More Advice Needed

[Guest kaymcee]

When I get tired of studying for the MCAT, I chug away at my applications for the schools to which I'm applying.

 

Of course, with the cutthroat competitiveness of the application process, I need to find references for every single activity I claim to have done. Although I know I can get in contact with people who can vouch for my involvement, I haven't talked to some in years. For instance, I've tutored several people for months at a time, but that was back in Grade 12 and first and second years. (I stopped tutoring in third year when I was too far removed from the high school subjects I was tutoring.)

 

That being said, how do you go about calling someone who you haven't talked to in quite awhile to ask if they remember you and if they'd be willing to to back your story up? Maybe I'm looking too much into this, but I don't want to sound as though the only reason I did such an activity is to make my application look better.

 

Has anyone had any negative experiences in this regard?

[Guest QuestionMan23213]

I would say rather than putting each student down as a separate entry on your sketch, just put "tutoring 1999-2002" or whatever and just have at least one verifier for that whole activity, so in your case that could just be one student. If you feel uncomfortable calling the student you can even get a third party to verify if there was one involved. I tutored a few years ago but did it through a organized learning center. In most cases I didnt even bother asking if they would verify for me. I figured if I had done it they would attest to that and that would be enough if any schools ever wanted to check, though I think it never hurts to let them know youre going to be using them.

 

Hope that helps.

[Guest Elaine I]

I found quite the opposite to what you are dreading - when I made contact with people I hadn't touched base with in sometimes 10+ years, I found that we enjoyed catching up on the last decade! The only problem was that some of those conversations took longer than my planned study breaks...

 

To answer your question as to how, I just told them that as part of my med school application, I was required to list activities that I had been involved in since the age of 16, and needed a verifier for each one. Each of the people I asked was most willing. Despite the fact that I went back 12 years, I was able to verify each activity that I listed.

 

Elaine