Advice on the best way to frame your top 10 experiences?

[ShroudMD]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently working on my med school application for Calgary and I'm finding it really difficult to frame my Top 10 Experiences in a way that fits within the 1000 character limit. I'm attempting to "show" not tell my experiences by going about it like writing a story. However, I find that I quickly run out of character space when I do this. I'm avoiding listing experiences like I would on a resume, which makes it harder to be concise. Does anybody have any advice or tips on how to navigate this difficulty? How did some of you manage to fix this issue, did you bother to write a story or did you get straight to the point?

Any help is greatly appreciated

[AB27]

I picked 1-2 themes per top 10 entry (I think UofC had a list of attributes they were looking for) and I did my "showing" around those specific themes. You're not going to capture the whole experience in 1000 char so I found that helped.

[powdermonkey13]

I used this formula:

- introduce briefly the experience

- what did you learn/gain from it

- how is this experience going to make you an ideal physician/student/classmate/community member.

As mentioned by @AB27,  try and hit a few themes with each entry. Use Canmeds roles as well. You don’t have to be perfectly balanced, but you want to make sure you can show experience in all the roles. Good luck!

[ShroudMD]

On 9/14/2022 at 5:14 PM, AB27 said:

I picked 1-2 themes per top 10 entry (I think UofC had a list of attributes they were looking for) and I did my "showing" around those specific themes. You're not going to capture the whole experience in 1000 char so I found that helped.

Thank you! I'll try to structure my entries around the attributes, this helps, appreciate it

[ShroudMD]

42 minutes ago, powdermonkey13 said:

I used this formula:

- introduce briefly the experience

- what did you learn/gain from it

- how is this experience going to make you an ideal physician/student/classmate/community member.

As mentioned by @AB27,  try and hit a few themes with each entry. Use Canmeds roles as well. You don’t have to be perfectly balanced, but you want to make sure you can show experience in all the roles. Good luck!

Thank you for this! I've been looking for a "formula" to incorporate, and with @AB27's advice as well as yours I think I can manage to blend together a cohesive narrative. I really appreciate it, good luck to you as well!