Format of Personal Activities section

[Wut?]

And a little more for the record.... people that don't understand the worth of their activities to their growth as an individual and all that crap, probably aren't the types of individuals applying to medicine

 

 

You would be surprised with some of the resume padding. Not making a specific comment to you, but I'm sure that we could have a little chuckle (at someone's expense, though) at some of the absurd things that I have seen / heard of being written on the application.

 

Just take it easy, though! Applications are just too stressful for most people - just chill out and give it your best shot! Past that everything is out of your control!

 

Cheers,

 

W?

[BrendanJ]

long post that would take lots of scrolling if everyone quotes it . . .

 

Dude. We're just trying to help. We aren't the ones making any decisions (unless wut is the student admissions rep . . .), so if we disagree, we disagree; no biggy.

 

I still back my approach (and to be honest I didn't read past the second line of the your post) because it helped me get to where I am. Just trying to share that. I figured that's what used to come to this board for. . .

 

Like I said, there's most definitely more than one path to get to where you want to be, so do what you want.

[BrendanJ]

ps - just read your post. I'll totally agree that "worthless" was a strong word to use. But . . . . umm yeah. I have a strong opinion on that issue . . . so I used a strong adjective.

 

We all probably have better things to do than argue over adjective strength. Just sayin.

[Jamer]

And the award for overreaction of the year goes to...

[Jochi1543]

And a little more for the record.... people that don't understand the worth of their activities to their growth as an individual and all that crap, probably aren't the types of individuals applying to medicine...

 

On the other hand, I think people who spend too much time thinking how their activities and how they make them "grow" need to lighten up and start doing stuff because they LIKE it. There'll be plenty of time to do the thing you loathe that mauls your personality - it's called work. If you're lucky, your work will only partly consist of those tasks, but even the best job in the world will never be only pleasant.

 

I read an interesting book recently (I believe it was Laura Kipnis' "Against Love: A Polemic"), where the problem of "working" to make things "work out" was discussed in depth. The way she sees things is that "growth" only happens when the environment is wrong for the person and the person has to wreck their own nature to fit that environment. On the other hand, when the person and the environment are the perfect match, there is no need for "growth." (the environment could be anything from work, social circle, to marriage) Hence individual "growth" is really a pathological process.

[tearless]

semantics. it's a love-hate relationship.

 

edit: it's not what the activity is that's the most important, it's what you make of it. i think that about sums up the sentiment of the med students who posted here so far.

[tooty]

Okay, so it helps us to "explain why" for our activities. Great. I can see that being true for the sections that limit you to three activities or less because there are an average of 5 lines per activity. But are they going to be more lenient for the Employment Record section? There are only 15 lines, I had lots of jobs during undergrad, and most were done to pay the bills.

 

For lifeguarding, I simply wrote "Ensured pool safety."

For First Aid instructor, I wrote "Taught LSS First Aid standards."

 

Are they cool with that?

[Wut?]

But are they going to be more lenient for the Employment Record section? There are only 15 lines, I had lots of jobs during undergrad, and most were done to pay the bills.

 

For lifeguarding, I simply wrote "Ensured pool safety."

For First Aid instructor, I wrote "Taught LSS First Aid standards."

 

Are they cool with that?

 

I think you already have an answer in mind.

[kenzle]

The whole matter of trying to fit in "the why" of an activity is not specifically stated because in a way its already attempting to separate the better applications from all the others in terms of scoring (which is how they determine who gets interviewed, accepted, etc).

 

The personal attributes section, for example, is 'graded" on a score of 20 and if, for example, under the employment heading, an applicant has only entered in the absolute basics (employer, job title, verifier) s/he may score a 1 (out of 4 - and btw 4's are very rarely come by)....however, for another applicant who has included important duties and hours for each job, they may score a 2 or 2.5. For all those people who have SO MANY jobs: don't feel the need to write them all down in that section - pick the top 3-5 and add why they are the most important (for example, did they require a lot of responsibility? were you a manager or an owner? were you in charge of other people?). This looks MUCH better to the reviewer and that single extra point or 2 can make or break you - it could mean the difference between acceptance or waitlist!!! Little things do count!

 

Another thing, for all sections, when it asks for a certain number of activities, use that exact number...if you use less, it doesn't reflect well (even if you don't have any awards, use stuff like a certain fundraiser event you were in charge that you managed to raise 3X as much money as you hoped - those types of things are also considered achievements - but for this, putting reasoning is crucial). If you use more activities than asked for, they usually will only read the first 3 listed (I think 3 was the golden number for activities, etc). ALSO, if you run out of room and can only fit 2 activities in one box and then put the remainder in question 6 (extra info heading) the reviewers will not look at it!

[kenzle]

oh yah - and another thing, when the other user said worthless, although I would deem that a very strong adjective, he is correct in a way. When a reviewer is reading through an application and he sees the first applicant with a list of 10 jobs that only state the basics he is going to be graded much less than the next applicant who has chosen his top 3-5 jobs and included brief duties or responsibilities and added hours...its all a matter of trying to get the highest grade and put yourself in the reviewers position - wouldn't you think the applicant with duties/why listed sounds better on paper than the other person who just spews off a list of 10 jobs....Listing duties/reasoning/WHY helps the reviewer get a better picture of you and your roles and ALSO for people who simply list a title/employer - how would the reviewer really know what you did? Listing a 'why' simply reflects better on yourself and the whole point is to SELL YOURSELF!!!

[meme me]

oh yah - and another thing, when the other user said worthless, although I would deem that a very strong adjective, he is correct in a way. When a reviewer is reading through an application and he sees the first applicant with a list of 10 jobs that only state the basics he is going to be graded much less than the next applicant who has chosen his top 3-5 jobs and included brief duties or responsibilities and added hours...its all a matter of trying to get the highest grade and put yourself in the reviewers position - wouldn't you think the applicant with duties/why listed sounds better on paper than the other person who just spews off a list of 10 jobs....Listing duties/reasoning/WHY helps the reviewer get a better picture of you and your roles and ALSO for people who simply list a title/employer - how would the reviewer really know what you did? Listing a 'why' simply reflects better on yourself and the whole point is to SELL YOURSELF!!!

 

I would argue listing the duties of certain jobs is a superfluous task e.g. bartender, laboratory TA, tutor... pretty sure an admissions committee would be able to understand the duties of an organic chemistry tutor without an explicit explanation.

 

Anyway, it's a little late to be discussing this now... also, it's pretty apparent that there are a variety of interpretations on filling in applications, which is a good thing. We'll be able to judge the most successful of these in a few months. Good luck to everyone.

[medaholic]

Follow the instructions for each question. You will notice some of them ask "Why?" Other questions will just tell you to list out your activities. As a rule: Always put your most impressive accomplishments down. Add explanations to your more important activities. Quality > Quantity

 

Make your paragraphs to the point, do not try to over-exaggerate your achievements, remember adcoms read hundreds of applications every cycle. They can see through phony stories.