Too many activities to fit in AMCAS....

[SisterDisco08]

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I have too many activities to fit into AMCAS, and according to adcoms, most/all of them are relevant, and important, and they want to see them

Would it be appropriate to "chunk" my activities?

*=one of the three to elaborate on

*1. Shadowing/Clinical experience-list/describe all 3
*2. Major volunteer effort 1-TOMS Shoes
*3. Major volunteer effort 2-TWLOHA
4. Major volunteer effort 3-AHEPA
5. Research-list/describe all 3
6. Paid Work-list/describe all 3
7. Honors/Recognition/Awards-list/describe all 12
8. Volunteer effort 4-PCAP
9. Volunteer effort 5-VA Hospital Lab Runner
10. Posters/Presentations-list/describe all 3
11. Volunteer effort-FIMRC/Pre-Med Club
12. Teaching-I started/taught a course at the University of Michigan
13. Athletics-Softball, fencing club
14. Extracurricular-2 Greek-American organizations: HSA and OCF
15. Misc. Local Volunteering-blood donor, organ/bone marrow registry, local events at 2 area high schools, local cancer center, annual fundraising event for said cancer center for ~10 years that raises tens of thousands of $ each year, meals on wheels, etc

What do you guys think?

 

[NickNaylor]

This is the type of question where you go with your gut and do what you think makes the most sense. There isn't a "right" answer.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

I think that organization looks fine. Just make sure you have enough characters to explain everything. It's okay to leave something out if it's minor compared to other activities.


OT but do people really list blood donation as a volunteer activity? I donate blood all the time but never even thought to list it. Already submitted, though, so I can't change it now.

 

[BeachBlondie]

I'm sort of in the same boat. Catalysk suggested, in my case, to lump together some experiences that took place in the same location (i.e. my research job) with a descriptive title of the three.

For instance: "Clinical Multicenter Research Management With Patient Contact"

It tells the reader that it was involved in clinical research, managed (in this case 2) studies, and had patient contact.

 

[NickNaylor]

OT but do people really list blood donation as a volunteer activity? I donate blood all the time but never even thought to list it. Already submitted, though, so I can't change it now.

No, and that's a good point. OP I wouldn't list blood/marrow donations on your app. That really just screams "SPACE TAKER" like no other. You learn nothing from those experiences, and all it really says about you is that you're willing to take a very small amount of your time every 8+ weeks and "volunteer." Also, if you're willing to group all of your remaining events into one "misc" category where you'll likely not have very much space to talk about them, I question whether or not they're worthy of including on the app in the first place.

 

[RookTookIt]

OT but do people really list blood donation as a volunteer activity? I donate blood all the time but never even thought to list it. Already submitted, though, so I can't change it now.

No way. OP, you have plenty of volunteering so leave out blood donor. You don't want the people reviewing your file to have to dig through your lesser activities to find the real meaningful ones.

Edit: Nick beat me to it.

 

[SisterDisco08]

I think that organization looks fine. Just make sure you have enough characters to explain everything. It's okay to leave something out if it's minor compared to other activities.


OT but do people really list blood donation as a volunteer activity? I donate blood all the time but never even thought to list it. Already submitted, though, so I can't change it now.

ha I'm not sure... I just thought "you know, each donation saves three lives...and that's pretty significant...." and I have a couple other little piddly volunteer things so I figured I could just roll all the odds and ends into a "misc. volunteering" category? ha.

 

[zmb96c]

That's an impressive list. The way you have it set up there looks pretty good.

 

[NickNaylor]

ha I'm not sure... I just thought "you know, each donation saves three lives...and that's pretty significant...." and I have a couple other little piddly volunteer things so I figured I could just roll all the odds and ends into a "misc. volunteering" category? ha.

Now it just sounds like you're trying to fit in a bunch of crap for the sake of fitting in a bunch of crap. Everything you include should be meaningful and speak significantly about you as a person, your accomplishments, or your motivation to become a physician. As someone else mentioned, you run the risk of diluting the importance of your meaningful activities by listing a whole bunch of crap that really isn't important.

See my post above.

 

[SisterDisco08]

No, and that's a good point. OP I wouldn't list blood/marrow donations on your app. That really just screams "SPACE TAKER" like no other. You learn nothing from those experiences, and all it really says about you is that you're willing to take a very small amount of your time every 8+ weeks and "volunteer." Also, if you're willing to group all of your remaining events into one "misc" category where you'll likely not have very much space to talk about them, I question whether or not they're worthy of including on the app in the first place.

My "Misc." category isn't stuff that isn't significant, it was more "this is everything I'm doing locally in my community"
-Cancer center
-volunteer at events at 2 area high schools
-volunteer for ~10 years at event that raises tens of thousands of $ for said cancer center
-meals on wheels

those kinds of things.

 

[RookTookIt]

My "Misc." category isn't stuff that isn't significant, it was more "this is everything I'm doing locally in my community"
-Cancer center
-volunteer at events at 2 area high schools
-volunteer for ~10 years at event that raises tens of thousands of $ for said cancer center
-meals on wheels

those kinds of things.

Depending on the amount of time that you spent on these things, I would only include the cancer center (which is both the first and third thing you list, but should be talked about together). That sounds like an interesting volunteer experience that can have an entire activity devoted to it.

It's great that you volunteered at random high school events and stuff, but that doesn't look nearly as impressive as a continued volunteer experience at the same place.

 

[ceasefire]

15. Misc. Local Volunteering-blood donor, organ/bone marrow registry, local events at 2 area high schools, local cancer center, annual fundraising event for said cancer center for ~10 years that raises tens of thousands of $ each year, meals on wheels, etc

What do you guys think?

I'm one person, but from what I know adcoms don't want to see a long description of what some organization is/does. They want to see what you got out of it. Be careful in your explanations to focus on your development, and not that of the organization.

I was told to explain an organization/experience only if it is not every day knowledge. For instance, I have no idea what some of your acronyms are so one or two sentences would suffice to explain those. Continue with how you developed through the experience, what you got out of it, etcetera.

Extra note: combine similar volunteer experiences if you don't have enough room. You are not being evaluated on your ability to fill all activities slots, so calm down and make things easy for someone to follow and not repetitive.