Western U. CV Instructions

[DollyyLlama]

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Soo, I'm working on my WUHS secondary app, which is due in a few days. Forgetting about the personal questionnaire for a minute, I have some questions about the format of the CV that I figured I'd ask here before calling the admissions office Monday.

Overall, it asks for the same info as the Experience section of the VMCAS app. So do we just copy and paste and make it fit their format? Should the descriptions be in paragraph form or bullet points?

A few other specific questions:
1) Should the descriptions be in paragraph form or bullet points?
2) The Education section specifies that we should list our high school, but for all the other categories, should we include stuff from high school?
3) Should the stuff that VMCAS calls "animal experience" go into "vet experience" or "other experience" on the CV?
4) For experience, what is the difference between "responsibilities" and "duties"?
5) For "foreign travel/ experience," do they want to hear about vacations?

I'd be interested to know how others handled this.. thanks!

 

[DollyyLlama]

Actually I have a question about the personal questionnaire too. It says the limit is 200 words or 1700 characters, but it seems that 200 words is much less than 1700 characters. The form will let me paste as much text as I want to (by the way, does anyone else think that Adobe form is a bit hard to work with?). Should I just use the space given as a guide, since the response has to fit in that space when it prints out?

 

[efab]

i started applying and had some of the same questions you guys have posed. i stopped applying 5 minutes later after i learned that i have too many superscript 5 classes to fulfill their prerequisites (a little more thorough research would have save me some money on VMCAS and 5 minutes of my time).
fwiw, yes, i found the adobe form tricky to use.

 

[rachroo]

i stopped applying 5 minutes later after i learned that i have too many superscript 5 classes to fulfill their prerequisites

What? I'm confused...what are too many superscript 5 classes to fufill the pre-reqs? 😕

 

[karmapple]

Oh man, sometimes I think I shouldn't look at this forum. People here ask questions that never even occured to me, and then I go over everything I did in my mind and freak out.

You should probably still call the admissions office, but I can share with you what I did on my CV. Then you can tell me if I'm wrong after you call.

1) I did bullet points, but that's because I copied a substanial portion of it from my resume, and that was my resume format.
2) I included relevent animal/ vet experience from high school, but not anything else, like after school clubs.
3) I just make a listing called "Animal Experience" on my CV.
4) I listed most things under "duties." An example of what I put under "responsiblities" was that I was responsible for our volunteer program at my clinic.
5) I didn't put anything about vacations. I wouldn't think it's relevant.

 

[efab]

What? I'm confused...what are too many superscript 5 classes to fufill the pre-reqs? 😕

look at their site in the prerequisite area. then, find the superscripts. you may not have more than X number of superscript 5 outstanding beyond the fall of your application submission.

 

[DollyyLlama]

hey, most of the western applicants probably have this stuff worked out by now, but i did just speak to my admissions counselor and thought i'd share her responses in case it helps anyone.

If 200 words is less than 1700 characters, which limit should we use for the personal questionnaire:
Answer: probably more like 200 words, since the adcoms are reading so many.

The rest are for the CV:
1) Should the descriptions be in paragraph form or bullet points?
answer: sentences should be fine (my impression was that either is ok)

2) The Education section specifies that we should list our high school, but for all the other categories, should we include stuff from high school?
answer: sure, if it's relevant

3) Should the stuff that VMCAS calls "animal experience" go into "vet experience" or "other experience" on the CV?
answer: probably 'other' if it's not strictly 'vet' (although i think karmapple's idea to make a separate 'animal experience' category would work too)

4) For experience, what is the difference between "responsibilities" and "duties"?
answer: she was a bit stumped by this one, said it should probably say 'responsibilities and/or duties'

5) For "foreign travel/ experience," do they want to hear about vacations?
answer: probably not

 

[JKIM02]

hey, most of the western applicants probably have this stuff worked out by now, but i did just speak to my admissions counselor and thought i'd share her responses in case it helps anyone.

hahaha. one should never underestimate my procrastination abilities. 😎
ive only written my rough draft cv. 👍

 

[JKIM02]

Just curious to see how long your cv was for western. Mine is roughly 5 pages😱
that's too long right!??

 

[DollyyLlama]

mine was 4 or 5, and pretty much a re-formatting of the "experience" section of my VMCAS. i bet that for some people the cv will be much longer than that.

 

[rachroo]

Wow, I called Western about some of the same questions and got different answers!! 😕

1) Should the descriptions be in paragraph form or bullet points?
answer: sentences should be fine (my impression was that either is ok)

I was told that you could do either.

4) For experience, what is the difference between "responsibilities" and "duties"?
answer: she was a bit stumped by this one, said it should probably say 'responsibilities and/or duties'

The woman I talked to said that it was just different wording for the same thing...some places may say Duties while others say responsibilites....I just ended up putting Duties and Responsibilites.

5) For "foreign travel/ experience," do they want to hear about vacations?
answer: probably not

Haha, again, I got a different answer. When asked if I should list a European vacation (not realted to vet med), I was told yes!

Ohh welll...it's already sent! I guess we'll just have to wait and see.