I need some advice. I have volunteer experience dating back to 1991, and work experience dating back to 1999. In my application under the "work/volunteer experience" section, I've only included jobs/volunteer work since 2000, and I briefly mentioned my pre-2000 experience in my personal statement. Do you think this is acceptable, or should I just include as much info under "work/volunteer experience" as possible in the appl'n?
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work/volunteer experience on application
Started by Unga
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IF the experience is/was important to you, it doesn't matter how old it is. We are older students and some of our experiences are not very recent. That is OK. Really.
Examples. I umped little league for free in the EARLY 90s. I included that because it shows LONG TERM commitment to my community. I was a volunteer paramedic for years in the early 90s too. Yes it was a long time ago, but shows that I was interested in the medical field way back when.
It would be a shame to leave off really good info just because it isn't recent.
ALSO, just FYI... You can group your experiences any way you want on AMCAS. Each item doesn't have to take up one precious space. You could title one something generic like 'non-medical community service' and then list any soup kitchen/habitat for humanity/charity/etc volunteering you did as these don't need much elaboration. Medically related experiences may need their own spot since you want to write about what the post exposed you to and your thoughts on what you saw/did.
I hope that helps a bit.
Examples. I umped little league for free in the EARLY 90s. I included that because it shows LONG TERM commitment to my community. I was a volunteer paramedic for years in the early 90s too. Yes it was a long time ago, but shows that I was interested in the medical field way back when.
It would be a shame to leave off really good info just because it isn't recent.
ALSO, just FYI... You can group your experiences any way you want on AMCAS. Each item doesn't have to take up one precious space. You could title one something generic like 'non-medical community service' and then list any soup kitchen/habitat for humanity/charity/etc volunteering you did as these don't need much elaboration. Medically related experiences may need their own spot since you want to write about what the post exposed you to and your thoughts on what you saw/did.
I hope that helps a bit.
Thanks for your response. I didn't realize we're supposed to describe our thoughts about our work experiences in that section, but rather a summary of our what we actually did. I thought that we discuss our thoughts in the personal statement. Can you please elaborate?
I was advised (by the kind of person you really want to listen to) to use Use USE the space given. Smart lady. Glad I listened.
I tried to make my application as interesting as possible so the adcom would WANT to keep reading (and ultimately want to MEET me because I seemed so interesting).
There is space in this area, so use it.
Example. I did a medical mission trip to Haiti and had a few interesting things happen while there. So, there was a little "essay" in the description area that hopefully not only drew the reader in, but made them want to meet me so they could ask more about it. Make sense? They still got the info of dates and what I actually did, but this way, there is a better chance they actually read it, perhaps remembered it, possibly stood out, maybe won me an interview.
You want to stand out (always in a positive way) and be memorable. You want them to say to themselves "dang, I want to meet this person!"
I hope this helps. Good luck to you.
PS Another Example. I have had a long term gig of speaking to at risk women about domestic violence in a group setting. I wrote about how they react at first being that I am a pretty big guy and how by the end they open up and pour their hearts out to me. One interviewer only wanted to talk about this and asked if I had an opinion as to why these women could open up to me. So, in this case, using the space provided for some narrative and not just dates and facts worked to my advantage.
I tried to make my application as interesting as possible so the adcom would WANT to keep reading (and ultimately want to MEET me because I seemed so interesting).
There is space in this area, so use it.
Example. I did a medical mission trip to Haiti and had a few interesting things happen while there. So, there was a little "essay" in the description area that hopefully not only drew the reader in, but made them want to meet me so they could ask more about it. Make sense? They still got the info of dates and what I actually did, but this way, there is a better chance they actually read it, perhaps remembered it, possibly stood out, maybe won me an interview.
You want to stand out (always in a positive way) and be memorable. You want them to say to themselves "dang, I want to meet this person!"
I hope this helps. Good luck to you.
PS Another Example. I have had a long term gig of speaking to at risk women about domestic violence in a group setting. I wrote about how they react at first being that I am a pretty big guy and how by the end they open up and pour their hearts out to me. One interviewer only wanted to talk about this and asked if I had an opinion as to why these women could open up to me. So, in this case, using the space provided for some narrative and not just dates and facts worked to my advantage.
