EC vs PS

[phrygian]

I am reapplying for 2007. I did 6 years active duty as a Navy Corpsman where I volunteered for many deployments, only some of which were mentioned in last years PS. Should I list each deployment as a EC so I can show how much I volunteered since I can not fit everything I did in my PS or just try to rework my PS to be more inclusive? It seems to be a shame that I have so much to tell about my experiences and not enough space to do so.

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[davey22]

I am reapplying for 2007. I did 6 years active duty as a Navy Corpsman where I volunteered for many deployments, only some of which were mentioned in last years PS. Should I list each deployment as a EC so I can show how much I volunteered since I can not fit everything I did in my PS or just try to rework my PS to be more inclusive? It seems to be a shame that I have so much to tell about my experiences and not enough space to do so.

I'm currently in the military and plan on attending med school also, I'm responding not to your question but as a question for you. What was your GPA and other academic stats? I don't mean to intrude but I have been stressing about actually getting accepted by a med school and I thought that my military career would definitely pull some weight in distinguishing myself apart from other applicants but then I saw that you had not been accepted. I appreciate the information if provided, thank you.

 

[star22]

I am reapplying for 2007. I did 6 years active duty as a Navy Corpsman where I volunteered for many deployments, only some of which were mentioned in last years PS. Should I list each deployment as a EC so I can show how much I volunteered since I can not fit everything I did in my PS or just try to rework my PS to be more inclusive? It seems to be a shame that I have so much to tell about my experiences and not enough space to do so.

Could you just make a category called "Deployments" and then list the dates and duties for each? I think you have 1500 characters to describe your activities for each category. I am a non-trad too, so I have had to group a lot of things together.

 

[phrygian]

I'm currently in the military and plan on attending med school also, I'm responding not to your question but as a question for you. What was your GPA and other academic stats? I don't mean to intrude but I have been stressing about actually getting accepted by a med school and I thought that my military career would definitely pull some weight in distinguishing myself apart from other applicants but then I saw that you had not been accepted. I appreciate the information if provided, thank you.

No problem, anything to help out another Vet. My overall GPA was 3.5 with a 3.6 science and I got a 31 on the MCAT. I did not get any interviews though, and I am kind of lost for words on why that happened. If you want any help with anything please let me know. Good luck!

 

[RxnMan]

No problem, anything to help out another Vet. My overall GPA was 3.5 with a 3.6 science and I got a 31 on the MCAT. I did not get any interviews though, and I am kind of lost for words on why that happened. If you want any help with anything please let me know. Good luck!

Your stats are similar to people who've been accepted, but if you only applied to very competitive places, then you may have been booted out by a myopic kid with a distended forehead and a 4.0 GPA/43 MCAT. If you only appplied to a few schools, then you may have not matched to those schools' mission statement (e.g. Loyola is a Jesuit institution that stresses service to others). You could have applied late, when the competition for the last few spots left was much higher than at the start of the application season. Or you could have slipped through the cracks, and that happens when you don't apply to enough schools (20-30).

I would condense everything under the "employment history - military" AMCAS EC category and describe your deployments there. Remember your audience - it's not a CO, but an ADCOM, and they don't care how many places you've been as much as recruiting a balanced individual with diverse interests.

 

[phrygian]

Thanks RxnMan, I applied to schools in the Northeast so maybe that was it. This year I am going to reword everything in my app and PS for that ADCOM reader. Perhaps that will get me over the edge...

 

[Army_Doc]

I am reapplying for 2007. I did 6 years active duty as a Navy Corpsman where I volunteered for many deployments, only some of which were mentioned in last years PS. Should I list each deployment as a EC so I can show how much I volunteered since I can not fit everything I did in my PS or just try to rework my PS to be more inclusive? It seems to be a shame that I have so much to tell about my experiences and not enough space to do so.

I would suggest putting training experience and deployments under 6 months in one "activity" heading. I would definitely put deployments 6 months or longer (ESPECIALLY combat tours) under a separate and new "activity."

It’s hard to try and convey to admissions officers the knowledge and insight you gain in the military in your “experiences” section. I think the best place to express it is in your personal statement. Just make sure you link your experiences with medicine well. In my first PS, I talked about how my enlisted infantry experience, and separately, about wanting to be a doctor. My interviewer, a young guy, couldn’t grasp how they were even vaguely related, and said it was “a stretch” when I explained that critical thinking, reacting under pressure, discipline, integrity, etc, were fundamental values applicable in both fields. The guy was an idiot, but I definitely learned something from his comment. (Though, obviously, as a corpsman you will have a more direct relationship.) My second PS spoke more those aforementioned underlying values and linked them much better to medicine. I believe that made a hell of a difference. I interviewed a year later at the same school. Needless to say it went well…same application, same stats, just a little tweak to my PS. No grad school or anything in between (unless you count the Ft. Benning School for Boys)

PM me if you want to see how I approached the problem in my second PS. Good luck to you. I'd like to see more military guys in the medical field.