*~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2017-2018*~*~*~*

[student878]

So I have done a few volunteering events a few times over the past two years and wanted to group them together. Total hrs would be < 100. Any title suggestions?

-Performed EKGs at schools: to encourage all student athletes to be screened for an underlying heart condition
-Volunteer at Special Olympics
-Volunteer for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk
-Activity leader for a three-day youth camp

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[Ayahuasca]

Hey there! Similar predicament as most others. Just want to make sure that I can maximize my space as best as possible. Here is what i have so far:

======
Questions:
1. Can I just combine my presentation (#3) with its associated internship (#1)
2. A lot of great outcomes have come out of my internship (paper + poster namely), but I don't think I have room to list each separately. Is it okay to have that much together within one entry? It's one of my most meaningful experiences, so I figure I have a bit more room to work with.
3. Can I combine the two conferences (#4 & #5) to be one entry since I presented the same research? And is it okay to just classify this as a presentation even though I won awards at both of them?
4. I had leadership at one of my clinical volunteering slots. One year, I was a regular volunteer and the next, I obtained leadership + still volunteered ... keep it as clinical & just mention the leadership or vice versa?
5. Since I have a laundry list of items, are there any in particular that should just be cut? Or should I eliminate things that aren't that meaningful to me?

Any other recommendations for consolidation would be great!

Thank you!

Just some suggestions from what I did. I combined all my posters and presentations (your #3-5) and mentioned any awards from those conferences in a separate "Awards and Scholarships section".

4) I was a in a similar situation. I just mentioned the leadership within the entry. As for how to label it, I would probably label it clinical.

I might think about combining the tutoring section if you want to consolidate without removing entries. Maybe remove the sports club, I can understand wanting to list a hobby, but you have plenty of activities.

 

[Pylorii]

I currently have a clinical research employment at a hospital where my main responsibility is directly communicating and enrolling patients on to clinical trials. Would this be classified as Paid Employment - Medical/Clinical or Research/Lab?

 

[hat]

Trying to consolidate all my questions here.

1. For Awards/Honors, is it generally advised not to include awards/distinctions if you don't know what the criteria are? I graduated with Departmental Distinction in my major, but for the life of me I cannot find the information on my school's website about what exactly that means. I think it's based on GPA but I don't know exactly what the cutoff is. Should I just leave it out?

2. Also, I received a $2000 grant from my undergrad to perform research - is it best to put this under awards/honors or under research with the description of the project? I have seen both of these options suggested. Does one option look better?

3. I presented a paper at my school's undergraduate research conference that basically involved film analysis and connections to international politics. Is it worth including this since it was a presentation at a conference, even though it is really not in any way relevant to medicine or premed course subject matter?

4. I can't fit all of my poster/paper presentations into 700 characters. I am going to mark Research as one of my "most meaningful experiences," so I will have the extra space in that tab. Is it okay to overflow my list of presentations and projects into the "why meaningful" box, and then go on to describe why it is most meaningful? I know that's referenced in the first post here, but the answer is not particularly clear or helpful.

5. Connected to number 4, but also the "most meaningful" really only applies really to the experimental research that I did, whereas I presented other research that was not experimental (including the paper in no. 3) and I was going to list it all together. Is it okay to put it all under the experience type "Research/Lab" and then just call it "Research and conference presentations," and specifically reference the experimental research when I am explaining why research is one of my most meaningful activities?

6. How do you count research hours?? Just hours in the lab? Or hours reading + in the lab + analyzing data + writing + presenting? Also, does anyone have any tips on very roughly estimating the hours spent doing research in a way that will look reasonable to AdComs? I don't even know where to start. Whatever number I come up with is almost definitely going to be way off.

7. (This one is more straightforward) - I don't really have any leadership activities other than working as a scribe trainer, but I was already going to list the totality of my scribe hours (not all as a trainer) under Clinical Work. Is there some way I should mention I was a trainer under the Leadership tab, or okay to just not include anything for that? I am also mentioning that I was a trainer when I describe my scribe work, for what that's worth.

Sorry for all the questions and thank you in advance... I kind of hate this section.

 

[yogitee]

I have a few questions about specifics to my work/activities sections- (Questions are in bold)

1. Clinical Research Coordinator- I have worked for almost a year at a CRO on Phase II-IV drug trials. I see patients (subjects) everyday and do everything from take medical histories, review charts for inclusion/exclusion criteria, make source docs, obtain informed consent, collect physical data (ive been trained in phlebotomy, ECGs, PFTs, etc.), data entry, and regulatory activities relating to IRB filing, AEs/SAEs, drug logs and meeting with monitors and sponsor reps. Is this best classified as research or paid employment- clinical? It is pretty much 50/50 patient care and research.

2. I have been teaching an MCAT prep course for about 6 months and the time involved varies. For example, I will have a 6 week long class (~10hrs/week including prep time) then no class for a month. Should I use the repeat feature for this? I can only enter 3 repeated entries so this would not cover all the classes I have taught.

3. ^for above, I know this is obviously teaching but definitely has a leadership component has well since I act as a mentor to students (they contact me long after the course is over) and am the sole company representative the students interact with. Best to just address the leadership part in the narrative?

3. Additionally, the test prep company i work for now has me cross-training for SAT, ACT and GRE prep but I have no idea how much time will be dedicated to this over the next year...Is it best just not to include these "predicted/future" hours since I'm not sure how accurate they would be?

Thanks!!

 

[yogitee]

sorry 1 more question:
do adcoms care about certifications like phlebotomy, AHA first aid/CPR, CITI (required for any human subject research) and lab-type certifications that are required for collecting/processing human specimens? Is this worth a separate entry (classified as "other")??

Thanks!

 

[squirrelMD]

Question about clubs. I have one club where I was the president, but I did hold general membership in a few other clubs. Are clubs even worth listing if I just held general membership? I was really active in said clubs but I'm not sure if that matters.

Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions!

 

[Grundleplith_MD]

If I volunteered with multiple places, should they all be listed separately or should I list them all together in a single entry the way that shadowing is often just 1 entry?

 

[Catalystik]

If I volunteered with multiple places, should they all be listed separately or should I list them all together in a single entry the way that shadowing is often just 1 entry?

If they were all short term experiences, then grouping is fine, but if one or some had a substantial number of hours and you want to highlight them, they deserve their own space.

 

[Catalystik]

Question about clubs. I have one club where I was the president, but I did hold general membership in a few other clubs. Are clubs even worth listing if I just held general membership? I was really active in said clubs but I'm not sure if that matters.

In general, clubs that didn't provide service or leadership opportunities won't do much to bolter your application. You might choose to list them anyway if you want adcomms to get a feel for your special interests.

 

[Catalystik]

do adcoms care about certifications like phlebotomy, AHA first aid/CPR, CITI (required for any human subject research) and lab-type certifications that are required for collecting/processing human specimens? Is this worth a separate entry (classified as "other")?

I feel they shouldn't be mentioned except in the context of the activity for which they were used (same space), and then, only if you have extra space. Certifications required for various types of research involvement, being universally obligatory, need not be mentioned, IMO.

 

[Catalystik]

I have a few questions about specifics to my work/activities sections- (Questions are in bold)

1. Clinical Research Coordinator- I have worked for almost a year at a CRO on Phase II-IV drug trials. I see patients (subjects) everyday and do everything from take medical histories, review charts for inclusion/exclusion criteria, make source docs, obtain informed consent, collect physical data (ive been trained in phlebotomy, ECGs, PFTs, etc.), data entry, and regulatory activities relating to IRB filing, AEs/SAEs, drug logs and meeting with monitors and sponsor reps. Is this best classified as research or paid employment- clinical? It is pretty much 50/50 patient care and research.

2. I have been teaching an MCAT prep course for about 6 months and the time involved varies. For example, I will have a 6 week long class (~10hrs/week including prep time) then no class for a month. Should I use the repeat feature for this? I can only enter 3 repeated entries so this would not cover all the classes I have taught.

3. ^for above, I know this is obviously teaching but definitely has a leadership component has well since I act as a mentor to students (they contact me long after the course is over) and am the sole company representative the students interact with. Best to just address the leadership part in the narrative?

3. Additionally, the test prep company i work for now has me cross-training for SAT, ACT and GRE prep but I have no idea how much time will be dedicated to this over the next year...Is it best just not to include these "predicted/future" hours since I'm not sure how accurate they would be?

Thanks!!

1) If you have no other activity designated as Research, then use that tag. If you do, call it Employment.

2) I suggest filling in the complete time span of involvement, but then using the title you provide to suggest intermittency. The narrative could further explain.

3) I agree it would be best not to enter unknowable future hours. Your narrative, however, can state your plan for future expansion of your role with the same company.

 

[Catalystik]

1. For Awards/Honors, is it generally advised not to include awards/distinctions if you don't know what the criteria are? I graduated with Departmental Distinction in my major, but for the life of me I cannot find the information on my school's website about what exactly that means. I think it's based on GPA but I don't know exactly what the cutoff is. Should I just leave it out?

2. Also, I received a $2000 grant from my undergrad to perform research - is it best to put this under awards/honors or under research with the description of the project? I have seen both of these options suggested. Does one option look better?

3. I presented a paper at my school's undergraduate research conference that basically involved film analysis and connections to international politics. Is it worth including this since it was a presentation at a conference, even though it is really not in any way relevant to medicine or premed course subject matter?

4. I can't fit all of my poster/paper presentations into 700 characters. I am going to mark Research as one of my "most meaningful experiences," so I will have the extra space in that tab. Is it okay to overflow my list of presentations and projects into the "why meaningful" box, and then go on to describe why it is most meaningful? I know that's referenced in the first post here, but the answer is not particularly clear or helpful.

5. Connected to number 4, but also the "most meaningful" really only applies really to the experimental research that I did, whereas I presented other research that was not experimental (including the paper in no. 3) and I was going to list it all together. Is it okay to put it all under the experience type "Research/Lab" and then just call it "Research and conference presentations," and specifically reference the experimental research when I am explaining why research is one of my most meaningful activities?

6. How do you count research hours?? Just hours in the lab? Or hours reading + in the lab + analyzing data + writing + presenting? Also, does anyone have any tips on very roughly estimating the hours spent doing research in a way that will look reasonable to AdComs? I don't even know where to start. Whatever number I come up with is almost definitely going to be way off.

7. (This one is more straightforward) - I don't really have any leadership activities other than working as a scribe trainer, but I was already going to list the totality of my scribe hours (not all as a trainer) under Clinical Work. Is there some way I should mention I was a trainer under the Leadership tab, or okay to just not include anything for that? I am also mentioning that I was a trainer when I describe my scribe work, for what that's worth.

1) Call the department and ask. Someone should know. Otherwise, why should an adcomm care that you included it? Don't waste the space if it doesn't enhance your application.

2) Either is fine, but I prefer to see it with the Research space, to keep it in context. If you don't have space there, it isn't important enough to be in its own Honors slot and could be omitted.

3) If you have an entry for the related project elsewhere, mention the presentation there. If it wasn't important enough for you to discuss the project elsewhere, it's for you to decide if the formal presentation enhances your application enough to mention it at all. If your inclusion as a presenter wasn't due to a selective process, it isn't.

4) Yes, you can use some of the MM space, but take care to have a paragraph break after the first 700 characters, as an interruption will be forced on you that looks just like a new paragraph beginning in the final printout. The two parts must flow logically, one to the other. Check the PDF view from the Main Menu of the application to be sure it looks as it should.

5) It wouldn't be my choice that you'd include research that was not original and hypothesis-based along with projects that were. (Other is a better tag.)

6) All the time spent on the project, in the lab or out, can be included. Take care to trim your estimate somewhat if you feel adcomms won't find them believable or if your contact won't back them up.

7) It's a good idea to have something under Leadership if you are a candidate for the most-selective research-oriented schools. If you aren't, then signal the leadership component in the name of the scribe activity slot and perhaps state the % of the hours listed that were dedicated to training others.

 

[Catalystik]

I currently have a clinical research employment at a hospital where my main responsibility is directly communicating and enrolling patients on to clinical trials. Would this be classified as Paid Employment - Medical/Clinical or Research/Lab?

If you have no other activity designated as Research, then use that tag. If you do, call it Employment.

 

[Catalystik]

So I have done a few volunteering events a few times over the past two years and wanted to group them together. Total hrs would be < 100. Any title suggestions?

-Performed EKGs at schools: to encourage all student athletes to be screened for an underlying heart condition
-Volunteer at Special Olympics
-Volunteer for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk
-Activity leader for a three-day youth camp

Maybe Short-Term Community Service During the College Years.

 

[Catalystik]

I did Spanish translation and scribing at a county clinic back a few years ago, and again at a free mobile clinic for the last few months.

I don't currently have an honor's and awards section, yet I already have 15 activities. So what do you guys think would look better, separating these activities since temporally they are far apart, or combine them since they are similar and add the honors section? For my honor's section though, what I have is Dean's list and graduating the honor's program, no PBK or scholarships.

Also I did paid tutoring for like 40 hours... Worth mentioning this anywhere? I feel like it is pretty menial and it doesn't fit under the headings of my other activities.

The two translation activities go together well. Use the extra slot for the Teaching gig, rather than Recognitions.

 

[Catalystik]

So I recently became a chief scribe, after being a normal scribe for a month. How do I list this date wise? like I will keep this up for another year such that it will be 14 months of chief scribe by the time I matriculate, and one month of scribe.

Also I plan on putting this under leadership, would that be appropriate?

Leadership designation is fine if you include only the dates since being promoted. The preceding one month as "normal" scribe can be referred to in the narrative. If you are still acting as a scribe, too, rather than spending all your time training, scheduling, and monitoring others, those hours wouldn't belong in a Leadership space. In such a case, you'd have to decide about splitting out Leadership hours and listing them separately, or instead using Employment - Medical/Clinical and choosing a title like, Emergency Department Scribe with Chief Scribe Position.

 

[Catalystik]

Hi, I took three years after finishing undergrads to live and work abroad. It's been interesting picking and choosing which activities to list. Here is my tentative list in descending order of hours (in parenthesis). I put an asterisk (*) next to the two activities that I deemed most meaningful. I have a few questions:

Question 1: Is this list too long or full of fluff? I am aware that most applicants list 10 to 11 activities. If so, how can I condense it?
Question 2: Is the list well balanced? Do I have too much of one thing and not enough of another?
Question 3: How do you assign a number of hours to hobbies?
Question 4: Are any titles too cryptic?

1. *Teaching and Living Abroad in Japan (4500) - Paid Employment - Not Medical/Clinical
2. Computational Chemistry Summer Research (400) - Research/Lab
3. Polymer Chemistry Summer Research (360) - Research/Lab
4. Chemistry Stockroom Assistant (136) - Paid Employment - Not Medical/Clinical
5. Physician Observation (110) - Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation
6. Health Awareness Club Officer (100) - Leadership - Not Listed Elsewhere
7. *Volunteering at a Pediatric Clinic (99) - Community Service/Volunteer - Medical/Clinical
8. Japanese Proficiency Test Certification (50) - Honors/Awards/Recognitions
9. Laboratory Teaching Assistant (32) - Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant
10. Safety and Community-Building Vice Coordinator (25) - Leadership - Not Listed Elsewhere
11. Athletic, Musical, and Linguistic Interests (25) - Hobbies
12. National and Regional Poster Presentations (20) - Presentations/Posters
13. Academic Recognition and Honors (10) - Honors/Awards/Recognitions

1) Mention #8 in the same space as #1. As a no traditional applicant, you're fine using most of the spaces.

2) Balance is fine.

3) True hours for Hobbies is not relevant. You might use a 999 for hours, or a 9999 if that's closer. You can also consider using the Repeated tab to separate out pre-HS, HS, and college years involvement where relevant.

4) Titles are fine. See post #2 for suggestions on naming spaces.


BTW, fun fact: I am posting this from Kyoto.

 

[Catalystik]

I was a private nutrition/diet coach for students at my school and in my hometown between years in college, but I obviously didn't have a certification to be doing this 'officially' but I also didn't claim to be official/certified. How am I supposed to count hours for an activity like this, and who am I supposed to list as a contact for something I ran on my own? A specific client..?

What exactly was your role? What was the source of the knowledge that you passed on? How many clients did you have? Were you paid? If so, did you pay tax on the earnings?

 

[hat]

5) It wouldn't be my choice that you'd include research that was not original and hypothesis-based along with projects that were. (Other is a better tag.)

Wow, thank you for answering all of that! That was extremely helpful.

I am still a little confused about how to categorize and list all my research. I have done the following research projects:
1. The film/politics essay I described above, culminating in a paper presentation at my school's undergraduate research symposium
2. A literature review about a neuroscience topic, culminating in a poster presentation at the same symposium
3. A neuroscience experiment culminating in a poster presentation at the same symposium
4. A neuroscience experiment culminating in a publication at my school's undergraduate research journal and a poster presentation at a regional neuroscience conference in another state (received a travel grant)
5. A neuroscience experiment that I received a summer research grant for and counted as research credit in my final semester, culminating in a thesis paper and a poster which I was unfortunately not able to present (the conference was cancelled due to inclement weather)

I think I'll leave out number 1 since I don't see how it enhances my application. Number 3-5 I will include in research and mark "most meaningful." Number 2 I feel like I should include somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where. Should I make a "Presentations/Posters" section and just include 2-4, and leave out 5 because it was never presented? And then make a "Research" section and just include 3-5? The one drawback to this is that I did number 2 earlier than number 3. If I include 2 in "Research" then I can say I did research for 2 and 1/2 years, whereas if I leave it out it's more like 1 and 1/2 years. I don't know if that really matters.

Also, is it okay to just mention that number 4 was published in the "Research" section? It hardly seems worth making a "Publication" tab for a single publication in my school's undergrad journal.

7) It's a good idea to have something under Leadership if you are a candidate for the most-selective research-oriented schools. If you aren't, then signal the leadership component in the name of the scribe activity slot and perhaps state the % of the hours listed that were dedicated to training others.

I am applying to some selective research-oriented schools. Should I make a Leadership tab where I just include the hours that I worked as a trainer, then in the Clinical Employment section exclude the trainer hours and just have all the other scribe work? Would adcoms think it looks like "cheating" or just awkward structuring to slice up my time like that?

And finally one more simple question - is it okay to do some activities in list form and others in paragraph form? I understand it's fine to choose either one, but is it imperative that we stay consistent in our formatting? I'd like to write about my scribe work, and maybe my research experience (my 2 most meaningful), in paragraph form, and probably everything else in list form. I figure this would also be a good way to avoid stating the exact same thing twice for the 2 research projects I plan to reference under both "Research" and "Presentations," as I can give their titles and author list in the Presentations tab but just describe the work we did in the Research tab.

Edit: And now I'm realizing I have another question. I have worked as a scribe for multiple companies - is it okay to list all of my scribe work under a single "Clinical Employment" section, put in the location/organization/contact for the chronologically first employer I worked for, and then in the narrative description include this information for the second employer? I had assumed this was okay but I just read a post here where someone suggested making different sections for activities involving different organizations.

Edit 2: I have a section called "miscellaneous volunteering" and I am trying to figure out the best way to organize my hours. My plan is to set the start-end dates to be the entire time span of the past several years, put in the organization/contact/etc for the oldest place I volunteered, and then more specifically describe the date and hours on each activity in the description. Is that an okay way to do it? It feels so tedious and messy using the "repeated" function.

Edi 3: This seems like a simple question but I searched and couldn't find an answer - for one of my classes I was required to volunteer tutoring low-income children for an afterschool program, and got about 10 hours of volunteer experience through this. Would it be frowned upon to include volunteer hours that were required for a course?

 

[trs494]

Hello All,

I am in desperate need for help with the grouping of work/activities in the 2018 AMCAS. I thought I saw a mention of this in another thread but after a lot of searching I still couldn't find the answer I wanted.

So my dilemma is that I want to group together all of my volunteer experiences in one entry but they occurred in various different states and through various organizations. My volunteer are experiences are as follows:

Youth Sport Instructor, IA and MO
- 70 Total Hours
Feed My Starving Children, MN
- 9 Total Hours
YMCA Fundraiser, MO
- 9 Total Hours

I was planning on doing this in the Community Service/Volunteer - Nonmedical/clinical and then do a separate entry for hospital volunteering. ]

1) My question is mainly how should I list the organization name and state as well as contact information. Do I do the most recent (YMCA) or the one where I gave the most time (Youth Sport Instructor)? Also, is it even worth listing 18 hours in the grand scheme of things? They seem like minuscule amounts of volunteer work with respect to my other entries, but I'm thinking every hour can count.

2) I was also having the same dilemma with Honors, as they occurred at different times so do I put the range of dates that I received the awards? Or do I list the date of my most recent award in the entry and list dates in the description for previous awards?

Thank you in advance

Thank you in advance.

 

[Dr. Penguin]

I have athletic scholarships and honor roll awards I would like to list. I decided to put them under 1 entry as "Honors/Awards/Recognition." Currently I have it written as follows:

"To achieve honor roll, one must finish the semester with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.99. To make Dean's List one must achieve a 4.0.
I was named to the;

-Dean's List Fall 2012, Spring 2014 and Spring 2015
-Honor Roll Spring 2013, Fall 2013 and Fall 2014

2012-2013 school year, I was awarded a 50% partial athletic scholarship
2013-2014 school year, I was awarded a 60% partial athletic scholarship
2013-2014 school year, I was awarded a 85% partial athletic scholarship;the max allowed for men's swimming. Only 10% of the entire men's swim team was given any scholarship money. "

Seems redundant to list all the years but bullet form might work best for this. Any critique would be greatly appreciated!

 

[0beron]

A few questions:

1. What category should I use for a non-clinical internship for which I was not paid, but did receive college credit?
2. I interviewed patients (questions off of a survey) in what was supposed to be part of a study but the results really just ended up being used internally as far as I know. I had to take human subjects training, etc. I want to be able to consider this research because I don't have any other research. Is that kosher?
3. I worked for an annual event for a few years and was given free admission in exchange for my services (environmental education, 16 hours per year x 3 years). I currently have this filed under "Other," but should I even include this? If so, as "Other" or as "Paid employment"?
4. With hobbies and awards (one heading each) and with the activity mentioned in #3, I have 8 entries. Is that enough?
5. All of my volunteering has been with the same organization (a free clinic) in various roles over several years. I know it's good to have stayed involved with them for so long, but does it look terrible that I don't have more varied volunteer experience? I have plenty of paid clinical experience.

Much obliged!

 

[ExtraEspresso]

Research
1. Research experience #1 (400 hours up to now, 1200 projected over next year)
2. Research experience #2 (1000 hours), senior thesis on research project
3. Research experience #3 (420 hours)
4. Research experiences #4 - #6 (280, 180, and 240 hours)

Publications/Presentations
5. 2 publications (first-author and fourth-author, both are in peer-reviewed journals)
6. 4 national presentations, couple regional presentations, couple presentations at school

Shadowing
7. Shadowing (90 hours total across 5 doctors)

Clinical Volunteering
8. Volunteering at hospital (100 hours up to now, 200 projected over next year)

Non-Clinical Volunteering
9. Volunteering with inner-city high schoolers through two organizations (30 hours with one organization, 60 projected over upcoming year, 10 hours with other organization)
10. Other community volunteering - food bank (60 hours), international mission trip (50 hours), educational outreach activities with clubs not listed elsewhere on my application (80 hours)

Tutoring
11. Paid tutor through university (220 hours)

Extracurricular Activities
12. Band - several ensembles (2100 hours up to now, 40 projected over next year)

Leadership
13. Band service sorority - President for one year, other officer for one year, service co-chair for one year, member for the rest (2000 hours total, 1300 of those spent on leadership positions)
14. Professional society for major - founded chapter on our campus along with three other people, VP for the first two years the chapter was around (380 hours, 350 of those spent on leadership positions)

Awards
15. Academic and research awards

The quoted stuff is my current work and activities list that I posted here before. I have a question about how to categorize this one:
13. Band service sorority - President for one year, other officer for one year, service co-chair for one year, member for the rest (2000 hours total, 1300 of those spent on leadership positions)

The organization primarily focuses on service to band programs and outreach to music programs in the community. When I was just a member, ~3/4 of my time was spent on the service activities we did. When I was an officer, I'm not entirely sure what the breakdown was between service and leadership, but I still definitely put significant time into service.

My struggle is that this is my main leadership experience, especially since I was President, but I also feel like I am lacking in community service in my application. It's one of my MMEs, and I will definitely talk about the service we did in my MME section, but I worry that it will get overlooked if I don't categorize it as service. Do I classify this as leadership or service, and what should I do to make sure both aspects come across?

 

[yogitee]

I'm sure someone has already asked this but I can't find the answer after searching and searching!!

is it typical/expected to include the amount for any scholarships or grants awarded?

In another part of the app, it asks how much of your tuition was paid for by scholarship so I'm not sure it is really necessary, although my scholarships came from multiple sources. I also received grant funding for a research project from my university (though a very small amount).

 

[Orthopedics101]

I have decided to list all of my hobbies under one entry. Some of these hobbies I started as a kid and I cannot really quantify the # of hours so what should I put?

 

[_curiouspremed_]

Would it look bad if none of my meaningful experiences are clinical/research? My entire PS talks about my medical experiences, so I didn't want to be redundant. I have 3 other experiences--ballet, study abroad, and volunteering with the Red Cross--that I'd like to talk about more in depth.

 

[Catalystik]

I have decided to list all of my hobbies under one entry. Some of these hobbies I started as a kid and I cannot really quantify the # of hours so what should I put?

True hours for Hobbies is not relevant. You might use a 999 for hours, or a 9999 if that's closer. You can also consider using the Repeated tab to separate out pre-HS, HS, and college years involvement where relevant.

 

[Catalystik]

Would it look bad if none of my meaningful experiences are clinical/research? My entire PS talks about my medical experiences, so I didn't want to be redundant. I have 3 other experiences--ballet, study abroad, and volunteering with the Red Cross--that I'd like to talk about more in depth.

It won't look "bad." As you use the space to describe those activities' impact and insights gained, you will no doubt touch on aspects that are desirable in a candidate for med school. (At least, I can think of some.)

 

[Catalystik]

is it typical/expected to include the amount for any scholarships or grants awarded?

In another part of the app, it asks how much of your tuition was paid for by scholarship so I'm not sure it is really necessary, although my scholarships came from multiple sources. I also received grant funding for a research project from my university (though a very small amount).

It isn't expected that you list amounts and generally only higher amounts are mentioned, like $3000 or more. For scholarships, mention only those based on merit or recognition, and the reason, not those based on need.

 

[morejedi]

Similarly, medical schools ask that the experience end date coincide with the start of medical school. Even if the experience will be ongoing, the latest end date is August of the current application cycle.

Edit: above is quoted from here - https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...e7e/2018_amcas_instruction_manual.pdf#page=39

So does that mean all of my current projects/work/volunteering have an end date of August 2017, or is August 2018 the correct date? And I shouldn't be listing projected hours?

 

[Catalystik]

The quoted stuff is my current work and activities list that I posted here before. I have a question about how to categorize this one:
13. Band service sorority - President for one year, other officer for one year, service co-chair for one year, member for the rest (2000 hours total, 1300 of those spent on leadership positions)

The organization primarily focuses on service to band programs and outreach to music programs in the community. When I was just a member, ~3/4 of my time was spent on the service activities we did. When I was an officer, I'm not entirely sure what the breakdown was between service and leadership, but I still definitely put significant time into service.

My struggle is that this is my main leadership experience, especially since I was President, but I also feel like I am lacking in community service in my application. It's one of my MMEs, and I will definitely talk about the service we did in my MME section, but I worry that it will get overlooked if I don't categorize it as service. Do I classify this as leadership or service, and what should I do to make sure both aspects come across?

Do you have the space to break musical activities into Leadership, Service, and Artistic Endeavors (three slots), each with their own hours? That would be ideal.

If you only have two to use, pick the first two, include only the dates and hours for those experiences, and then in one of the spaces give the brief back sorry if "XX years training in music before taking on/reaching out . . ."

 

[Catalystik]

Edit: above is quoted from here - https://aamc-orange.global.ssl.fast...e7e/2018_amcas_instruction_manual.pdf#page=39

So does that mean all of my current projects/work/volunteering have an end date of August 2017, or is August 2018 the correct date? And I shouldn't be listing projected hours?

The last possible date for projected hours is August 2018 for the just-begun application cycle.

Don't project hours unless you are sure they will happen, and make sure to distinguish between completed and projected hours, either by using the Repeated feature starting with the current month for the second (future) date span, or by mentioning possible dates/hours in the narrative and not including them in the Total Hours listed.

 

[morejedi]

The last possible date for projected hours is August 2018 for the just-begun application cycle.

Don't project hours unless you are sure they will happen, and make sure to distinguish between completed and projected hours, either by using the Repeated feature starting with the current month for the second (future) date span, or by mentioning possible dates/hours in the narrative and not including them in the Total Hours listed.

Excellent, thank you so much! Will definitely be back with more Qs soon

 

[Catalystik]

A few questions:

1. What category should I use for a non-clinical internship for which I was not paid, but did receive college credit?
2. I interviewed patients (questions off of a survey) in what was supposed to be part of a study but the results really just ended up being used internally as far as I know. I had to take human subjects training, etc. I want to be able to consider this research because I don't have any other research. Is that kosher?
3. I worked for an annual event for a few years and was given free admission in exchange for my services (environmental education, 16 hours per year x 3 years). I currently have this filed under "Other," but should I even include this? If so, as "Other" or as "Paid employment"?
4. With hobbies and awards (one heading each) and with the activity mentioned in #3, I have 8 entries. Is that enough?
5. All of my volunteering has been with the same organization (a free clinic) in various roles over several years. I know it's good to have stayed involved with them for so long, but does it look terrible that I don't have more varied volunteer experience? I have plenty of paid clinical experience.

Much obliged!

1) Use "Other".

2) Yes.

3) You could use Extracurricular, Teaching (if that was your role), Community Service, or Other.

4) 4-5 would be too few. About 9-10 is average. Eight entries is fine.

5) Some schools will ding you for lack of non medical service, but many won't. This concern might lean you toward picking Community Service in Question 3.

 

[ExtraEspresso]

Do you have the space to break musical activities into Leadership, Service, and Artistic Endeavors (three slots), each with their own hours? That would be ideal.

If you only have two to use, pick the first two, include only the dates and hours for those experiences, and then in one of the spaces give the brief back sorry if "XX years training in music before taking on/reaching out . . ."

Thank you for the reply!

Right now, I have band itself as an individual activity, and I have the service/leadership organization as an individual activity, and both of them are MMEs. I'm at 15 spaces already with the research and other stuff I've done, so I don't have any extra slots to work with. Do you think I should organize band and the service/leadership organization differently?

 

[Catalystik]

I have athletic scholarships and honor roll awards I would like to list. I decided to put them under 1 entry as "Honors/Awards/Recognition." Currently I have it written as follows:

"To achieve honor roll, one must finish the semester with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.99. To make Dean's List one must achieve a 4.0.
I was named to the;

-Dean's List Fall 2012, Spring 2014 and Spring 2015
-Honor Roll Spring 2013, Fall 2013 and Fall 2014

2012-2013 school year, I was awarded a 50% partial athletic scholarship
2013-2014 school year, I was awarded a 60% partial athletic scholarship
2013-2014 school year, I was awarded a 85% partial athletic scholarship;the max allowed for men's swimming. Only 10% of the entire men's swim team was given any scholarship money. "

Seems redundant to list all the years but bullet form might work best for this. Any critique would be greatly appreciated!

The way you listed it looks fine to me.

Bullet form is fine so long as you use something else as a bullet, like a dash (-). Review the result in PDF Print view from the Main Menu so you're sure it looks as you I tended. Two hard returns are needed to create a blank space, if you want to spread things out.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you for the reply!

Right now, I have band itself as an individual activity, and I have the service/leadership organization as an individual activity, and both of them are MMEs. I'm at 15 spaces already with the research and other stuff I've done, so I don't have any extra slots to work with. Do you think I should organize band and the service/leadership organization differently?

Seems to me that separate Leadership and Service entries would serve your application best. Take out the band-by-itself entry and fold that information as a briefer back story into one of the other two.

 

[0beron]

1) Use "Other".

2) Yes.

3) You could use Extracurricular, Teaching (if that was your role), Community Service, or Other.

4) 4-5 would be too few. About 9-10 is average. Eight entries is fine.

5) Some schools will ding you for lack of non medical service, but many won't. This concern might lean you toward picking Community Service in Question 3.

Thank you!

 

[Catalystik]

I am still a little confused about how to categorize and list all my research. I have done the following research projects:
1. The film/politics essay I described above, culminating in a paper presentation at my school's undergraduate research symposium
2. A literature review about a neuroscience topic, culminating in a poster presentation at the same symposium
3. A neuroscience experiment culminating in a poster presentation at the same symposium
4. A neuroscience experiment culminating in a publication at my school's undergraduate research journal and a poster presentation at a regional neuroscience conference in another state (received a travel grant)
5. A neuroscience experiment that I received a summer research grant for and counted as research credit in my final semester, culminating in a thesis paper and a poster which I was unfortunately not able to present (the conference was cancelled due to inclement weather)

I think I'll leave out number 1 since I don't see how it enhances my application. Number 3-5 I will include in research and mark "most meaningful."

A) Number 2 I feel like I should include somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where.
B) Should I make a "Presentations/Posters" section and just include 2-4, and leave out 5 because it was never presented? And then make a "Research" section and just include 3-5? The one drawback to this is that
C) I did number 2 earlier than number 3. If I include 2 in "Research" then I can say I did research for 2 and 1/2 years, whereas if I leave it out it's more like 1 and 1/2 years. I don't know if that really matters.

D) Also, is it okay to just mention that number 4 was published in the "Research" section? It hardly seems worth making a "Publication" tab for a single publication in my school's undergrad journal.

E) I am applying to some selective research-oriented schools. Should I make a Leadership tab where I just include the hours that I worked as a trainer, then in the Clinical Employment section exclude the trainer hours and just have all the other scribe work?
F) Would adcoms think it looks like "cheating" or just awkward structuring to slice up my time like that?

G) And finally one more simple question - is it okay to do some activities in list form and others in paragraph form? I understand it's fine to choose either one, but is it imperative that we stay consistent in our formatting? I'd like to write about my scribe work, and maybe my research experience (my 2 most meaningful), in paragraph form, and probably everything else in list form. I figure this would also be a good way to avoid stating the exact same thing twice for the 2 research projects I plan to reference under both "Research" and "Presentations," as I can give their titles and author list in the Presentations tab but just describe the work we did in the Research tab.

H) Edit: And now I'm realizing I have another question. I have worked as a scribe for multiple companies - is it okay to list all of my scribe work under a single "Clinical Employment" section, put in the location/organization/contact for the chronologically first employer I worked for, and then in the narrative description include this information for the second employer? I had assumed this was okay but I just read a post here where someone suggested making different sections for activities involving different organizations.

Edit 2: I have a section called "miscellaneous volunteering" and I am trying to figure out the best way to organize my hours. My plan is to set the start-end dates to be the entire time span of the past several years, put in the organization/contact/etc for the oldest place I volunteered, and then more specifically describe the date and hours on each activity in the description.
I) Is that an okay way to do it? It feels so tedious and messy using the "repeated" function.

Edi 3: This seems like a simple question but I searched and couldn't find an answer -
J) for one of my classes I was required to volunteer tutoring low-income children for an afterschool program, and got about 10 hours of volunteer experience through this. Would it be frowned upon to include volunteer hours that were required for a course?

A) Fold that info briefly into the description of 3-5, rather than giving it its own spot.

B) You can include it, as an accepted abstract, perhaps below the actual- presentations, with a note about the conference cancellation.

C) It would not be advisable to "fluff" the timespan like that. Just include the dates of true #2 involvement in your narrative, but keep the dates in the header inclusive of #3-5 only (with those separate dates of involvement also in the narrative.)

D) Yes.

E) Yes.

F) No, assuming the hours of each aren't scanty.

G) Yes.

H) Yes.

I) Yes.

J) No.

 

[Catalystik]

I am in desperate need for help with the grouping of work/activities in the 2018 AMCAS. I thought I saw a mention of this in another thread but after a lot of searching I still couldn't find the answer I wanted.

So my dilemma is that I want to group together all of my volunteer experiences in one entry but they occurred in various different states and through various organizations. My volunteer are experiences are as follows:

Youth Sport Instructor, IA and MO
- 70 Total Hours
Feed My Starving Children, MN
- 9 Total Hours
YMCA Fundraiser, MO
- 9 Total Hours

I was planning on doing this in the Community Service/Volunteer - Nonmedical/clinical and then do a separate entry for hospital volunteering. ]

1) My question is mainly how should I list the organization name and state as well as contact information. Do I do the most recent (YMCA) or the one where I gave the most time (Youth Sport Instructor)? Also, is it even worth listing 18 hours in the grand scheme of things? They seem like minuscule amounts of volunteer work with respect to my other entries, but I'm thinking every hour can count.

2) I was also having the same dilemma with Honors, as they occurred at different times so do I put the range of dates that I received the awards? Or do I list the date of my most recent award in the entry and list dates in the description for previous awards?.

1) List the most recent in the header and give similar info for the others in the narrative space with subtotals of hours and individual date spans. The header would give a grand total of hours and an inclusive-of-all date span. I wouldn't list 18 hours on its own, but when grouping, it's OK. Your title should be inclusive of everything in the space, like Collegiate Short-Term Community Service.

2) Use the date of the most recent award, by which date all the others were received. You can use the College Registrar as your Contact for all of them.

 

[hat]

Awesome, I can't thank you enough for the answers! Just to be clear, when you say "Fold that info briefly into the description of 3-5, rather than giving it its own spot," do you mean to do that just in the Research tab? ie, a brief reference to my long-standing interest in neuroscience and the fact that I had done a prior literature review on that subject. I was going to do my Posters/Presentations section in list format, so was thinking I would just list all of my presentations there (except the film paper), including that lit review poster.

And for mentioning the cancelled conference, something like "Poster abstract accepted for ___ Research Symposium at [my university], but conference cancelled due to inclement weather" is okay?

Thanks again and I'm sorry for having endless questions. I don't know what I'd do without this site.

 

[Catalystik]

1) Just to be clear, when you say "Fold that info briefly into the description of 3-5, rather than giving it its own spot," do you mean to do that just in the Research tab? ie, a brief reference to my long-standing interest in neuroscience and the fact that I had done a prior literature review on that subject.

2) I was going to do my Posters/Presentations section in list format, so was thinking I would just list all of my presentations there (except the film paper), including that lit review poster.

1) Yes.

2) That plan sounds fine.

(Thank you for this shorter post. Reading and responding on a tiny phone screen while traveling abroad with uncertain wifi is quite a challenge with lengthier posts.)

 

[morejedi]

I've worked as bartender for private events for about a year now, and just recently took a class to get an official license/diploma for bartending. I love the job and I feel like it gives me something to talk about/makes me unique.

I've also been told by friends that it might be a massive red flag to some schools b/c they're conservative. I currently have it on my activities list, but was wondering if anyone had advice regarding whether or not I should move it.

Thanks!

 

[Catalystik]

I've worked as bartender for private events for about a year now, and just recently took a class to get an official license/diploma for bartending. I love the job and I feel like it gives me something to talk about/makes me unique.

I've also been told by friends that it might be a massive red flag to some schools b/c they're conservative. I currently have it on my activities list, but was wondering if anyone had advice regarding whether or not I should move it.

It's a job that implies you have good listening skills. Emphasize that and also how you keep your customers safe. But maybe avoid applying to UUtah or Loma Linda.

And even conservative adcomms were young once and less likely to be teetotalers.

Spin it right and it won't hurt you IMO.

Here's a full thread on the topic you might like to read through, including another adcomms take on your concern: Question on Controversial Job

 

[Ismet]

Thread by @trs494 merged into master Work/Activities thread

 

[_curiouspremed_]

It won't look "bad." As you use the space to describe those activities' impact and insights gained, you will no doubt touch on aspects that are desirable in a candidate for med school. (At least, I can think of some.)

Yes, I was going to explicitly connect them to medicine. I just didn't want it look like my medical experiences weren't meaningful (because they were) or that my application wasn't focused enough on medicine.

Also, on a completely different note, do most people put down the hours spent taking an EMT class? Right now I don't have the class listed on any official transcript. I have an activity that covers volunteering as an EMT, so I could add the hours/description there, but the hours spent in class weren't "volunteering" per say.

 

[Catalystik]

do most people put down the hours spent taking an EMT class? Right now I don't have the class listed on any official transcript. I have an activity that covers volunteering as an EMT, so I could add the hours/description there, but the hours spent in class weren't "volunteering" per say.

I wouldn't add all the hours spent in class, but you might include patient contact hours, say, from ride-alongs, or whatever, in your narrative. "EMT prep classes prior to this activity included XX additional hours of patient contact time, not included above."

 

[paran0idandr0id42]

Two questions:

When is it necessary to explain the activity itself? For example, I imagine for any research position or like a student org (that's local, not national), it's probably worth describing what the research/club broadly focuses on, but for something like volunteering at Ronald McDonald or working for a private MCAT company there's not as much point in describing it's purpose, since its perhaps ubiquitous what they do?

Second question, I have heard from my school's advisors that you're supposed to reiterate what you actually did in your activity, (e.g. if you were a physics tutor you have to at some point say something in the summary like "As a physics tutor...", or, "I became a physics tutor"), but this feels like wasted space to me since, assuming you only have one position listed for the experience, it's already known what you did since it's in the experience name....

 

[Catalystik]

1) When is it necessary to explain the activity itself? For example, I imagine for any research position or like a student org (that's local, not national), it's probably worth describing what the research/club broadly focuses on, but for something like volunteering at Ronald McDonald or working for a private MCAT company there's not as much point in describing it's purpose, since its perhaps ubiquitous what they do?

2) Second question, I have heard from my school's advisors that you're supposed to reiterate what you actually did in your activity, (e.g. if you were a physics tutor you have to at some point say something in the summary like "As a physics tutor...", or, "I became a physics tutor"), but this feels like wasted space to me since, assuming you only have one position listed for the experience, it's already known what you did since it's in the experience name....

1) I agree that when an activity is universally understood, there is no need to describe your role or purpose of the organization, like shadowing, waitperson, or tutor. A Ronald McDonald House role might vary from place to place.

You might elect to use any extra space to mention impact, insights, or future direction. Or, you can just keep it succinct if you've said all you need to say.

2) I agree with you that there's no reason to repeat information within the same experience entry. You could add info like class size, topics you covered, organizational necessities, if pertinent, even a brief anecdote or tale of amazing success, etc.