Guest mk08 Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Since putting verifiers in AMCAS is optional, I would imagine dishonesty plays a part in some applications. How does AMCAS verify you've actually done some extraordinary feat? I'm sure some people are able to pull off talking about a convincing experience in an interview even though they didn't actually do it. Sure you can argue such people have poor moral ethics and will probably make poor doctors but that's not the issue here. More people are concerned with the getting in part and might feel more motivated to put 15 hrs/week instead of the 3 hrs they've really done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamesfan Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 since a holistic approach is taken at the schools, most adcoms are competent in determining what is plausible and what is not. i feel if they doubt your activity but it is remarkable... they can corner you on the interview... but really i am not sure how they ward off fakers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rach Posted May 10, 2009 Report Share Posted May 10, 2009 Maybe they really don't care about the meaningless activities/clubs/awards etc and so it wouldn't matter if someone faked those. I can't imagine an applicant not having the contact info for important/long term stuff, so it would probably raise some red flags if significant activities had no contact info.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mk08 Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 This sucks why don't they do random checks like Canadian schools? I mean I hate the possibility of being disqualified when some applicants may put better things they haven't really done, while I actually had to do them and have something less than spectacular... and believe me people can be quite competent and convincing at talking about their hypothetical experience at an interview. Even if you flunk one interview they can't prove that you're wrong and you're off to the next. I'm not saying that everyone will do this... I'm sure that most applicants are candid about it, but it's not fair even if one applicant gets away with it. Sorry if I may seem too anal about this but with the competition these days this is really bothering me. Anyone else have input or experience regarding this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree999 Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 This sucks why don't they do random checks like Canadian schools? I mean I hate the possibility of being disqualified when some applicants may put better things they haven't really done, while I actually had to do them and have something less than spectacular... and believe me people can be quite competent and convincing at talking about their hypothetical experience at an interview. Even if you flunk one interview they can't prove that you're wrong and you're off to the next. I'm not saying that everyone will do this... I'm sure that most applicants are candid about it, but it's not fair even if one applicant gets away with it. Sorry if I may seem too anal about this but with the competition these days this is really bothering me. Anyone else have input or experience regarding this? It's not like the (stupid) OMSAS sketch where you list some ridiculous number of activities in 3 words or less. On AMCAS you only put your top 15 activities, so you have to decide which is meaningful, and you actually have space to write a reasonable description. I bet more people actually add fake entries on OMSAS -- having a "verifier" doesn't mean that much when you're listing so many activities. You could put your friend down and noone would know. I wasn't asked about my activities in any Ontario interviews. But in the American system, the important activities/jobs in my list ended up being discussed in my essay, and in my interview, plus my references were either from that activity, or knew I was involved in it. So it's pretty clear that the activities are genuine. I like the AMCAS activities section wayyy more than the OMSAS sketch. Definitely emphasizes quality over quantity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UserName Posted May 11, 2009 Report Share Posted May 11, 2009 to the OP.. I don't think you are being too anal about it. But this is inherent in the process itself, or more or less whenever you are applying for jobs. People are always going to think of ways to make their activities (whether trivial or important) sound better and more relevant to the job they seek.. and inherently, some people are going to be better at this "selling yourself business" than others even though they did the exact same job. So although I doubt that any significant number of students would take the risk to make up a BIG meaningful activity, only a slightly larger number (in my opinion) would lie about a small thing.. because now it's risky and it's not even worth it! (in case he would get busted)... so personally I wouldn't worry too much about people increasing their hours or whatever.. they will only be a minority.. but I would definitely worry more about how to formulate my experiences and activities and make them sound really meaningful and how to let the adcoms gain insight into my personality and qualities using those experiences. and for this, it won't really matter whether u did 3 hr/week or 10 per week.. it's how you talk about it that matters first... and then maybe how many hours u dedicated to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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