*~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2021-2024 *~*~*~*

[Catalystik]

Thank you for the advice!

1) Regarding adding the Dean's List, would it make sense to describe a bit about why I put it in? For example, saying that I had a low GPA freshman year and my grades bounced back. 2) Also, I have no idea of how many hours to put on it; I was thinking somewhere around 10? Or maybe just 1

1) Yes. But maybe add the readon the grades took an upward turn.

2) Many would enter 0 hours for Awards/Honors.

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[PhoenixRising77]

Hi, I have yet another question. I have had an Etsy/Ebay business since high school. Should I list this as a separate activity or combine with my other hobbies?

 

[Catalystik]

Hi, I have yet another question. I have had an Etsy/Ebay business since high school. Should I list this as a separate activity or combine with my other hobbies?

If you made decent money, call it Employment. If not, whether you combine it with other Hobbies or list it on its own (perhaps using another tag like Leadership, Extracurricular, or Artistic Endeavor) depends in how much you have to say about it.

 

[PhoenixRising77]

If you made decent money, call it Employment. If not, whether you combine it with other Hobbies or list it on its own (perhaps using another tag like Leadership, Extracurricular, or Artistic Endeavor) depends in how much you have to say about it.

Thanks! I've made a decent amount of money buy only in high school when what I was selling was more popular. Now it's more likely a hobby, and I sell when possible. It actually could be listed under artistic endeavor, and since I invested a significant amount of time in college to it, I'm comfortable listing it separately. Should I put 0 hours or make an estimate?

 

[Catalystik]

Thanks! I've made a decent amount of money buy only in high school when what I was selling was more popular. Now it's more likely a hobby, and I sell when possible. It actually could be listed under artistic endeavor, and since I invested a significant amount of time in college to it, I'm comfortable listing it separately. Should I put 0 hours or make an estimate?

Make a good faith estimate.

 

[SelfMed]

I worked 40 hours as a phleb during my externship before I could get licensed for CPT1. Can those hours be stated in the activities section? Should they be considered Volunteer- medical (it was not volunteering, it was part of training for the phleb course), paid medical (it was not paid) or other?

 

[Catalystik]

I worked 40 hours as a phleb during my externship before I could get licensed for CPT1. Can those hours be stated in the activities section? Should they be considered Volunteer- medical (it was not volunteering, it was part of training for the phleb course), paid medical (it was not paid) or other?

Include them. Since they were part of a curricular requirement, mark them as Other.

 

[gobills123]

I apologize if this has been asked, but I couldn't seem to find it when scrolling through this thread. I know multiple awards can be grouped together in one entry, but for the title, is calling it "Academic Awards" acceptable? Also does it matter who I list as the contact if the awards are from two different schools? Thank you.

 

[Catalystik]

1) I know multiple awards can be grouped together in one entry, but for the title, is calling it "Academic Awards" acceptable? 2) Also does it matter who I list as the contact if the awards are from two different schools? Thank you.

1) How about Collegiate Recognitions? Or what you said.
2) Put the most recent in the Header and the second in the narrative space. The Registrar is a good choice.

 

[Avi8Med]

Hi there, I was a volunteer with around 3 different organizations that organized 4 COVID vaccination drives. Who would I list as the contact person here, and which organization would I list?

 

[Catalystik]

Hi there, I was a volunteer with around 3 different organizations that organized 4 COVID vaccination drives. Who would I list as the contact person here, and which organization would I list?

List the most recent in the header and the other two in the narrative space.

 

[lumoose]

Hi! So I was a member of my school’s archery club during my freshman year. I dropped the club, but picked archery back up pretty consistently as a hobby again after graduating…. So should I list this as an extracurricular or a hobby?

 

[chilly_md]

Hi! So I was a member of my school’s archery club during my freshman year. I dropped the club, but picked archery back up pretty consistently as a hobby again after graduating…. So should I list this as an extracurricular or a hobby?

Hobby. You can mention in the description you did some in college as part of the club.

 

[BabyPanda]

Hi @Catalystik

While organizing all my hours for my extracurricular activities I had a quick question. I volunteer at a hospice and I do "tuckin calls" where I talk to caregivers and ask if they need any supplies, medications, etc. Would talking to the caregivers count as clinical experience?

I also work in the office helping out with paperwork and obviously being a companion for hospice patients. For my application would I count all my hours together (clinical and nonclinical) under the hospice? Or would I just select clinical experience and only count the hours I worked with hospice patients?

Thank you

Panda

 

[Catalystik]

Hi @Catalystik

1) While organizing all my hours for my extracurricular activities I had a quick question. I volunteer at a hospice and I do "tuckin calls" where I talk to caregivers and ask if they need any supplies, medications, etc. Would talking to the caregivers count as clinical experience?

2) I also work in the office helping out with paperwork and obviously being a companion for hospice patients. For my application would I count all my hours together (clinical and nonclinical) under the hospice? Or would I just select clinical experience and only count the hours I worked with hospice patients?

1) No.
2) It depends. What are your total hours and what percent of the time are you with the patients? Do you have other clinical experience?

 

[PhoenixRising77]

I have yet another question; this thread has been extremely helpful. I’m starting as an AmeriCorps Summer Associate the last week of May. Should I include this in w/a or is this a waste of space since I will have just started a few days before the submission date?

 

[Catalystik]

I have yet another question; this thread has been extremely helpful. I’m starting as an AmeriCorps Summer Associate the last week of May. Should I include this in w/a or is this a waste of space since I will have just started a few days before the submission date?

I suggest not giving it a space of its own. You might mention it in a slot where you discuss a role similar to that you will take on with Americorps, as it can be part of a narrative discussing "future directions." By the time you receive Secondaries or want to submit updates, you should have plenty to say.

 

[chilly_md]

I have a question regarding the level of detail in a shadowing experience on my Work/Activities section.

I shadowed a family member's physician long term after they underwent a procedure. This was an extremely valuable experience for me, and I talk about my family member's illness in my personal statement as well, but don't mention the physician's name there. I was thinking I would include a separate shadowing entry for this experience because I was really curious about the specialty given the family member's history and learned so much from the physician.

Is it appropriate to say that the doctor was my family's physician without stepping over any HIPAA lines? I will include the physician's name as the contact for that activity, and I do want this to be part of a cohesive narrative with my personal statement as well, but I want to make sure that I do so without violating any laws. Any ideas on how to approach this?

Thanks!

I usually suggest that shadowing should be done in a bulleted format as seen in item 10, post #2 of this thread.

You don't have to connect the doctor to your family member using this method.

 

[bronco8]

I've worked full time for a year as a clinical research assistant. About half of my work involves one on one time with clinic patients guiding them through a scanning process (of which the data is used for clinical and research purposes) before they see their physician. The other half is research using this data (and other retrospective and prospective projects), and is designing studies, submitting IRB, data collection/analysis, and writing abstracts/manuscripts.

I was thinking about including this entirely as Paid Clinical, not research because a) my clinical hours are otherwise very weak, and b) I have about 300 hours from undergraduate research/thesis, but I've seen conflicting ideas on how to break these types of activities up. I also have 3 pubs and a dozen abstracts from the current job so this highlights the research involvement as well. I would describe my research involvement in the description as well as my clinical work (Most meaningful activity). Thoughts?

 

[coasterfan12]

I have a question regarding inputting publications in the works/activities section. I am currently part of a publication that has been accepted in a journal, but it looks like it will not be officially published by the time I submit my primary app next week. Would it still be acceptable to list this as a publication despite it not being published in a journal? If so, what should I put for the publication date since AMCAS does not allow me to input a publication date in the future?

 

[chilly_md]

I have a question regarding inputting publications in the works/activities section. I am currently part of a publication that has been accepted in a journal, but it looks like it will not be officially published by the time I submit my primary app next week. Would it still be acceptable to list this as a publication despite it not being published in a journal? If so, what should I put for the publication date since AMCAS does not allow me to input a publication date in the future?

You could put the last date possible that AMCAS does and make it clear in your description of the status.

 

[chilly_md]

I've worked full time for a year as a clinical research assistant. About half of my work involves one on one time with clinic patients guiding them through a scanning process (of which the data is used for clinical and research purposes) before they see their physician. The other half is research using this data (and other retrospective and prospective projects), and is designing studies, submitting IRB, data collection/analysis, and writing abstracts/manuscripts.

I was thinking about including this entirely as Paid Clinical, not research because a) my clinical hours are otherwise very weak, and b) I have about 300 hours from undergraduate research/thesis, but I've seen conflicting ideas on how to break these types of activities up. I also have 3 pubs and a dozen abstracts from the current job so this highlights the research involvement as well. I would describe my research involvement in the description as well as my clinical work (Most meaningful activity). Thoughts?

See post #7 of this thread.

You would not want to list this as a research activity, but the description should make it clear that this role involved 50% time for each type of activity if you do not end up creating 2 separate AMCAS slots (2 slots is less confusing imo).

 

[coasterfan12]

You could put the last date possible that AMCAS does and make it clear in your description of the status.

Got it. Just to clarify, when you say to make it clear in my description, would saying something like "In press" instead of a date be clear enough?

 

[chilly_md]

Got it. Just to clarify, when you say to make it clear in my description, would saying something like "In press" instead of a date be clear enough?

Yes.

 

[bronco8]

See post #7 of this thread.

You would not want to list this as a research activity, but the description should make it clear that this role involved 50% time for each type of activity if you do not end up creating 2 separate AMCAS slots (2 slots is less confusing imo).

Awesome, thank you!

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Question about category: I've worked as an instructor at a private vocational school for years. Teaching or Paid Employment?

 

[chilly_md]

Question about category: I've worked as an instructor at a private vocational school for years. Teaching or Paid Employment?

Paid employment. It will be evident from the description/title that you were working as an instructor.

 

[coasterfan12]

When listing hours for my tutoring activity, would it be acceptable to also include the hours I spent preparing the material? I tutored one hour a week at a tutoring session, but also spent an hour outside of the session to prepare for it. Would it be fine to put 2/hrs per week, or would this be frowned upon?

 

[chilly_md]

When listing hours for my tutoring activity, would it be acceptable to also include the hours I spent preparing the material? I tutored one hour a week at a tutoring session, but also spent an hour outside of the session to prepare for it. Would it be fine to put 2/hrs per week, or would this be frowned upon?

Yes, but you should break it down in your description.

 

[chilly_md]

Currently filling out the AMCAS work/activities and wondering if anyone has dealt with this before?

I've volunteered with an organization for the past 8 years. It is only recently (within the past year) that I am being paid a small stipend for a portion of my work. A lot of the work I do for the organization is still unpaid and thus "volunteer" hours.

How did you go about labeling this on your application? Volunteering? Paid? I would hate to have to split it into two different activities.

Also, many of the years I only worked during summer break. Is this something I should be marking as a "start" and "stop" date within the description?

Thanks!

List it as volunteering and put in the description that you did this during the summers. Making many separate date ranges would not be ideal. You could also mention that you received a small stipend in there if you want. It sounds insignificant in the grand scheme of doing this activity as a volunteer for 7/8 of the years.

 

[atriablack]

Currently struggling with the Honors/Awards/Recognitions activity and would appreciate some guidance.
I don't have a lot of space (filled up to 15) so I am listing out awards by year in one description.
I figured 0 hours seems to be reasonable... but I am also not sure of:
1) What year to choose to say I received the awards (the earliest one?)
2) Organization name/Contact title (all awards were given by different organizations/institutions)
3) Title... I mean Honors/Awards/Recognitions sort of describes it...

 

[atriablack]

Also, whats the rule of thumb for hours presentations/posters? If I spent the whole day at a conference do I count it? Do I say 0?

 

[chilly_md]

Currently struggling with the Honors/Awards/Recognitions activity and would appreciate some guidance.
I don't have a lot of space (filled up to 15) so I am listing out awards by year in one description.
I figured 0 hours seems to be reasonable... but I am also not sure of:
1) What year to choose to say I received the awards (the earliest one?)
2) Organization name/Contact title (all awards were given by different organizations/institutions)
3) Title... I mean Honors/Awards/Recognitions sort of describes it...

1) Pick the most recent one. 0 hours is also fine.
2) Choose a contact for the most recent award and list the other contact info for each award in the description.
3) Depends on what your awards were. This question was already answered farther up this page and the same suggestion may work for you.

Also, whats the rule of thumb for hours presentations/posters? If I spent the whole day at a conference do I count it? Do I say 0?

Yeah, however long you were by your poster ready to present that day. 0 would also be fine, the description would make it evident you went to a conference for a day.

 

[atriablack]

2) Choose a contact for the most recent award and list the other contact info for each award in the description.

If I don't have space in the description (I have already taken some awards that I mention in other W&A out to try to trim it down), would it be ok to just list that one contact for the most recent award?

 

[atriablack]

If I don't have space in the description (I have already taken some awards that I mention in other W&A out to try to trim it down), would it be ok to just list that one contact for the most recent award?

Do people ever list themselves as contacts? Like I could give the contact for any specific award if asked?

 

[chilly_md]

Do people ever list themselves as contacts? Like I could give the contact for any specific award if asked?

That's fine, you can do that for the awards slot.

 

[sonder88]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to cite my publications, one is a peer-reviewed journal, another is a conference proceedings publication that i did not present, frankly i dont know who presented it because it was right before covid hit. (should i include the second one). do i use ama format, add doi links, or pmid links, requesting advice!

 

[chilly_md]

I'm having trouble figuring out how to cite my publications, one is a peer-reviewed journal, another is a conference proceedings publication that i did not present, frankly i dont know who presented it because it was right before covid hit. (should i include the second one). do i use ama format, add doi links, or pmid links, requesting advice!

See post #2, item 20. I would leave off the conference proceedings publication.

The FAQ on the first page addresses quite a few areas.

 

[sonder88]

See post #2, item 20. I would leave off the conference proceedings publication.

The FAQ on the first page addresses quite a few areas.

i just clarified and it was a published abstract in the jacs that ended up being presented as a poster (by someone else). Should i include as publication or presentation? or still leave it out? i am questioning this bc of conflicting advice on sdn/reddit as others have been in similar situations as me.

 

[chilly_md]

i just clarified and it was a published abstract in the jacs that ended up being presented as a poster (by someone else). Should i include as publication or presentation? or still leave it out? i am questioning this bc of conflicting advice on sdn/reddit as others have been in similar situations as me.

Is the abstract searchable on pubmed? Does it have a PMID or other identifier?

 

[sonder88]

Is the abstract searchable on pubmed? Does it have a PMID or other identifier?

It doesn't have a PMID but it has a DOI link.

 

[lachea7223]

I might be overthinking, but I started to wonder if my foreign experiences were going to become a problem for verification (if they do want to verify). 3 out of 15 activities are foreign, which is composed of ~18% of total activity hours. See activities and references below:

1. EC -- 250 hrs English debate channel debatee and content editor (given the email of the host and she speaks English; the channel is quite famous and has a TikTok page I can provide a link to if needed)
2. Paid Employment (nonmedical/clinical) -- 312 hrs support talk line host and management (given email but the channel owner/my reference does not speak English, and the channel was permanently shut down)
3. Leadership -- 450 hrs English tutor group founder and tutor (I reference one of the tutors in our group who is in the US, provided phone #. I have no authoritative reference for this since I founded the group...)

Are any of these going to become a problem? And what should the reference be like for foreign activities anyway?

Always thankful for the help and response )

 

[chilly_md]

It doesn't have a PMID but it has a DOI link.

If this was an actual abstract in the journal's normal publication, you can put it as a pub with the autor citation and the DOI. Do not separately put it down as a presentation/poster since you did not do that.

 

[chilly_md]

I might be overthinking, but I started to wonder if my foreign experiences were going to become a problem for verification (if they do want to verify). 3 out of 15 activities are foreign, which is composed of ~18% of total activity hours. See activities and references below:

1. EC -- 250 hrs English debate channel debatee and content editor (given the email of the host and she speaks English; the channel is quite famous and has a TikTok page I can provide a link to if needed)
2. Paid Employment (nonmedical/clinical) -- 312 hrs support talk line host and management (given email but the channel owner/my reference does not speak English, and the channel was permanently shut down)
3. Leadership -- 450 hrs English tutor group founder and tutor (I reference one of the tutors in our group who is in the US, provided phone #. I have no authoritative reference for this since I founded the group...)

Are any of these going to become a problem? And what should the reference be like for foreign activities anyway?

Always thankful for the help and response )

They will be able to verify the 1st one and 3rd one most likely. If they are unable to verify the 2nd one, that won't be a problem. That activity would not be a substantial reason for your candidacy for medical school like a clinical experience would be.

 

[lachea7223]

They will be able to verify the 1st one and 3rd one most likely. If they are unable to verify the 2nd one, that won't be a problem. That activity would not be a substantial reason for your candidacy for medical school like a clinical experience would be.

Thanks so much!!

 

[Catalystik]

Do people ever list themselves as contacts? Like I could give the contact for any specific award if asked?

Consider using the College Registrar for mostly college-related recognitions. They tend to have records of all of them.

 

[Catalystik]

I might be overthinking, but I started to wonder if my foreign experiences were going to become a problem for verification (if they do want to verify). 3 out of 15 activities are foreign, which is composed of ~18% of total activity hours. See activities and references below:

1. EC -- 250 hrs English debate channel debatee and content editor (given the email of the host and she speaks English; the channel is quite famous and has a TikTok page I can provide a link to if needed)
2. Paid Employment (nonmedical/clinical) -- 312 hrs support talk line host and management (given email but the channel owner/my reference does not speak English, and the channel was permanently shut down)
3. Leadership -- 450 hrs English tutor group founder and tutor (I reference one of the tutors in our group who is in the US, provided phone #. I have no authoritative reference for this since I founded the group...)

Are any of these going to become a problem? And what should the reference be like for foreign activities anyway?

Always thankful for the help and response )

1) Consider stating in your description the preferred language for a Contact.
2) Use yourself as Contact. Explain that the endeavor is not currently active.
3) That's fine.

 

[coasterfan12]

For an activity that I have listed, I am unsure if I will continue it in the future as the schedule of the organization where I do the activity does not get finalized until later in the summer. Would it be okay to list it as future hours, since there is a chance I might not complete them? Would medical schools hold this against me if I end up not completing these hours?

 

[Catalystik]

For an activity that I have listed, I am unsure if I will continue it in the future as the schedule of the organization where I do the activity does not get finalized until later in the summer. Would it be okay to list it as future hours, since there is a chance I might not complete them? Would medical schools hold this against me if I end up not completing these hours?

If continuing an activity is iffy, I suggest that rather than listing future hours you close the narrative with something like, ”I hope to continue fall 2023, schedule permitting.“

 

[TxMed55]

How important is leadership for amcas ? I hold several positions in orgs im in or where I worked at my clinical job but I dont have space to use another entry for just leaderships because of the limit I was wondering how important is it ?