activities & awards: how far back?

[Guest riffraff]

hi,

 

when listing all your activities and sending UBC attachments online with your academic awards, how far back in the past can you look to for your accomplishments? is it the past 5 years (like OMSAS)??

[Guest docbil]

somewhere, somehow, for some reason, I think it is since high school.

 

Unless you won the gold metal in olympics when you where 10... or something like that.

[Guest adduction]

Hey,

 

you don't want to go way too back - especially if you haven't kept up with the activity in question. You want to paint the admissions committee an accurate and current picture of who you are. As a general rule I didn't mention much from before my first year of university UNLESS it was an activity that started in high school that I've continued with since.

 

Hope this helps,

[Guest riffraff]

thanks, that helps.

 

what about awards? did you list any from high school or were they all from your post-secondary academic career?

[Guest adduction]

Well for me it turned out that practically all of the awards I received were upon graduating from high school or in to undergrad so again in this case I used stuff from leaving high school.

 

If it was a major award then you may want to list it regardless of when it took place ... (Say if you placed 2nd nationally in some event when you were fourteen).

[Guest cheetahesque]

How do we format the attachment for our Awards?

 

I thought we would have a drop-down menu or something but it just asks for an attachment. Have I misunderstood something?

[Guest adduction]

Hi Cheetahesque

 

If it's anything like last year you have to attach an MS Word document for both your awards list and your application essay using an "upload" feature on the applicaiton.

 

Adduction.

[Guest cheetahesque]

Hi,

 

Thanks for getting back to me. I guess I should rephrase that. What kind of format did you use when you listed the Awards? Did you include any other writing/info or was it just bulleted?

[Guest kupo]

I simply bulleted mine to make it look clean and readable. My entries contained info about 1) what the award was 2) when i received it 3) how long it lasted 4) a description of the award 5) what I had to do to obtain the award and 6) contact information. It was easy to do in a couple of lines.

 

Good luck.

 

Kupo Med 1

[Guest physiology]

Hello guys,

 

I went far back as grade 8. Anyway, just to re-iterate this, make sure you describe your activities as much as possible.

 

If you were the president of a club, don't just put "President of Dance club" and expect to get full marks in the leadership section. Describe it in full, that's the only way they can glean other personal attributes and qualities about you.

 

Don't let them ever assume anything about you. Make your application stand out, other wise, with the heaps and heaps of applications they go through, yours is going to the bottom.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is picture yourself working at your desk at 2 am in the morning, leafing through 200 extracurricular lists. After a while - they look the same, particularly if the descriptions are overly concise and laconic.

 

Physio

[Guest FungManX]

Hey physiology,

 

I'm just wondering how you managed to bring stuff back up from grade 8.

 

I thought I could do this too, but I recently found out that my old track coach retired :|

and now I don't have anyone to verify the stuff that I say except for my friends who were on my team... people I don't contact that often anymore...

[Guest kellyl20]

is there no age limit for this ie can go back before age 16?

[Guest lidia]

When you say add details, do you mean in the essay? Or in the "Activities" line on the sketch?

 

Thanks a bunch!!

[Guest Persistent]

Hey everyone,

 

Are the uploaded Awards section just for Academic awards? Should the non-academic awards be in the ECs section under "Other Experiences"? Or are you supposed to upload evidence of the awards you list in the "Other Experiences"?

 

I was featured in TIME Magazine and Reader's Digest (back in grade 11) for being one of Canada's Top Role Model students. Do you think I should scan the articles and upload them?

 

Thanks for any replies!

[Guest Scholastica]

For contact info, do we have to provide the full address, or is phone number or email address sufficient?

[Guest MedAnxiety]

hmm... somewhere, i read that you should only go back as far as 5 years ago... but I guess if you have room....it won't hurt to add in a few exceptional things you did before that.

[Guest TKP 123]

Hi, I think it can go longer than 5 yrs. I used things back in 1997 for my application last yr, and I believe that they were counted.

 

True, nothing wrong to put everything down as long as space is allowed.