Top 3 Selection

[snakes&planes]

Hello,

 

I was wondering how many hours you dedicated to activites that you incuded as one of your top 3, I was thinking minimum 200 hours since i figured that commitment and nature would be looked on. Can anyone comment.

[bruhh]

I haven't applied yet so I'm not too familiar with OMSAS but I would say that your top 3 should include things that have contributed the most to your knowledge and experience and had a significant impact on you. You could have volunteered at a hospital for 2 years doing clerk work behind a desk, shelving materials, etc.. which wouldn't be that useful in my opinion. On the other hand, you could have started a student organization in the past 6 months and you took it to many places with your leadership, fundraised, coordianted events, and contributed to the community somehow. Look at it in a holistic manner, and do account the hours that you spent for each but don't base your top 3 JUST on the hours. 

 

In other words, just look at each activity in the eyes of the admission commitee and judge the activities in a fair manner to see which holds the most merit.

[MathToMed]

When you say Top 3, are you referring to the 3 ABS personal essays?

If so, remember that UofT has certain 'clusters' that it wants you to adhere to. You should select your Top 3 so that they span all four clusters (Professional, Communicator, Advocacy and Scholar clusters).

 

http://www.md.utoronto.ca/admissions/information/Non-Academic.htm

[snakes&planes]

@mathtomed Yes, these are the three I am reffering too. Thanks for the link, would you say as long as you touch on each of the four with one of the categories decently, you can play up your strengths if one of them is obviously your strongest. How many clusters to successful aplicants usually bring up per essay?

[MathToMed]

I think ideally, you should play up all four to the best of your abilities. If you find you're lacking in one particular area (besides Scholar) then try to go out before the applications and find a relevant EC to get your mind thinking about it. Scholar is a tough one unless you've won awards or gone to graduate school, so you'd have to try your best there regardless. I'd be wary of trying to play up one particular cluster more than others, as they're seeking balanced, well-rounded individuals.

I don't think you have to do all four in each essay, but all of them should be reflected across the set, collectively. This means in at least one, you have to talk about two or more clusters by the pigeonhole principle. Reflecting back on mine from the last two cycles, each of my essays involved more than one cluster, with some overlap (in character traits, not in activities).

Another thing to keep in mind is, your ABS as a whole will be assessed at least in part according to these four clusters as well. While there's no official word that I can see about this, it seems obvious given UofT's emphasis on these qualities (they come directly from CanMEDS).

[Hanmari]

I agree with the above post re: balancing the clusters. Do beware dilution of narrative strength if you're trying to hit multiple clusters within a single essay, although as MtM mentioned it is inevitable that you will need to do so in at least one of the essays in order to cover all 4 clusters.

 

I personally wouldn't worry too much about hours spent in the activities chosen, as long as they are significant activities (which they should be, ofc).