Ideas/suggestions?

[kylamonkey]

Hi!

 

I'm just about ready to submit. I've been really grateful for all the advice on this site, and I've tried to give good advice too (although sometimes it was incorrect... sorry!)

 

I have a few questions I'd love some input on, I'm sorry if this is too long.

 

Any help is appreciated!

 

1/ I ran a marathon in bare feet once. I trained for it, and it was an awesome experience, especially socially as everyone wants to talk to the girl running a marathon in bare feet! Here's the question- is it cool, or weird? If I describe it right (experience outside comfort zone) could it be good? Or could it flag me (non-professional behaviour) as a weirdo?

 

2/ I have my own business, run with my partner of 6 yrs. At the end of the third year of business, we had grown from scratch to half-million dollars gross sales. I think this is pretty good, and I think that this dollar figure is the best way to describe the business' growth. HOWEVER I have heard a concern that putting a dollar figure on success, so to speak, is like shouting "I wanna be a doctor to make $$!". It's funny because that is the least of my motivations, so it doesn't even register as a problem! What do you think? Should I describe it with a dollar figure or not?

 

3/ I had an NSERC last summer. Does it go in academic awards (it is one, in my opinion), or employment (UVic did pay me), or non-academic (research experience). I have emailed the admissions people about this too.

4/ How do you calculate hours for sports training or travel? If I was away for a month, is that 24x30=720 hours? Or should I do "waking time"? For sports, do I go back and figure out all the time I spent running before I graduated high school, or should I max it out at 2000 or something? I've been out of high school for more than 10 yrs, and it is not unusual for me to spend 20 hours a week training. A conservative estimate might be 5 hours per week, and 10 yrs x 50weeks/yr x 5 hours/week = 2500 hours. That is a lot to verify!

 

5/ I want to use my mom as a solo travel verifier. I have lots of solo travel experiences. Under "contact title" I have written "Mother- only available contact for solo travel".

 

6/ I have a lot of travel experiences. I've been to 28 countries, and I've had about 5 "trip of a lifetime" trips. I've done it all of my own accord financially (and have the debt to prove it), so I want to make it clear that I am not a privileged kid with daddy's gold card. Any suggestions as to how?

 

7/ I hunt and have a firearms license. Is this best left on the Rural section only, or should I list it in the NAQ section too? (I asked this about 2 months ago too, bu it might be good to get fresh insights.

[K-Doc]

For number 4, I think it's always best to be conservative. All of my hours that I logged for everything, including things like sports that I have been doing for years I always calculated really conservatively. As for travel, I just logged the time I was awake and doing stuff involving that travel. I think that's the way to go, as you can't really experience the place in your sleep. 28 countries?!?! I'm definitely jealous! Oh and about #1, I personally find that a little strange? I mean running in your bare feet for a marathon, that kind of sounds a bit crazy? I mean I would think the adcom would be more conservative than liberal, but I could be wrong.

 

Anyways, it seems like you have a great diversity of NAQ and should be scoring pretty high. Best of luck to you! =)

[kylamonkey]

 

Anyways, it seems like you have a great diversity of NAQ and should be scoring pretty high. Best of luck to you! =)

 

Thanks, actually an interesting thing is that I scored very LOW last time around and I am a little baffled as to why. I'm changing it completely this time!

"If you keep on doing what you're doing, you keep on getting what you're getting"

As a 30-yr old I expected to score well in this, and I didn't. I have good grades, but no so good that I can rely on them. I'm grateful for this forum!

[medisforme]

I understand where you are coming from, I am a 30 year old as well with many life experiences. The first time i applied I scored a 14.xx on the NAQ and this past year I scored an 18.xx. A much higher score the second time around even though I really didn't do much to improve my applications. Heck I didn't even change the wording that much. The process is so subjective there is only a limited amount one can do to improve there score. I am crossing my fingers again this year that my score will be high again though am not holding my breath now that the essay has been taken out of the application.

[notmeadoc]

You are obviously a diverse applicant with a lot of life experience.

 

I think that the marathon running is a great thing to add - it shows perseverance and dedication.

 

Given the fact that physician health is sort of a current "cool" area of medicine at the moment - I think that I would leave out the part about running in your bare feet....though it shows that you can push yourself to the limit but it leads one to ask - Why would you not wear runners in order to better cushion your joints? Obviously you were doing it for self awareness, push yourself to your limit etc.... but I would leave it out.

 

If you were chief surgical resident and you were on your 4th day of 2-3 hours of sleep - would you push on and continue trying to get major OR time with your staff on whatever service you're on ......or would you indicate that you needed some sleep? (Obviously the correct answer is to go for the sleep...but we all know that in reality surgical residents never cry "but PAR-BC says this"....and they work until they're bones ache)

[kylamonkey]

I understand where you are coming from, I am a 30 year old as well with many life experiences. The first time i applied I scored a 14.xx on the NAQ and this past year I scored an 18.xx. A much higher score the second time around even though I really didn't do much to improve my applications. Heck I didn't even change the wording that much. The process is so subjective there is only a limited amount one can do to improve there score. I am crossing my fingers again this year that my score will be high again though am not holding my breath now that the essay has been taken out of the application.

 

Interesting. I scored a 12.3 and then 12.7, which I didn't think was that bad until I came on this forum.

I'm definitely changing things- emphasizing leadership roles in jobs I have held etc., but it still baffles me.

I personally don't think the essay will have that much consequence.

[medisforme]

Interesting. I scored a 12.3 and then 12.7, which I didn't think was that bad until I came on this forum.

I'm definitely changing things- emphasizing leadership roles in jobs I have held etc., but it still baffles me.

I personally don't think the essay will have that much consequence.

 

I hope you are right. I think i am a bit worried because I have done relatively few activities, 0 research, with my employment history as the center of my application. Having the essay let me expand on that. without the essay I am stuck on 350 characters per job.

anyway, here's to hoping that those who judge the applications see this as a large benefit.

[thoughtkinetic]

Wow, the bare-foot marathon is impessive! I would without a doubt include the fact that you did it without runners...I have recently fallen in love with running and have come across articles boasting the benefits of bare-foot running. Apparently it forces your body into near perfect biomechanics and decreases the amount of injuries to knees due to better form.

 

Your NAQ sounds very interesting, and I wish you the best of luck!! Mine was not that impressive, but I think the hours I had for the activities I did carried alot of weight. For solo activities I would make an honest estimate and it's okay to use family members as verifiers if that's all you have, it's what I did and it worked! In fact, most of my NAQ was solo and verifiers were all family. For example for fatherhood I calculated all the time I have been a father and subtracted out 8 hrs a day for sleeping/school, using my wife as a verifier.

 

Good luck!

[future_doc]

Wow, the bare-foot marathon is impessive! I would without a doubt include the fact that you did it without runners

 

I agree with above post.

[dmleo]

your NAQ sounds impressive and you should include it all in your app.

I'd say focus on explaining what you got out of travel experiences instead of trying to bother explaining how you funded your travel cuz it won't really matter unless you went to five star hotel in Vegas and spent $500 a day on blackjack...