K-Doc Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 Anyone else finding it extremely difficult to sum up their activity in basically three sentences? Activities that I have been doing for years seem almost impossible to fit in this limit. I feel like I need to say way more. Any secrets to filling this in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thami Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 I'm with you on this one. What I've done is to split up activities as much as you can (for instance, I held two very different roles for one of my activities, so I listed it twice but made the differences very clear). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-Doc Posted August 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 yeah, it's super annoying! Oh did you split them up? I am scared to do that because I thought they wanted it all under one thing if it was for the same organization? For instance, I've done about 4 different things for the hospital I volunteer for, for the past 4 years, do you think I should split it up? I thought it would be best to keep it together then you can show long term commitment. (If I keep it all together, it shows that I have been volunteering there since June 2006 for 675 hours? Wouldn't that be better?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinmed Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 I ended up splitting mine just because it is in different wards with different responsibilities!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylamonkey Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 I'm splitting up a few things. I compete in some races, but if I can't race for some reason I'll often volunteer. I'm putting the volunteering in as separate entries. I find it incredibly hard to keep it to 350char. It's ridiculous, really. Try explaining this in 350: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_racing It's drving me mental here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBC2014 Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 I would advice against splitting up entries that were under the same organization/club unless they were really really different or you have good reason to do so. The admissions committee notice entries that are related, even if you held different positions. You don't want to be one of those people that seems like you are just dragging on your application to fill space. They have read thousands of applications, and they know the tricks that some people use. This is straight from the mouth of an admissions staff. And with the 350 word limit.. You don't have to list and describe every single thing you did. Writing in well structured "sentence fragments" is fine. The key here is to make your entry sound important, meaningful, and easy to understand. Show that you learned something or why they should pick you. For example, on my application, I felt that listing something like tidying the ER waiting room after patients isn't looked as favorably as saying how I comforted the patients and made them feel more at ease by talking to them. And listing more about patient or doctor interactions while working at a clinic was more important than listing all of the administration duties I had like restocking shelves and answering phones. Saying how much money you raised and what you did with it to help people in need can be better than listing every single fundraising event you did (you can list some big events, but not necessary to go as detailed as say bake sale or car wash.. which I have seen in some applications). So if you really don't have space, then don't list things that won't add as much to the application. Use the space you have to show things that were meaningful. Ofcourse this is just my opinion and how I dealt with the word limit. I'm sure other successful applicants may have done things differently. Good luck with those applications! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Henderson Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 haha I hear you... try explaining 2 years of research in 350 characters:rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-Doc Posted August 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 Thanks for all the great replies! I'm glad I'm not the only one who this is driving crazy! haha @kyla, wouldn't it be nice if you could just say "see link" hahaha and then paste the link! ahahah too bad! That sounds really cool though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medgirl08 Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 any advice on full sentences versus points? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylamonkey Posted August 2, 2010 Report Share Posted August 2, 2010 any advice on full sentences versus points? Hm. Some people do one, some people do the other. I'm not even sure if it's important to be consistent.... It might seem like it's going to save chars to do point form, but I don't think it will. "-" is one char "return" button is one char Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariepar Posted August 3, 2010 Report Share Posted August 3, 2010 Thanks for all the great replies! I'm glad I'm not the only one who this is driving crazy! haha @kyla, wouldn't it be nice if you could just say "see link" hahaha and then paste the link! ahahah too bad! That sounds really cool though! I actually did it once--added a link so they could check out a website I'd created. Can't believe I did that! Don't think I got an interview that year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-Doc Posted August 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 3, 2010 I guess it's not advisable to do that then On another note, did you guys use all 7,500 characters? I feel like I have put everything in that was significant and still have ~2000 characters left. I have at least 3 entries in all categories, except zero in human endeavor because I'm not an Olympic Athlete I just wish I could use these 2000 characters to better explain my long-term commitment activities!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micky Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 I would advice against splitting up entries that were under the same organization/club unless they were really really different or you have good reason to do so. The admissions committee notice entries that are related, even if you held different positions. You don't want to be one of those people that seems like you are just dragging on your application to fill space. They have read thousands of applications, and they know the tricks that some people use. This is straight from the mouth of an admissions staff. And with the 350 word limit.. You don't have to list and describe every single thing you did. Writing in well structured "sentence fragments" is fine. The key here is to make your entry sound important, meaningful, and easy to understand. Show that you learned something or why they should pick you. For example, on my application, I felt that listing something like tidying the ER waiting room after patients isn't looked as favorably as saying how I comforted the patients and made them feel more at ease by talking to them. And listing more about patient or doctor interactions while working at a clinic was more important than listing all of the administration duties I had like restocking shelves and answering phones. Saying how much money you raised and what you did with it to help people in need can be better than listing every single fundraising event you did (you can list some big events, but not necessary to go as detailed as say bake sale or car wash.. which I have seen in some applications). So if you really don't have space, then don't list things that won't add as much to the application. Use the space you have to show things that were meaningful. Ofcourse this is just my opinion and how I dealt with the word limit. I'm sure other successful applicants may have done things differently. Good luck with those applications! Hi! Thank you for your post – great advice! I am having trouble deciding whether to put what I learnt from the activity or not. The help guide (find link and pg# below) says that they prefer we list the context and our role more so than what we learnt. This is why I’m debating whether to completely leave out “what I learned” part. Please let me know your thoughts. Also any additional tips you have are very much welcome. Thanks so much Link to UBC help guide: http://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/files/2014/05/Help-Guide-2014-2015.pdf See p. 13 -Micky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
12345c Posted August 12, 2014 Report Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hi! Thank you for your post – great advice! I am having trouble deciding whether to put what I learnt from the activity or not. The help guide (find link and pg# below) says that they prefer we list the context and our role more so than what we learnt. This is why I’m debating whether to completely leave out “what I learned” part. Please let me know your thoughts. Also any additional tips you have are very much welcome. Thanks so much Link to UBC help guide: http://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/files/2014/05/Help-Guide-2014-2015.pdf See p. 13 -Micky When I was filling in some entries, the 350 word limit was actually an advantage. For instance, one of my activities was recreational golfing... I was happy that I could explain the activity with brevity due too the nature of the activity itself (can't say much about it). All in all, be objective. You can sacrifice complete sentences for ones with strong verbs (teaching, leading, mentoring, advising etc...) These will show the reader that you can show brevity without sacrificing completeness (in terms of the activity description). GL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fugacity Posted August 16, 2014 Report Share Posted August 16, 2014 I believe OMSAS has even fewer in characters allowed. Basically it is UBC's way of saying that they do not want to read essay after essay while going over someone's NAQ portion of the application. A few points: - complete setences are not required, but may improve the flow of your paragraph - do not spend your precious space on every thing you did, rather, write about the things you did for others and yourself (see UBC2014's comment) - when possible, include objective evaluations of your work (i.e. rated volunteer of the year, won muay thai tournament etc) - use your judgement for what you did vs. what you learned. If I am not mistaken, you are asked to write you did ONLY. But everything becomes more powerful if you state what you learned I am in no way affliated with UBC or its admission committee. Please use the official guide when completing the application. Best of luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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