Questions regarding my activities description

[DZinTheGame]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently in the process of writing my Work/Activities section and I have some questions (I'm an international student and I have no access to any particular advising so google/reddit/SDN are my only sources of information about the process).

I didn't think about the AMCAS application much before but now I came to realize that due to having 15 entries limit I might not be able to include the section where I list my awards or the section where I talk about conferences attended (I also participated in planning some conferences/research symposiums).

1. Is it possible for me to just include the awards/posters/conferences in the publications section? If so, how should I use my description space because I heard we shouldn't do bullet points? or should I make an entire section for the awards/conferences and just mention the publications/posters in the description of the Research Lab experience ??

2. I have a TAing experience which I wrote on a single section but I also have 2 other tutoring experiences, one through the Academic Resources Center of my university and it targets freshmen (I have been doing that for 3ys now); the other one is way more significant, it's a non-profit that I joined as a tutor for children (grade 7-12) but later came up with the idea (and was tasked to lead it) of a sub-project in this tutoring service that is tailored towards kids from marginalized groups and it provides a long term mentorship service - is it better if I group the two experiences in one section(leadership) and just try to cram both in 700chars?? (mind you I already exhausted all 3 of my most meaningfuls)

3. I listed "SCUBA Diving" as a hobby, I am certified and I was professionally trained to do it; can I just use the same section to speak about my volunteering experience with my diving club?(It was meaningful to me but I didn't do it for a long time so I definitely don't want to give it an entire section and I don't want to list my hobby as EC or service neither)

4. I have a problem with classifying some of my activities, for some of them I started as a volunteer and grew into a leadership position, do you think it would be better to classify them as "leadership" activities instead of community service/EC ? Moreover, in the case where I had various positions (like being editor then editor in chief or being member then president) should I mention all the positions in the experience title or the most recent is enough?? (Im already writing about my differnet roles in the description)

5. Similar to previous question but I see that many activities can be put in multiple categories, is it better if I try to have as many categories represented as possible or should I just classify them as I see the most fit ?

Thank you very much!

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[Catalystik]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently in the process of writing my Work/Activities section and I have some questions (I'm an international student and I have no access to any particular advising so google/reddit/SDN are my only sources of information about the process).

I didn't think about the AMCAS application much before but now I came to realize that due to having 15 entries limit I might not be able to include the section where I list my awards or the section where I talk about conferences attended (I also participated in planning some conferences/research symposiums).

1. Is it possible for me to just include the awards/posters/conferences in the publications section? If so, how should I use my description space because I heard we shouldn't do bullet points? or should I make an entire section for the awards/conferences and just mention the publications/posters in the description of the Research Lab experience ??

2. I have a TAing experience which I wrote on a single section but I also have 2 other tutoring experiences, one through the Academic Resources Center of my university and it targets freshmen (I have been doing that for 3ys now); the other one is way more significant, it's a non-profit that I joined as a tutor for children (grade 7-12) but later came up with the idea (and was tasked to lead it) of a sub-project in this tutoring service that is tailored towards kids from marginalized groups and it provides a long term mentorship service - is it better if I group the two experiences in one section(leadership) and just try to cram both in 700chars?? (mind you I already exhausted all 3 of my most meaningfuls)

3. I listed "SCUBA Diving" as a hobby, I am certified and I was professionally trained to do it; can I just use the same section to speak about my volunteering experience with my diving club?(It was meaningful to me but I didn't do it for a long time so I definitely don't want to give it an entire section and I don't want to list my hobby as EC or service neither)

4. I have a problem with classifying some of my activities, for some of them I started as a volunteer and grew into a leadership position, do you think it would be better to classify them as "leadership" activities instead of community service/EC ? Moreover, in the case where I had various positions (like being editor then editor in chief or being member then president) should I mention all the positions in the experience title or the most recent is enough?? (Im already writing about my differnet roles in the description)

5. Similar to previous question but I see that many activities can be put in multiple categories, is it better if I try to have as many categories represented as possible or should I just classify them as I see the most fit ?

Thank you very much!

1) See post #2, item 20 of this thread: *~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2021-2024 *~*~*~* . Then look through the rest of that post.
2) Try to squeeze the 3 into one entry. Or save one to use for Secondary essays.
3) Yes.
4) A Leadership spot should have only the dates and hours of the leadership role. Better to use the tag "Volunteer" or "EC" and include the leadership role in the title of the space, putting the date you assumed the role in the narrative, but including the leadership hours in the Total Hours of the space. When you hade multiple leadership roles, just use a vague "Leadership Roles" in the tile, but expand in the description. Note that a description of a club membership won't get you much traction unless it included community service or leadership, so you could exclude club membership as an activity and just enter the leadership role only, or the volunteer gig only, with the brief back story of club membership in the narrative.
5) Try to use more categories, as you don't know what each school is looking for.

 

[DZinTheGame]

1) See post #2, item 20 of this thread: *~*~*~* Official AMCAS "Work/Activities" Tips Thread 2021-2024 *~*~*~* . Then look through the rest of that post.
2) Try to squeeze the 3 into one entry. Or save one to use for Secondary essays.
3) Yes.
4) A Leadership spot should have only the dates and hours of the leadership role. Better to use the tag "Volunteer" or "EC" and include the leadership role in the title of the space, putting the date you assumed the role in the narrative, but including the leadership hours in the Total Hours of the space. When you hade multiple leadership roles, just use a vague "Leadership Roles" in the tile, but expand in the description. Note that a description of a club membership won't get you much traction unless it included community service or leadership, so you could exclude club membership as an activity and just enter the leadership role only, or the volunteer gig only, with the brief back story of club membership in the narrative.
5) Try to use more categories, as you don't know what each school is looking for.

Thank you! As for your 2nd answer are you sure I should put my paid TAing with my volunteering as a tutor?? I think it makes sense if I put me being a TA with me being a peer tutor for freshmen, but my other experience is way more significant because i started an entire sub-project and lead it for that service organization

 

[LizzyM]

Unless an award is given to only one student at your university, or even better, only one student in the US, in all likelihood, it isn't important enough to go on your application. Academic honors (cum laude, etc) are just not worth the space on your application.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you! As for your 2nd answer are you sure I should put my paid TAing with my volunteering as a tutor?? I think it makes sense if I put me being a TA with me being a peer tutor for freshmen, but my other experience is way more significant because i started an entire sub-project and lead it for that service organization

Put them all under a Teaching tag. Specify paid vs volunteer in the narrative.