Travel Experiences on AMCAS

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altitude

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I read through a lot of threads saying that admissions like students that have traveled since they have been exposed to different cultures, lived on their own, matured, ...

But, is travel experience that was more short-term and did not include any volunteer work on clinical work on the trip still appropriate for the AMCAS? I traveled to over 5 countries in Europe with friends for over one month for the sake of exploring different cultures, seeing historical landmarks, ... Will this be looked at as significant and worthy of a spot on my application?

Would adding other shorter-term travel experiences (with family) help this cause?

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I would say if you learned a lot about other cultures and took something away from the experiences then it wouldn't hurt to add it. Me and my family used to travel a lot when i was younger. Even though i was just a kid, exposure to other cultures taught me a lot.
 
At one interview, the Dean of Admissions had read my file for some reason and asked me specifically why I hadn't included my regular family visits to China (I go at least once per year) on my application. I hadn't even realized it was a valid activity to include; clearly, it was.
 
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At one interview, the Dean of Admissions had read my file for some reason and asked me specifically why I hadn't included my regular family visits to China (I go at least once per year) on my application. I hadn't even realized it was a valid activity to include; clearly, it was.

He asked you this after you had told him about these trips? (Or did he somehow already know beforehand about this?)

Also, how would you list multiple trips? Would you list all the significant ones (in a single entry) and mention the length and destination? Would you include who you went with (friends, family, or alone)? Would you describe each one?
 
He asked you this after you had told him about these trips? (Or did he somehow already know beforehand about this?)

Also, how would you list multiple trips? Would you list all the significant ones (in a single entry) and mention the length and destination? Would you include who you went with (friends, family, or alone)? Would you describe each one?

I briefly listed 'travelling' as part of my 'Hobbies' experience and was also asked about it in a few of my interviews. I didn't list the lengths and destinations due to the character limit. If you do choose to list this (which I think you should!), I would focus more on the 'what I learned' rather than the 'where I went' aspect of travelling. I'd also describe them all under one experience without the (imo) unnecessary detail of who went with you. Just my thoughts :).
 
He asked you this after you had told him about these trips? (Or did he somehow already know beforehand about this?)

I am also a photographer, and he had noticed photos from my trips in my portfolio. (Yes, your application is combed through that closely.)
 
I am also a photographer, and he had noticed photos from my trips in my portfolio. (Yes, your application is combed through that closely.)

You are allowed to submit a portfolio with your application?
 
Or maybe he brought it with him to the interviews.
 
A link to an online portfolio, included in the activity description.

Would you recommend others to do this (in terms of how admission committee viewed this in your point of view)? In other words, did you think this had a positive impact on ADCOMS, and would you suggest other do something similar if they have taken photographs that they'd like to show? Were any of them really intrigued, amazed, impressed, etc?
 
Would you recommend others to do this (in terms of how admission committee viewed this in your point of view)? In other words, did you think this had a positive impact on ADCOMS, and would you suggest other do something similar if they have taken photographs that they'd like to show? Were any of them really intrigued, amazed, impressed, etc?

I don't think it had much of an impact at all, and it was never really brought up. Then again, I placed very little emphasis on this activity: photography was one of five hobbies I placed in the same activity box, under a "Hobbies and other activities" heading, and my description was limited to, "I have been professionally commissioned as a photographer in the past. Portfolio link: xx."

My personal stance is that photography has become such a ubiquitous hobby that it really is meaningless unless you have a portfolio to show for it.
 
I read through a lot of threads saying that admissions like students that have traveled since they have been exposed to different cultures, lived on their own, matured, ...

But, is travel experience that was more short-term and did not include any volunteer work on clinical work on the trip still appropriate for the AMCAS? I traveled to over 5 countries in Europe with friends for over one month for the sake of exploring different cultures, seeing historical landmarks, ... Will this be looked at as significant and worthy of a spot on my application?

Would adding other shorter-term travel experiences (with family) help this cause?

It won't hurt to mention that you've traveled a lot and enjoy learning about other cultures. Having been a tourist in Europe is a fine thing to talk about if you feel like it made a big impression on you. At the very least, it may give an interviewer something to talk about with you.

But I'd warn you not to get your hopes up about this being a huge boost to your application. I think a lot of adcoms are fairly conscious about not placing a lot of weight on experiences that are only available to students from fairly well-off backgrounds, in an effort to be fair to the (sadly few in number) applicants to poorer families. I'm sure a lot of folks from less wealthy families would have loved to see the Louvre, Colosseum, etc, but simply couldn't afford to.
 
theres a section on the amcas for "hobbies". i didn't end up using all of my work/activities slots because i felt like it was more important to do quality over quantity activities, so i actually didn't have too many activities to list.

i mentioned travel (i think) but i also mentioned photography, and like someone said above, i did link to my flickr. at two of my interviews, my interviewers mentioned that they had looked at my photos and actually talked to me about a few that they liked (asked me where i took them, how i did it, etc.). as for travel, i also got some questions about that too. i think at interviews they like to ask questions about who you are as a person, so cool travel experiences that have exposed you to the world are topics.
 
How far must you have traveled for it to be significant enough to list on the application?
 
I read through a lot of threads saying that admissions like students that have traveled since they have been exposed to different cultures, lived on their own, matured, ...

But, is travel experience that was more short-term and did not include any volunteer work on clinical work on the trip still appropriate for the AMCAS? I traveled to over 5 countries in Europe with friends for over one month for the sake of exploring different cultures, seeing historical landmarks, ... Will this be looked at as significant and worthy of a spot on my application?

Would adding other shorter-term travel experiences (with family) help this cause?

Appropriate or not, I listed my European travels on my AMCAS application. These were side trips after scientific conferences, but I made it clear they were entirely for pleasure and not business. I didn't devote an entire category to it, but I listed it in a "Hobbies" field. It came up in several of my interviews in the form of "which trip did you like best?" and "where are you planning to visit next?" It was fun to talk about, and one of my interviewers gave me some good travel destination suggestions for my next trip.
 
I've been to over 10 different caribbean islands and have drank my share on each. Didn't quite make it to my AMCAS though
 
As a side question, does traveling before undergrad provide something valuable? i.e. living in six different countries, and experiencing many cultures.
 
I had an interviewer ask me about study abroad/travel. He seemed really put off that I hadn't travelled much in college, but I travelled a lot before college. Who knows.
 
I studied abroad in Paris and never thought to list it. I figured my courses on my transcript would show that they were taken abroad... who knows!
 
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