How much to put in application

[CoconutSmasher]

Hey guys,

 

I'm 37 and am writing up my applications for Calgary and UBC. Just wondering if anyone has any advice on how far back we need to go for our work and extracirricular history. I mean, one of my old supervisors has actually passed away! Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Peace,

Stuart

[NLengr]

How far back I went (mind you I'm only mid 20's) depended on the activity. For minor stuff like volunteering for a week at a kids engineering camp, or local rec. softball, I only went back a couple years. For major stuff, like competing in a sport at the international level or long term volunteering, I went back farther.

 

I judged it based on what I thought the activity was worth. Major events/activities warrant going farther back. Piddly stuff from 8 years ago does nothing but clutter the application and hide the important points. Basically, just focus on activities that show aspects of yourself you want to highlight, and show that you have history involvement in the community etc. Sure put more detail on the past few years to show what you have been doing, but overall, quality is more important the quantity.

[Dr.Cave]

I applied at 35 and found that how far I went back was determined by the amount of room on the application. There wasn't enough room to fit everything in so I went in reverse chronological order and then started being selective at the end. For employment history, I listed every job held up to about 10 years ago (so that it didn;t look like i had big holes in my record) ago because it fit and then for the last few jobs I selected the best of the remaining, eg. I left out a coop job from 1995 doing research on roadside vegetation management, a job in 1996 planting trees, and a job in 1995-96 doing benthic stream ecology and kept in a co-op job from 1993 doing genetic research on cystic fibrosis at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

 

I got in