ayang55 Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 Should I take out another ABS item to make sure I have high school included under formal education? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperate_premed Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 very good question, I would like to know the answer too. So far I only have 1 item which is the university I attendedn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 I wouldn't bother, if you've gone to University it's assumed you successfully completed high school. It's definitely filler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2015 Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 MathToMed is always on the money in his answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desperate_premed Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 I wouldn't bother, if you've gone to University it's assumed you successfully completed high school. It's definitely filler. Thanks man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Organomegaly Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 The instructions are to list activities that you feel have prepared you for medicine. High school was a formative time in my life. I have several meaningful ABS entries from my high school period. Therefore, I included high school. I don't think it is filler. To offer a counter-argument to Math's point, if you've done a Masters' its assumed you successfully completed undergraduate. Does that mean you don't include undergraduate? Either way, I don't think it is a critical decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted September 26, 2014 Report Share Posted September 26, 2014 It's not filler in my opinion, so you might as well include it if you have enough room on your sketch Edit: Let me rephrase this... It's not padding I mean, let's look at this from the perspective of admissions. Are they going to look down on an applicant because they put their high school education on their ABS? I think it should be pretty obvious that they won't. In fact, I personally think it's a good idea to include it, since it lets them know the region where your school was. This can be useful when looking at the geographical location of everything else on the sketch (ie. if it's near your unviersity or your home town) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted September 27, 2014 Report Share Posted September 27, 2014 To offer a counter-argument to Math's point, if you've done a Masters' its assumed you successfully completed undergraduate. Does that mean you don't include undergraduate? Yes you've completed an undergrad, but in what? Was it a three year or honours option? Thesis based? Co-op? In a related or unrelated field? Did you do two or more? High school on the other hand is just...high school. Though to be fair, you could have done regular day school, adult ed, night school etc. I'm just not sure what that would contribute to your sketch. I mean, let's look at this from the perspective of admissions. Are they going to look down on an applicant because they put their high school education on their ABS? I think it should be pretty obvious that they won't. In fact, I personally think it's a good idea to include it, since it lets them know the region where your school was. This can be useful when looking at the geographical location of everything else on the sketch (ie. if it's near your unviersity or your home town) This is a fair point for an application to somewhere like NOSM I suppose. However I have already listed the postal code of where I spent most of my formative years elsewhere on the application, I think it was mandatory. ------------ EDIT: One additional complication is that everything in your "Formal Education" section should be verified by your transcript(s)...but I'm not submitting a high school transcript, nor do my university ones make mention of where I went to school prior to that. How would you propose something like that be verified? (Honest question) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2B2019 Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Sorry to say, in fact, high school is not all the same. At least in Ottawa, for English public high schools: 1. Colonel By Secondary School runs IB program 2. Canterbury High School runs Arts program 3. Lisgar Collegiate Institute runs Gifted program 4. Glebe Collegiate Institute runs Bilingual Gifted program 5. Some schools run French Immersion program Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Then in the event you're from a special program you should list that... But if you have a regular vanilla OSSD (as it sounds the OP does) then I still don't think there's a point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lost&Found Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 I would say if you have the space, include it. If you don't, don't. I don't think adcoms will care either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ayang55 Posted September 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Actually this reminds me, I was in the gifted stream at my high school. But right now I don't have space to include high school. I can possibly take out Dean's honour list (80%+ average in undergrad) since pretty much everyone applying will have it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Actually this reminds me, I was in the gifted stream at my high school. But right now I don't have space to include high school. I can possibly take out Dean's honour list (80%+ average in undergrad) since pretty much everyone applying will have it? I think you should reconsider that - listing the gifted stream is great, but try to remove something besides another award if at all possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted September 28, 2014 Report Share Posted September 28, 2014 Then in the event you're from a special program you should list that... But if you have a regular vanilla OSSD (as it sounds the OP does) then I still don't think there's a point. Perhaps there isn't a point, but all I'm saying is that it's definitely not filler/padding. Nobody cares whether it's included or not included, but you might as well just throw it in there if you have the room Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aetherus Posted September 30, 2014 Report Share Posted September 30, 2014 Do not remove a real activity to make way for high school. I did not our my High school and it did not affect my application whatsoever. I feel most ADCOM won't even bother reading it unless it is from a region they know and the name of the HS means something to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfdes Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 EDIT: One additional complication is that everything in your "Formal Education" section should be verified by your transcript(s)...but I'm not submitting a high school transcript, nor do my university ones make mention of where I went to school prior to that. How would you propose something like that be verified? (Honest question) Wait a sec, does it say this somewhere in the guide? I thought "Formal Education" is any type of education you've recieved, so I was planning on putting stuff like band and piano in that category. Would it be better to put those under "Extracurricular"? Also, for anyone who did a research based thesis, did you include that as a separate "Research" entry, or just left it as part of your university "Formal Education" one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'm not 100% sure at the moment if it said that in the guide or on the app itself (I've now submitted and can no longer check) but in either case I don't think band/piano would classify as formal education, unless you took an undergraduate program in Music. They're better suited as ECs or Awards/Accomplishments (depending on what exactly you write about them). I did a research based thesis. I put my M.Sc. under Formal Education, and the thesis itself under Research. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jfdes Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 I'm not 100% sure at the moment if it said that in the guide or on the app itself (I've now submitted and can no longer check) but in either case I don't think band/piano would classify as formal education, unless you took an undergraduate program in Music. They're better suited as ECs or Awards/Accomplishments (depending on what exactly you write about them). I did a research based thesis. I put my M.Sc. under Formal Education, and the thesis itself under Research. Thanks. I was confused last year and put them under education since I did them in high school, but I think it does make a bit more sense to put them elsewhere. You didn't list your UG degree at all then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathToMed Posted October 1, 2014 Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 Thanks. I was confused last year and put them under education since I did them in high school, but I think it does make a bit more sense to put them elsewhere. You didn't list your UG degree at all then? I did, mine was in a non-traditional area, and I also have two of them. (Unfortunately, one of them doesn't count for boosting my GPA at all ): ) The degrees themselves went into Formal Education. I also included my Co-Op/practicum placements in Formal Education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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