EC's Related Question

[spring]

Hello, I am a non-trad and new to this forum. I would like to apply for medicine. For the past couple of years, I have been working with a family member, running our own business but its not anything official...meaning that its on a cash basis (our company is not registered etc)....without revealing too much details, its seasonal type of work that we do and I spend around 20 hours/week during peak times. From my understanding of the application system, work goes under EC's and I think there needs to be a verifier for all activities. Can I include this under as one of my EC's? Can I have a family member whom I work with be a verifier?

[whereswaldo]

This can definitely be an EC since you worked for whatever the business is for a number of years. You should get whoever your supervisor is (even if its a family member) to write a reference. Do you have other EC's as well, since schools look highly on volunteer experience?

[spring]

Thanks. I was hoping to be able to use it as one of my EC's since I have learnt alot and have development various skills because of the business and I have spent considerable amount of time on it too. I was not thinking of using it for reference purposes since I have a few strong academic sources for references.

 

Anyhow, I have a lot of other EC's too, most are paid research related over the last 3-4 years or other paid employment positions and a couple of volunteer activities. As long as I have strong EC's, does it matter if it was through paid work or volunteer? I didn't find any distinction being made between the two on med schools websites.

[MASTERdeBATOR]

Thanks. I was hoping to be able to use it as one of my EC's since I have learnt alot and have development various skills because of the business and I have spent considerable amount of time on it too. I was not thinking of using it for reference purposes since I have a few strong academic sources for references.

 

Anyhow, I have a lot of other EC's too, most are paid research related over the last 3-4 years or other paid employment positions and a couple of volunteer activities. As long as I have strong EC's, does it matter if it was through paid work or volunteer? I didn't find any distinction being made between the two on med schools websites.

 

For UBC EC's and employment are considered to be in different categories

[Dr.Henderson]

Thanks. I was hoping to be able to use it as one of my EC's since I have learnt alot and have development various skills because of the business and I have spent considerable amount of time on it too. I was not thinking of using it for reference purposes since I have a few strong academic sources for references.

 

Anyhow, I have a lot of other EC's too, most are paid research related over the last 3-4 years or other paid employment positions and a couple of volunteer activities. As long as I have strong EC's, does it matter if it was through paid work or volunteer? I didn't find any distinction being made between the two on med schools websites.

 

I wouldn't have them write a reference letter, but being a verifier is fine if they're the ones who supervised you. In terms of whether it matters if you were paid or not for your experiences- I doubt anyone really knows. From a speculative position I would think that it doesn't matter as long as you're conveying the same qualities as someone who did volunteer activities. However, one of the qualities med schools are looking for is altruism so it's probably a good to have a mix The assessments are obviously subjective, so a lot of it comes down to how you describe the activity I think.