What Achievements should be listed?

[AvsPearTree]

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So I know this will not be the deciding factor when it comes to my application, but I was trying to figure out what achievements should I list in the achievement section?

I have no academic awards within the last ten years, but I have plenty of military achievements. I have an award for humanitarian service as well as volunteer service that I do plan to list, but should I list other awards such as Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary (deployment to the Persian Gulf) and a Navy Commendation (basically for doing my job not poorly)? Not too sure what all is relevant to this section.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

If you have too many activities, you can group your achievements together in one and list the individual awards in the description. Otherwise, list whatever you're personally most proud of or whatever is the 'biggest' accomplishment.

Kevin W, MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[petomed]

Thank you for your service.

If you ever made the Dean’s List, even for only one semester—put it in there. You should absolutely list your military achievements but mind your audience. Your application will be read by some folks like myself, who are entirely unfamiliar with how your listed military achievement(s) translate to a meaningful experiences, and others who do have said military understanding and can size that achievement more appropriately.

That being said, anything that you can attach a discrete point in time to where acknowledgement occurred, either formal or informal, could be viewed as an achievement. For your mentioned experiences, I’d say you can nail down a firm point in time when these experiences began, ended, and provide lots of introspection when given the opportunity—which is paramount.

The most important aspect of each item on your application, including your achievements, is your ability to derive and articulate introspection from the item. It wouldn’t matter to me if you listed an achievement surrounding data entry at M&T bank for 8 total hours. So long as you’re able to justify the word ‘achievement’, and especially if you can tie that experience into your greater pitch of ‘why medicine, why you?’

Do try not to duplicate these achievements elsewhere on your application though. If you must, make sure they tell different aspects of a story and work well together in revealing more about what makes you exceptional compared to the other 5,000 applicants at the school of interest.