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OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch: Research


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You performed a patient quality assurance review at a hospital, right. And this  involved collating & analyising data from patient charts, maing an oral presentation & publication. It's been a long time for me so I forget the character limitation and the options for the ABS. What you did speaks for itself regardless of what you call it. Using Canmeds competencies, what did you learn, how has your work helped. It is a marketing job for you to capture the essence in the character limitation provided. 

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You performed a patient quality assurance review at a hospital, right. And this involved collating & analyising data from patient charts, maing an oral presentation & publication. It's been a long time for me so I forget the character limitation and the options for the ABS. What you did speaks for itself regardless of what you call it. Using Canmeds competencies, what did you learn, how has your work helped. It is a marketing job for you to capture the essence in the character limitation provided.

OK, thanks! Definitely gonna get a head start on the ABS to figure out how to sell my experiences and market myself to the adcoms. For most places it won't matter whether this is "research" or ECs, but for Ottawa and the top picks, would it be appropriate to list this as "research", even though it's not technically research? I guess they won't really be too worried right? It resembles research so its probably appropriate to list it as such.

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  • 1 month later...

So I have been in my PI's lab since 2nd year of undergrad.

 

During 2nd year, it was a research course.

 

The summer after 3rd year, I did an NSERC USRA there.

 

During 4th year, I did another research course in the lab. During the summer after I finished 4th year, I did another scholarship, and did a few research day presentations.

 

Now I started my Master's at the same lab, and have another bunch of research day presentations.

 

How do I input all of this?

 

Thank you!

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OMSAS Instructions:

a) "Do not list research positions which are part of your graduate training or honours program. These should be listed under the Research section. NSERC summer studentship should be listed under the Awards section." - What it says in the EC/Volunteer/Employment section

or

 

b ) "Please note that projects done as part of a university course do not qualify as research." - What it says in the Research section

 

I don't think they even know.

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OMSAS Instructions:

a) "Do not list research positions which are part of your graduate training or honours program. These should be listed under the Research section. NSERC summer studentship should be listed under the Awards section." - What it says in the EC/Volunteer/Employment section

or

 

b ) "Please note that projects done as part of a university course do not qualify as research." - What it says in the Research section

 

I don't think they even know.

 

OMSAS Instructions:

a) "Do not list research positions which are part of your graduate training or honours program. These should be listed under the Research section. NSERC summer studentship should be listed under the Awards section." - What it says in the EC/Volunteer/Employment section

or

 

b ) "Please note that projects done as part of a university course do not qualify as research." - What it says in the Research section

 

I don't think they even know.

The only thing I got out of it was 'don't include course-based, thesis, etc.' research in your top 3 for Ottawa because it lists Ottawa specifically on OMSAS for this

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The only thing I got out of it was 'don't include course-based, thesis, etc.' research in your top 3 for Ottawa because it lists Ottawa specifically on OMSAS for this

Your interpretation makes sense. But for what it's worth, I included an undergrad honours thesis project in my top 3 research for Ottawa and got interviewed. maybe I slipped through the cracks but I don't think it's super strict.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So if I was a volunteer research assistant in a lab but wasn't specifically working on something to get authorship in a publication, how do I enter this on the app? 

I would like to know this as well as I helped a prof last summer with updating a research paper (doing lit reviews, and pulling articles).

Would this go under volunteer?

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  • 3 weeks later...

I would like to know this as well as I helped a prof last summer with updating a research paper (doing lit reviews, and pulling articles).

Would this go under volunteer?

 

Firstly, use reasonable judgment with OMSAS. Secondly, you contributed to a specific project to be published, which can potentially be verified by your PI. If the paper has already been accepted and is in-press, then it would definitely be considered a research activity. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Worst case scenario will be, they read your volunteer thing under the "research" heading and think "this isn't really research" and move on...or of the panel reading file after file, one person might think "at least they learned how a research lab functions". You're not going to get a giant X through your file for placing something in the "wrong" category.

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  • 5 months later...

A bit of a last minute question: The OMSAS Sketch research details page says, "Please note that projects done as part of a university course do not qualify as research." If I did a research project course, and the project resulted in a conference presentation and publication in a journal (not just the report and presentation that was marked for the course), can I still include this project under Research? If not, where should I include it? Thanks in advance!

 

Can someone answer this??

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  • 2 months later...

So if I was a volunteer research assistant in a lab but wasn't specifically working on something to get authorship in a publication, how do I enter this on the app? 

I'm quite late, but wondering how you ended up entering this? I'm in the same boat right now, volunteer research assistant just helping others with their projects

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  • 5 weeks later...

I included my honours thesis in the research section and in my top 3 research items for Ottawa (though I also presented it in oral/poster format at two conferences unrelated to the course). Very happy I did that! I think it had a positive effect on my application

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Your interpretation makes sense. But for what it's worth, I included an undergrad honours thesis project in my top 3 research for Ottawa and got interviewed. maybe I slipped through the cracks but I don't think it's super strict.

 

Just because you included it doesn't at all mean it was scored though. There's a pretty high chance that it didn't make or break your application, if they did or didn't score it. 

 

I would say there's no harm in doing so, since you can't 'lose' points, but if you're putting on something they say they won't score (i.e. a undergrad thesis) I wouldn't push a poster or something they definetly will score off to keep it in the top3

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  • 1 month later...

Hi everyone!  I am slightly confused about what to include and what not to include under the research category of the OMSAS application, and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on my questions :)

 

1. In third year, I took a class called "Research Opportunity" with the professor I am doing my thesis with.  In this class, I assisted his graduate students with their projects, and was also evaluated on a few research presentations I gave in front of the lab group.  Two of the masters students included me as an author on their poster presentations for a conference (third author), but this was not directly part of my evaluation in the course.  Can I list the posters under research, even though they were just poster presentations and I am the third author?

 

2.  Can you list your thesis under the research category?  My mentor said she did, but I've seen a lot of conflicting views on this (Ottawa's website seems to suggest you cannot?).  Can anyone clarify?

 

3.  I did several hours' worth of volunteer transcribing for one of my professors' study.  The manuscript has not been prepared yet, but I don't think I'd be one of the authors.  Would this go under research, or volunteering?

 

Thank you very much in advance!

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1. Yes. Absolutely list them

 

2. No one knows. Some people put them on, others don't. I didn't, but either way it's not going to make or break I'd assume. It's a for-credit project, and you'd be about 2 weeks in when the application is submitted, so I'm not sure that it really says much of anything about you. Who knows. 

 

3. A few hours? I wouldn't include this, unless you did more. I think I might be missing the point of this question

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1. Yes. Absolutely list them

 

2. No one knows. Some people put them on, others don't. I didn't, but either way it's not going to make or break I'd assume. It's a for-credit project, and you'd be about 2 weeks in when the application is submitted, so I'm not sure that it really says much of anything about you. Who knows. 

 

3. A few hours? I wouldn't include this, unless you did more. I think I might be missing the point of this question

Thank you very much for your reply! It's much appreciated. To clarify the third question, I transcribed for about 20 hours total over the span of one month in third year. I know that this isn't very many hours, but I had initially listed it under research because I felt that my research section was lacking (the two posters, thesis, and one publication in progress). However, since I am not involved in the actual publication of the project, I was wondering whether it would be better to list it under volunteering (or not include it at all). I hope that makes more sense!

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