Experience Description

[Apixaban85]

Hey,

 

For this section on the application, do we just give a straight up list of our duties at the activity or is it more of a 'how it made us better/affected us' type of thing

 

Much appreciated

[kinmed]

Hey,

 

For this section on the application, do we just give a straight up list of our duties at the activity or is it more of a 'how it made us better/affected us' type of thing

 

Much appreciated

 

I am not sure how the applications look this year, but last year they asked to include the skills and knowledge acquired from the experience. I would include things along that line with the duties...

[Apixaban85]

Hmm well from the step-by-step guide:

 

 

*Description:

 

* Applicants may enter details on responsibilites; duties; description of the activity, population demographics, locations, etc.

 

So I wasn't too sure if we should enter skills/knowledge etc.

 

Also: Would being an event coordinator in a University club fall under leadership or another one of the categories?

 

Thanks!

[kylamonkey]

Good luck fitting everything into 350 characters!

[IMPgirl]

For mine I did two (very long!) sentences for each activity. And that amounted to one sentence describing what my duties were, and another describing what I got out of it.

 

With the removal of the essay I would HIGHLY suggest you include what you learned from it (specifically, qualities that would make you a good doctor!), because there isn't another medium to show adcom what qualities you possess that are suited to medicine. Plus a lot of the time the title of your position is pretty self-explanatory.

[kinmed]

I second what IMP girl said....including what you got out of it is very important and it is possible with 350 characters....at least better than omsas....

 

what I did was something along the line of ...from doing this and that I gained this and that.....

 

Prateek: it is upto you where to put it I think,,,you can always reword things to make it fit a category more than other...but remember to keep your experiences balanced over all the categories...I had at least two in each category

[Apixaban85]

Hey, might as well put this here:

 

Where would volunteering in a research lab go under? Non-academic? Employment? If non-academic, which section does it most fall under

 

Thanks!

[The Ace of Spades]

Volunteering in a lab? I would put that in non-academic.

 

I'm getting paid for my lab research, so I think it makes sense to put it in employment. However, my non-academic section is a little light and I'm debating if I should put it as a non-academic too.

[Apixaban85]

Volunteering in a lab? I would put that in non-academic.

 

I'm getting paid for my lab research, so I think it makes sense to put it in employment. However, my non-academic section is a little light and I'm debating if I should put it as a non-academic too.

 

With money involved I'd probably also lean towards employment. Assuming employment/NA is weighed equally it shouldn't matter which one you put it in, but I'm not sure if they're weighed equally

[RyanMaverick]

I'm wondering just how much the employment is weighted as well. I was always under the impression there are 5 points for each of the categories (Leadership/Others/High Performance/Diversity/Ethic), so I don't see how employment really fits in - and I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has a great employment history for applications.

[lmcl]

I would think that employment is weighted equally if your jobs had aspects that fit the 5 categories. Last cycle, I had quite a few jobs that I could have put under any of the 5 categories, but I had to put them under employment because I was paid.

[ozzie89]

Sorry if this question has been answered before, I did a search of the forum but couldn't see anything really. I had an NSERC USRA last summer, which I listed under Awards in the UBC app considering it was based on grades. However, would I also list that in non-academic experiences or employment?

[smalltowngirl33]

Sorry if this question has been answered before, I did a search of the forum but couldn't see anything really. I had an NSERC USRA last summer, which I listed under Awards in the UBC app considering it was based on grades. However, would I also list that in non-academic experiences or employment?

 

I have a friend who got in last application round. He put the NSERC award in the "Awards (academic)" section. Hope that helps

[anna8]

Speaking of the awards (academic) section in the application, I'm not entirely sure what I should be putting under it. Does a "dean's list" count as an award? Or would that seem redundant considering that they see your grades anyway?

 

Also, would an award for a thesis (done as part of a degree requirement) count as an academic award?

 

Thanks!

[Kingdarm]

I would say if you have better awards put those down, but if you have nothing else, go with dean's list since its better to fill that section than leave it empty.

[RyanMaverick]

I'm torn between two entrance scholarships based on high school grades or Deans List. I'm thinking Dean's List would be the better choice.

[Kingdarm]

I would look at which one is harder to get and choose that one.

[kinmed]

Speaking of the awards (academic) section in the application, I'm not entirely sure what I should be putting under it. Does a "dean's list" count as an award? Or would that seem redundant considering that they see your grades anyway?

 

Also, would an award for a thesis (done as part of a degree requirement) count as an academic award?

 

Thanks!

 

I put dean's list on mine since I didn't have that many awards.....

As for the award that's part of a degree requirement, I had an award for a group project that was part of a course and I put it down. I did explain that in the description though.

[intouch]

I'm wondering just how much the employment is weighted as well. I was always under the impression there are 5 points for each of the categories (Leadership/Others/High Performance/Diversity/Ethic), so I don't see how employment really fits in - and I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has a great employment history for applications.

 

Just a warning... in the last year they still allowed rejected applicants to see their scores in each section of the NAQ, the weighting was Leadership: 2.5, Service: 5, diversity: 5, capacity: 5, high performance: 2.5. I don't believe they showed you a score for your essay or for your employment history.

 

So don't assume they are weighted equally. When I did my application, I wrote my app under the assumption that the weighting was the same as above, ie. I had some stuff that could fit into capacity or leadership, and I knew I had two strong things in leadership, so I loaded up capacity, hoping it was worth twice the points.

 

Hope that helps!

 

_____________________

UBC Medicine 2014 (IMP)

[medisforme]

I'm wondering just how much the employment is weighted as well. I was always under the impression there are 5 points for each of the categories (Leadership/Others/High Performance/Diversity/Ethic), so I don't see how employment really fits in - and I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has a great employment history for applications.

 

I think employment is ranked quite high for UBC. I literally only had 1 volunteer experience for my entire application which was 10 years old (though over 1000 hours) and I still managed a NAQ score of 18.5x or something like that which was above average for those granted an interview (IP). The majority of my application consisted of my employment history.

[daedreamer]

I think employment is ranked quite high for UBC. I literally only had 1 volunteer experience for my entire application which was 10 years old (though over 1000 hours) and I still managed a NAQ score of 18.5x or something like that which was above average for those granted an interview (IP). The majority of my application consisted of my employment history.

 

Can I ask what year you applied?

 

I have a bunch of activities that fit into the 5 categories that I was paid for and I really wanted to know if I should put them under Employment History or Non-Academic Experiences.

 

Along with that, are we allowed to list employment under non-academic if we feel that the employment fits really well into one of the 5 sections? Or, do we list the same activity twice (one in NA, and one in EH)?

[lmcl]

This is from the UBC FAQ section:

 

Q: Application: I have worked at a hospital as a nurse for several years. I don't know if I should enter this under "Service Ethic" or "Capacity to work with others" in the Non-Academic Experiences section of the application, or in the Employment History section?

 

A: When scoring non-academic activities, evaluators consider activities listed under the Non-Academic Experiences section of the application as well as Employment History. Although applicants are asked to list their activities under the most appropriate category in their application, it is at the evaluator's discretion (based on current policies and procedures) to determine if the activity receives recognition (score) and under which category.

 

Hope that helps!

[RyanMaverick]

Anybody have any idea where I should put "Skip of competitive curling rink"?

 

It fits well into leadership (skipping, organizing practices, etc.) as well as high performance (won at provincial level, invite to national competition).

 

The only other things I have for leadership include junior curling coach, junior golf coach, and organizing a BCCA booth to teach 2-12's about sun safety at a festival, and the only other high performance item I have is competitive golf (4 handicap, won a few tournaments, competed in BC Am Qualifiers).

 

I guess I can't break it up as "curling skip" and "competitive curling" hey?

[blue2009]

I was thinking about this too. This will be my third time applying to UBC Med.

I have a lot of work experience, basically have worked full time every summer since I was 16 and at least 20 hours a week during the school year as well. A lot of the things I do in my work could be listed under the Non-Academic Experiences section - for example, I was a supervisor for 2 years and led a team of 20 or so employees (leadership, working well with others) and I just don't know where they will have a bigger impact.

 

The rest of my ECs are okay but not stellar....

- first aid/CPR

- 10-12 hours volunteering with MS Society this summer

- hospital volunteering @ two different hospitals on and off for 3 years (~125-140 hours total)

- orientation leader for 1 year at Imagine UBC

- research volunteering in undergrad for a few months (~20 hours)

- senior executive on student society in undergrad for 1 year (~150 hours)

- exercise, a very active person but didn't play on any organized teams throughout university, mostly running, yoga, biking, golf etc.

- a lot of musical theater/drama in high school but not sure this really is helpful to list

- summer research seminar for undergraduates & medical students

- did grade 9 singing exam in high school, recently started studying again and working towards grade 10 exam, haven't done it yet so not sure I can list it

- 6 weeks of traveling last fall around Europe

- going to be volunteering abroad for two weeks this summer (fund-raised almost $1800 for the organization, shadowed physicians for 2 days, and did 100 hours+ of online course work in preparation)

 

feel free to PM me if you have suggestions.. greatly appreciated!

[medisforme]

Can I ask what year you applied?

 

I have a bunch of activities that fit into the 5 categories that I was paid for and I really wanted to know if I should put them under Employment History or Non-Academic Experiences.

 

Along with that, are we allowed to list employment under non-academic if we feel that the employment fits really well into one of the 5 sections? Or, do we list the same activity twice (one in NA, and one in EH)?

 

 

This was for the past application cycle. I thought I had a decent chance of getting in, but I was super nervous during the interview and stumbled over 2 of the stations (ended up getting an "average" interview score).

 

I listed half my employment under the employment section and spread the rest out over various sections of the NAQ portion of the application.

I am pretty sure you should not be listing the same activity twice in the application (ie. once in the employment section and once in the NAQ section).

 

ps.

I am an RN with quite a varied background in my employment history (surgery to psychiatry) so I think that got me a decent NAQ score.