Travelling as an AMCAS activity?

[ProjectGemini]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hey everyone,

I have travelled many US cities for about a week or two in each summer. Should I put those into my 15th AMCAS activity? If I should, which category? Thanks in advance 🙂

 

[DayDune]

Hey everyone,

I have travelled many US cities for about a week or two in each summer. Should I put those into my 15th AMCAS activity? If I should, which category? Thanks in advance 🙂

I would think as "other", and only include it if you absolutely have nothing else to put in. I would also be sure to say (briefly) what you learned...or something...

 

[tdd340]

I would leave it out, its not really EC worthy.

 

[TheRealMD]

That's filling up space. The golden rule I tell people is that if you can't hold a meaningful conversation about it (and how it probably relates to medicine or your personality) for 10 minutes or so during an interview, it's not noteworthy enough to put on your application.

 

[nick_carraway]

LizzyM says that she likes 1-2 "fun" activities in an app. This could be considered a good one. I think it says something about your personality and it'll make for good interview fodder.

The problem is that it's activity #15. It'll look like you're just trying to fill up space. If it was activity #8 or something, it'd be better. That's psychology, for you.

 

[emaj1n]

The problem is that it's activity #15. It'll look like you're just trying to fill up space. If it was activity #8 or something, it'd be better. That's psychology, for you.

I like!

My vote here is consider why you travelled. Did you just want to check out NYC and visit Atlantic City before the next four years of your life are sucked from you, or did you just visit different uncles and aunts?

If you think traveling is a part of who you are as a person, go ahead and put it. You can talk about your experiences and what you learned. I agree that making it the last item on your list looks suspicious, though.

It's important to put "fun" activities because they, more than others, show a colorful side of who you are. For example, I put that I interned as a sports writer with Virginia Tech's head football coach. This is not at all related to medicine, but I loved the experience. It never came up during an interview, but if it did, I was prepared to talk about my passion for college football. For me, writing about my university's football program was an extracurricular activity. Perhaps traveling is one of your extracurriculars.

Good luck! Feel free to PM with other questions!

 

[hazel16]

I have travelled many US cities for about a week or two in each summer. Should I put those into my 15th AMCAS activity? If I should, which category? Thanks in advance 🙂

I put travel in a general activity called "Hobbies" (along with a couple other hobbies). I figure it'll give the interviewers something to ask about if it interests them.

That's filling up space. The golden rule I tell people is that if you can't hold a meaningful conversation about it (and how it probably relates to medicine or your personality) for 10 minutes or so during an interview, it's not noteworthy enough to put on your application.

This sounds like good advice to me. I went through my personal statement with that in mind--sentence by sentence, asking myself if the interviewer parrotted that sentence back to me, would I be able to expand on it/defend it? I ended up cutting and tweaking a few phrases.

 

[nick_carraway]

I put travel in a general activity called "Hobbies" (along with a couple other hobbies). I figure it'll give the interviewers something to ask about if it interests them.



This sounds like good advice to me. I went through my personal statement with that in mind--sentence by sentence, asking myself if the interviewer parrotted that sentence back to me, would I be able to expand on it/defend it? I ended up cutting and tweaking a few phrases.

Ooo I like that idea! It seemed a little ridiculous to have a separate activity for model building and certainly I'm not a serious enough food critic to put myself down as one. If I group them both under a "Hobbies" entry though, I think it'd seem less hardcore. After all, I really do like eating 😛

Thanks for the idea!!

 

[Doc Henry]

I studied abroad, so obviously I'll put that on my amcas, but I have also travelled quite a bit to other countries during that time and a few others. Overall I would say the travelling has been very influencial in my development as a person, both my medical views and my overall personality. A good example of this would be touring concentration camps in Germany

Should I mention the additional traveling seperately from the study abroad, or just briefly mention it all in the same place???

LizzyM says that she likes 1-2 "fun" activities in an app. This could be considered a good one. I think it says something about your personality and it'll make for good interview fodder.
.

I like to refurbish furniture and spend a lot of time doing other various art projects....it is a genuine hobby, but I wouldn't want to look like I was just adding random crap. I could definately talk about it in interviews, so would it be ok to put it on my app?

 

[nick_carraway]

I studied abroad, so obviously I'll put that on my amcas, but I have also travelled quite a bit to other countries during that time and a few others. Overall I would say the travelling has been very influencial in my development as a person, both my medical views and my overall personality. A good example of this would be touring concentration camps in Germany

Should I mention the additional traveling seperately from the study abroad, or just briefly mention it all in the same place???



I like to refurbish furniture and spend a lot of time doing other various art projects....it is a genuine hobby, but I wouldn't want to look like I was just adding random crap. I could definately talk about it in interviews, so would it be ok to put it on my app?

I don't know how your furniture hobby would come across. It seems kinda like my model building hobby. It almost seems outlandish listed by itself. Though that could just be my inadequacy complex talking and our hobbies might be great if listed separately. I'd go with hazel's suggestion to list them under one activity named "Hobbies", though.

That way you can go ahead and write about traveling and devote some more space to it rather than risk it getting lost in your description of studying abroad. I certainly think it's important enough to mention somewhere though. I don't think enough people take time to travel any more.