Typical examples

[Guest BMW]

Hey guys, what are your thoughts about using examples that might seem overused (is there even such a thing)?

 

For example working as a lifeguard, volunteering at a hopsital and seeing someone die.....do you guys look for unique experiences and weight them heavily?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I've heard that reading essays/autobiographical sketches can get boring because of the redundancy - can you imagine reading 30 essays in row where every essay talks about how the applicant "learned teamwork skills from volunteering in a hospital. . . did research in a medical research lab. . . wants to go into medicine to help people." While I don't think any (at least many) evaulators would knock you down just because your experiences sound like a lot of others, it can't hurt to throw in some creativity (unless that 'creativity' is offensive or makes you look like a bad candidate.) So I think having unique experiences could really help an application.

 

But that's just me 2¢.

[Guest Carolyn]

I agree with UWO... I just think it is those who demonstrate unique experiences and relate them well to their suitability to medicine are the ones that get the exceptional marks. I would hope you would never actually get marked down for having the more typical experiences...