical volunteer. You could swing it as teaching/tutoring if your mentoring work was a big part of it.
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Yea there was a lot more time spent mentoring then there was judging. I think I might just combine it with the tutoring I did to save space.
 
How should i list leadership activities for a student group in which i started off as a member and moved up the ranks to president? (i.e. member-->executive--> president)

I'm definitely grouping all 3 into 1 activity, but how should i best present this info to demonstrate leadership ability? what activity title should i use? what about hours? the amount of time i spent for each position differed greatly--and ideally, i would like my app to reflect this.

thanks!!
 
Xiao said:
How should i list leadership activities for a student group in which i started off as a member and moved up the ranks to president? (i.e. member-->executive--> president)

I'm definitely grouping all 3 into 1 activity, but how should i best present this info to demonstrate leadership ability? what activity title should i use? what about hours? the amount of time i spent for each position differed greatly--and ideally, i would like my app to reflect this.
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I would list the activity under Leadership. In the header, include the date span only during which you engaged in a leadership role. Name the activity 'Leadership Roles for XXXX Group/Club'. But in the narrative tell the story of how you started as a member xx/xx/xxxx (date), then what the leadership roles entailed, and the date span each took place. You need not fill in the hours in the header, but in the narrative give an idea of the time involvement for each role you played.
 
Right now, I have 10 Work/Activities entries. I have 3 more things I can add, but am really not sure how much they actually improve my application, so I wanted some advice.

1) My application is very research heavy, with 6 of my current entries related to research. I have one more lab experience that I was involved in for a year in college. This was a cognitive psychology lab, so less medically slanted than the others.
2) Waitressing.
3) I worked in a doctor's office as a receptionist, but the summer before my freshman year, so this maybe still counts as high school.

Thanks!
 
sector9 said:
Yes, it is unwise to include future activities.

You should absolutely never include any future activity as its own entry on AMCAS. You can't enter a future date into the application for a reason.

If you really want to mention it then you should only make a small mention of the activity at the end of the description of a closely related entry on AMCAS.

Read the conversation between a user named candav and Catalystik starting here http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=11089465#post11089465 for a reason why it's bad to include future activities
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice! Very good point.
 
emily19 said:
Right now, I have 10 Work/Activities entries. I have 3 more things I can add, but am really not sure how much they actually improve my application, so I wanted some advice.

1) My application is very research heavy, with 6 of my current entries related to research. I have one more lab experience that I was involved in for a year in college. This was a cognitive psychology lab, so less medically slanted than the others.
2) Waitressing.
3) I worked in a doctor's office as a receptionist, but the summer before my freshman year, so this maybe still counts as high school.

Thanks!
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1. Research which is not science related still has value (unless yo were basically cleaning mouse cages).

2. I'd include it. Waitpersons gain valuable people skills though their jobs.

3. Anything you did after HS graduation is considered to be "in the college years." Include it. (I have a bias here as my predominant clinical experience was through being a physician office receptionist, and I thought it was very valuable).
 
hi y'all so i graduated this past semester and am applying this summer. I'm doing this thing called city year in the Fall which is very similar to teach for America. obviously its not advisable to talk about something that you havent done but city year, on top seeing what would be like to be "in the real world", was one of the reasons why i did not even apply last year. i do not mention this at all in my PS since it sticks out from the theme so I feel that its almost necessary for me to talk about why im taking a gap year in the work/activities section. thoughts?
 
banner18 said:
hi y'all so i graduated this past semester and am applying this summer. I'm doing this thing called city year in the Fall which is very similar to teach for America. obviously its not advisable to talk about something that you havent done but city year, on top seeing what would be like to be "in the real world", was one of the reasons why i did not even apply last year. i do not mention this at all in my PS since it sticks out from the theme so I feel that its almost necessary for me to talk about why im taking a gap year in the work/activities section. thoughts?
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It isn't possible to enter a future date in the Activities/Work section. But if you've done any other teaching/tutoring/mentoring, you could mention at the end of the narrative description for that entry that due to your enjoyment of that experience you've applied and been accepted to the City Year program and why.

Alternatively, you may be given an opportunity in a Secondary essay to discuss your plans.

Or, rework the PS to demonstrate how you've decided to develop a skill essential to being a good physician.
 
For research experiences, would you recommend listing the PI as the contact, or the person that you worked most closely with (i.e. a grad student)?
 
Whatyousay said:
For research experiences, would you recommend listing the PI as the contact, or the person that you worked most closely with (i.e. a grad student)?
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If the grad student would have the best idea of the actual time you've been involved, that person is a good choice. The PI, or even the department secretary, are other options.
 
Catalystik said:
If the grad student would have the best idea of the actual time you've been involved, that person is a good choice. The PI, or even the department secretary, are other options.
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Thanks!

I had a few other minor details that I was curious about:
(1) For research experiences, would it be sufficient to put Research Assistant - (Lab Name), or should I put the title of the project that I was primary involved in (i.e. Genetics Lab vs. Investigation of blah blah blah) ?

(2) For an activity where I had a variety of different roles, would you advise listing all of the roles in the title, or just list one role and discuss the others in the description?

For example: Science Tutor / Interview Committee / New Tutor Trainer
vs. Science Tutor
 
Whatyousay said:
(1) For research experiences, would it be sufficient to put Research Assistant - (Lab Name), or should I put the title of the project that I was primary involved in (i.e. Genetics Lab vs. Investigation of blah blah blah) ?

(2) For an activity where I had a variety of different roles, would you advise listing all of the roles in the title, or just list one role and discuss the others in the description?

For example: Science Tutor / Interview Committee / New Tutor Trainer
vs. Science Tutor
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1) You could name it either way, or even after the PI you worked with, eg Research Assistant in the B. Happerly Lab (especially if the PI if frequesntly published and "known").

2) I would try to emphasize those roles that add particular strength to your application in order to balance it best. Being a tutor is great, but leading/training/organizing other tutors may be better. You could cover them all by naming the activity "Tutoring-Related Activities" (using the entire date span and designating the activity as Teaching/Tutoring) or you could emphasize and list it under Leadership (especially if you don't have something else for this designation), using the datespan for the leadership-only component, but then discussing the tutoring that led to it in the narrative (with its own datespan), or you could split it into two spaces, listing each component wth its own date span and designation if you have enough to say about it.
 
Thanks again Catalystik!

As an aside: is it acceptable to list a student as contact if no one else is available, or would adcoms prefer to see a more "official" contact (i.e. the Office of Student Affairs), even if the more "official" contact would probably be next to useless if a school bothered to call and check on the status of my activity?

I remember reading both as being acceptable somewhere in here, so does it not matter?
 
brambles said:
I see the validity of putting total volunteer hours on the AMCAS, but do people really put total hours they've worked in a lab or a full-time job? It seems kind of silly to put some-thousand-hours worked for employment.

Maybe not on the league of putting every random scholarship you get as an "award/honor," or putting your blog as a "publication," but I think it's getting there. 😕
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Illinois2012 said:
for my lab i put the hours/week and then used the dates to give an idea of how long i've been there. saved me some math.
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Morzh said:
I just put the dates (month/year to month/year) and then included hr/wk.
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gettheleadout said:
Agree with the above. Total hours aren't necessarily that important for employment. Hours per week and overall time span are sufficient.
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Merging with Work/Activities thread
 
Hi,

I have a series of activities designations I'm on the fence on.

1. Competitive Artistic Roller Skating (13ys)- Extracurricular/Hobbies/Avocations
2. President of Pottery Club- Artistic Endeavors
3. Captain of Ski Team- Intercollegiate Athletics
4. Paid EMT-Basic- Paid Employment Non-military
5. Clinical Supervisor of volunteer campus EMT Corps-Leadership
6. First Year Orientation Leader-Leadership
7. Tutoring-Tutoring
8. Developed Health Education Curriculum-Other
9. Club Sports Council- Leadership
10. Research Experiences- Research
11. Food Critic for Campus Newspaper Arts Staff- Extracurricular/Hobbies
12. Bikram Yoga Work Study- Extracurricular/Hobbies
13. AmeriCorps/Community HealthCorps-Volunteer Medical
14. Shadowing- Other

So basically, skating (captain of team for 6 years), ski team, pottery club, volunteer EMT, orientation and club sports council could all be leadership.

I'm debating between changing:
-Clinical Supervisor a leadership position or a volunteer clinical experience?
-Pottery Club a leadership or artistic endeavor?
-Skating a leadership or extracurricular (I hate calling it just a hobby since being nationally ranked in a sport for 10years seems like so much more than a "hobby")

I know leadership is good to show, but I don't want to come off looking like Chairman Mao. I just happen to have done lots of things long enough to be promoted and I've been pretty passionate about my activities outside of the classroom.

Should I make them all leadership or mix and match for some variety?
 
2 questions about being a "middle author":

1) I have my name on two posters, as the 6th author out of 10. I did not attend the conferences nor did I contribute to making the poster. Are these posters worthy of their own slot on AMCAS, or does the middle authorship and lack of contributions to the actual poster subtract from the significance?

2) I am 11th out of 18 authors on a paper spanning 4-5 years of research across 5 institutions. This article has been submitted to one of the highest impact journals and my PI says it will likely be published (maybe after revisions), in his judgment. Since I am such a middle author, did not contribute to designing any experiments or writing the manuscripts, is this worthy of its own slot on AMCAS? If the result comes back next week and requires revisions before publication, would it be appropriate to assign the paper its own slot and say it's "in revision"?

Both the 2 posters and the paper are about roughly the same project, and I am pretty familiar with the whole project, especially the parts that I contributed. Thanks for your advice and time in advance!
 
I have one publication, 5th author, and and 2 poster presentations for my graduate research. Should I group all of these together?

Also, for work and volunteer experiences, I included hours per week, but do I need to include total hours and contact info for each one? For example, if I'm talking about customer service, do i list my 3 job positions, and include total hours, hours/week, and contact info?

Thanks, much appreciated!
 
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Whatyousay said:
is it acceptable to list a student as contact if no one else is available, or would adcoms prefer to see a more "official" contact (i.e. the Office of Student Affairs), even if the more "official" contact would probably be next to useless if a school bothered to call and check on the status of my activity?

I remember reading both as being acceptable somewhere in here, so does it not matter?
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A more official contact is preferred, but if a random college office worker won't have the records to check on your participation in an activity, then use a friend who can vouch for you.
 
sk8ngli said:
Hi,

I have a series of activities designations I'm on the fence on.

1. Competitive Artistic Roller Skating (13ys)- Extracurricular/Hobbies/Avocations
2. President of Pottery Club- Artistic Endeavors
3. Captain of Ski Team- Intercollegiate Athletics
4. Paid EMT-Basic- Paid Employment Non-military
5. Clinical Supervisor of volunteer campus EMT Corps-Leadership
6. First Year Orientation Leader-Leadership
7. Tutoring-Tutoring
8. Developed Health Education Curriculum-Other
9. Club Sports Council- Leadership
10. Research Experiences- Research
11. Food Critic for Campus Newspaper Arts Staff- Extracurricular/Hobbies
12. Bikram Yoga Work Study- Extracurricular/Hobbies
13. AmeriCorps/Community HealthCorps-Volunteer Medical
14. Shadowing- Other

So basically, skating (captain of team for 6 years), ski team, pottery club, volunteer EMT, orientation and club sports council could all be leadership.

I'm debating between changing:
-Clinical Supervisor a leadership position or a volunteer clinical experience? Make the name yoou give the activity show that it includes leadership, like, "Campus EMT Corps/Clinical Supervisor."
-Pottery Club a leadership or artistic endeavor? Consider calling it a Hobby, unles you have won competitions or sold your work.
-Skating a leadership or extracurricular (I hate calling it just a hobby since being nationally ranked in a sport for 10years seems like so much more than a "hobby"). 😡. Artistic Endeavor.

I know leadership is good to show, but I don't want to come off looking like Chairman Mao. I just happen to have done lots of things long enough to be promoted and I've been pretty passionate about my activities outside of the classroom.

Should I make them all leadership or mix and match for some variety?[/QUOTE]See my bolded suggestions above.

I would try to balance the activity designations to show variety, even if the activity description makes it clear it falls into multiple other categories, too.

Also, for #6, consider changing this to Teaching/Tutoring or Volunteer-not Medical, unless you were in charge of training or supervising other orientation staff members.
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intj said:
2 questions about being a "middle author":

1) I have my name on two posters, as the 6th author out of 10. I did not attend the conferences nor did I contribute to making the poster. Are these posters worthy of their own slot on AMCAS, or does the middle authorship and lack of contributions to the actual poster subtract from the significance?

2) I am 11th out of 18 authors on a paper spanning 4-5 years of research across 5 institutions. This article has been submitted to one of the highest impact journals and my PI says it will likely be published (maybe after revisions), in his judgment. Since I am such a middle author, did not contribute to designing any experiments or writing the manuscripts, is this worthy of its own slot on AMCAS? If the result comes back next week and requires revisions before publication, would it be appropriate to assign the paper its own slot and say it's "in revision"?

Both the 2 posters and the paper are about roughly the same project, and I am pretty familiar with the whole project, especially the parts that I contributed. Thanks for your advice and time in advance!
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You would only list the most prestigious way in which your data has been shared, even though it qualifies for two categories. If the paper is provisionally accepted or is accepted and is citable by saying "In Press," meaning accepted without required extensive revision (I've seen this take years) and re-evaluaton, you can list it in its own space. You can see that this is not a black and white answer, and it's hard to predict the outcome of a submission, but it's felt to be better to understate your accomplishment than to overstate it on the application.

But you can mention the submission (or acceptance pending required revision) in the Research space associated with it, or after the citation of the Poster/Presentation (which is based on the same data) in that space (where you might have more room). When the paper is Accepted, then let schools know via an update letter, where permitted.

Assuming these are your only Poster/Presentation entries, then yes, you would list them in their own category, in the same slot, giving credit to whomever did the actual presentation. To save space, you can list one author, then et al, then say you are the 6th author of 10.
 
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adam17 said:
1) I have one publication, 5th author, and and 2 poster presentations for my graduate research. Should I group all of these together?

2) Also, for work and volunteer experiences, I included hours per week, but do I need to include total hours and contact info for each one? For example, if I'm talking about customer service, do i list my 3 job positions, and include total hours, hours/week, and contact info?
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1) If it's all based on the same research project, you would have a Research listing, and a Publication listing. The posters/presentations can be mentioned in either of the other two spaces. Basically, you would use the designation that describes the most prestigious way in which your data was shared.

2) Totalling up the hours is not required, though for the volunteer time (and shadowing) it would be nice to see anyway. You do need contact information, though there are ways around the requirement if you plan to group activities. For example: If all the customer service took place at the same company, you have the choice of listing each job on its own, or grouping them and providing one contact. If they were all summer jobs that took place in different locations, it would be better to use three spaces, but if you don't have enough room, you could group them (naming them Short-Term Summer Employment) and provide each one's contact, hours/week, etc in the narrative.
 
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I am wondering if you have some insight regarding the following situation:

I am applying MD/PhD.

I worked at two different institutions over two significant time periods. I am considering grouping these two research activities into one slot, and designating the slot as "most meaningful."

I will title the experience (hypothetically): "Research Assistant in the Grubbs and Danishefsky Groups."

However, I am told not to do this as it would be confusing for adcoms who see in my contact info, information for one PI/lab, but in the description, an overview of two research experiences.

I figure since I have a 10,000 char research essay, it will be okay to group the two, and save slots for other activities.

I would greatly appreciate your advice!
 
a532 said:
I am wondering if you have some insight regarding the following situation:

I am applying MD/PhD.

I worked at two different institutions over two significant time periods. I am considering grouping these two research activities into one slot, and designating the slot as "most meaningful."

I will title the experience (hypothetically): "Research Assistant in the Grubbs and Danishefsky Groups."

However, I am told not to do this as it would be confusing for adcoms who see in my contact info, information for one PI/lab, but in the description, an overview of two research experiences.

I figure since I have a 10,000 char research essay, it will be okay to group the two, and save slots for other activities.

I would greatly appreciate your advice!
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For someone applying MD/PhD, I think it would be a strategic mistake to group these two research experiences together. You have 2 groups, 2 contacts, 2 unrelated projects, and different roles/responsibilities (?research tech, vs research assistant, vs researcher) with different creative input and responsibility, and impact from each. And each will distract from the other if they are put together. Other activities pale in comparison with how you present your research background. JMO.
 
What is the best way to list poster/oral presentations from my Masters? is it similar to how it would look like on a CV?

Also, as part of my involvement in my grad council, I gave presentations at undergrad open houses about the life of a grad student, and gave some short talks while giving out a faculty award at our annual award ceremony. Would it be too much to add those and how would I go about adding those?
 
Catalystik said:
For someone applying MD/PhD, I think it would be a strategic mistake to group these two research experiences together. You have 2 groups, 2 contacts, 2 unrelated projects, and different roles/responsibilities (?research tech, vs research assistant, vs researcher) with different creative input and responsibility, and impact from each. And each will distract from the other if they are put together. Other activities pale in comparison with how you present your research background. JMO.
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I see. Thank you very much for your advice Catalystik.

I think it is best to separate them after all.
 
adam17 said:
1) What is the best way to list poster/oral presentations from my Masters? is it similar to how it would look like on a CV?

2) Also, as part of my involvement in my grad council, I gave presentations at undergrad open houses about the life of a grad student, and gave some short talks while giving out a faculty award at our annual award ceremony. Would it be too much to add those and how would I go about adding those?
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1) Give the title of the poster, the author list, and who presented it. Refer to the pertinent Research entry. The other usual info is required in the header.

2) I'd list the Grad Council role as Leadership. Mention the presentations in the list of your responsibilities for the position.
 
Catalystik said:
1) Give the title of the poster, the author list, and who presented it. Refer to the pertinent Research entry. The other usual info is required in the header.

2) I'd list the Grad Council role as Leadership. Mention the presentations in the list of your responsibilities for the position.
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that sounds great! thanks a lot Catalystik.
 
Is a master's thesis worthy of it's own spot? I feel like a lot of people do research, but not too many go through the process of writing everything up into a huge document, making all the figures and whatnot. I'm trying to describe my molecular biology research in one slot, which included 3.5 years in the same lab from undergrad through my Master's program, mentioning I have a first author publication that was submitted and listing the title/authorship/journal, and also mentioning I did a Master's thesis. I also gave a talk but I'm putting that in it's own spot. Having trouble cramming all that in...
 
One other thing ... For my honors/awards, I listed my school's registrar as the contact. My school's website didn't list a name so I just put:
First name: Office of the Registrar
Last name: (my university's name)
Anything wrong with doing this?
 
TauParticle said:
Is a master's thesis worthy of it's own spot? I feel like a lot of people do research, but not too many go through the process of writing everything up into a huge document, making all the figures and whatnot. I'm trying to describe my molecular biology research in one slot, which included 3.5 years in the same lab from undergrad through my Master's program, mentioning I have a first author publication that was submitted and listing the title/authorship/journal, and also mentioning I did a Master's thesis. I also gave a talk but I'm putting that in it's own spot. Having trouble cramming all that in...
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A special project or a masters thesis might be listed on its own under "Other" but that presumes you have new and interesting other things to say that won't repeat what you already described in the Research or Publications spaces.
 
TauParticle said:
One other thing ... For my honors/awards, I listed my school's registrar as the contact. My school's website didn't list a name so I just put:
First name: Office of the Registrar
Last name: (my university's name)
Anything wrong with doing this?
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I think it's fine. Or you could call the office and ask for a name.
 
Should you write in past tense or present tense? I tend to want to write in past tense, as it more directly indicates that I DID something. What is your opinion?
 
who should I put in the Contact info for awards/honors and hobby/interest, or any extracurricular activities?

Can I put my contact info in there??

I'm confused !!

thanks
 
What are the different job levels for doing research? If I pretty much did my own project and have a pub, would my title be researcher? What if I only cleaned beakers and autoclaved stuff? Is that a research assistant?
 
I transported an elderly lady to her hospital appointments for cash. I found this gig on craigslist, and she pretty much paid me out of her pocket.

What do I call this? Is this paid employment?
 
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