﻿OMSAS ABS: The Secret to Your OMSAS Application
The OMSAS ABS, or autobiographical sketch, is the most sure way to stand out in your OMSAS
application. Unlike medical schools in the US, medical schools in Canada
do not require the submission of personal statements. While there are some medical schools
in Ontario that ask for short essays, the OMSAS ABS is the ultimate component that demonstrates
how and why you are the perfect candidate for you chosen Ontario medical schools.
Hi! My name is (your full name) and I’m an admissions associate here at BeMo. Before we get
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so you don’t miss any of our upcoming videos. If you would like us to help you with your medical
school applications, visit bemomedapplication.com to schedule your free initial consultation.
As a quick tip, check out the time stamps in the description of this video to navigate to specific
sections of the video that you are interested in. Here’s what we are going to cover:
OMSAS ABS: Why is it important? OMSAS ABS tips
Sample OMSAS ABS entries and analysis AMCAS Work and Activities Most
Meaningful Experiences Examples Most Important Strategy to Make Your Most
Meaningful Entries Stand Out By the way we're giving away $50
Amazon gift cards every week to best comments and questions - comment below
for a chance to win. We know the secret to writing a stellar medical school personal
statement - I'll reveal it closer to the end of the video, so keep watching to find out.
So, let’s get started! OMSAS ABS: Why is it important?
Before diving into our tips let’s outline the basic structure and purpose of the OMSAS sketch
and why it is important. To start, it’s vital to understand the ultimate reason for the sketch. If
you’re familiar with the AMCAS system in the US, you’re likely aware of both the personal statement
and Work and Activities sections, which are the main autobiographical portions of the application.
For medical schools in Ontario, both of these sections are absent.
The sketch provides a standardized outline of your academic and professional development
since age 16. It’s structured as a list of up to 32 items organized into 7 categories:
Employment
Formal Education Volunteer Activities
Extracurricular Activities Awards and Accomplishments
Research Other
Unless you’re a non-traditional medical school applicant who’s applying later in life,
your experiences and activities for this section should, fortunately, still be fairly fresh in your
mind. The Ontario Universities’ Application Center (OUAC) recommends initially approaching these
categories and activities quite broadly—their advice is simply to “list all activities that
will give the admission committees insight into who you are.” These activities can be structured
and non-structured—i.e., undertaken in a formal organization in a specific timeframe,
or informal and even self-directed. Structured activities might include things like volunteering
for specific organizations or events, while non-structured activities might include things
like hobbies or recreational activities. One of the paradoxical aspects of the OMSAS sketch
is its open-endedness. It invites you to really dig into your experiences to find what’s most
meaningful, and for many students this lack of strict direction can feel like a burden,
especially during such a busy period as medical school application. It's a bit of a grind,
but if you block off enough time and employ some strategies we outline next, it can be a downright
rewarding experience. OMSAS ABS tips
Now let’s get to the tips that will ensure you prepare a stellar OMSAS ABS that will
increase your chances of acceptance! Tip #1: Always Choose Quality Over Quantity
Just because you have 32 entries, does NOT mean that you have to fill up all 32 entries. Remember,
the point of the sketch is to demonstrate the essential qualities that medical schools value,
not provide a comprehensive index of every waking moment of the last 5-7 years. However, when you
start drafting your sketch, you should begin with quantity, and slowly refine into quality.
We always recommend creating a spreadsheet or other such highly-organized document that you can
populate with any and all activities you can think of having occurred since the age of 16.
Be comprehensive—this is the foundation you’ll use to build your final sketch.
As you list these activities, organize them into their appropriate category
using the list I provided earlier, and outline ample details about them to access later when
you begin editing your sketch entries. Once you have a list of at least 15-20 such entries, begin
focusing on those activities that have been most impactful. For instance, you’ll surely list your
entire employment history, but if your first job at 16 was a paper route and only lasted a week,
you may consider skipping this in favor of something more impactful and sizable in duration.
You need to be able to provide some level of detail as to why an entry is meaningful,
and things like a brief job you didn’t get anything out of would be better left aside.
Importantly, you must be clear and concise to demonstrate your excellent communication
skills. The sketch section specifically requires you to limit each entry to 150
characters, which is not very much at all. Using an entry to
describe your meditation practice or other hard-to-summarize activity within the limit
may be challenging, but if you take your time and refine your entry, it can go a long way toward
demonstrating your communication skills. Other non-structured activities such as traveling,
cultural experiences, or having special licenses or certificates
make similar demands on language, and so balancing your formal structured entries with more nuanced
non-structured activities will help illustrate your ability to effectively and engagingly present
who you are to admissions committees. Tip #2: Start Early with Verifiers
For any activity, other than formal education and scholarships, you must provide a verifier. For
structured activities this can be a supervisor, a coach, etc. and for non-structured activities
these can be friends, family, neighbors, and even yourself.
Since the range of verifiers is so vast, reach out to potential verifiers as you draft your initial,
unrefined entries to make sure these people are comfortable with you listing them for a specific
activity or experience. As you begin deciding which entries to refine into your final sketch,
be mindful not only of what a given verifier might say, but whether or
not they can be relied upon to respond to a contact request from a medical school.
If possible, select verifiers you know will provide additional detail on an entry as well.
The temptation to try to include high-ranking verifiers may be strong,
but what matters most is their reliability and ability to attest to your involvement
in the activity. Hierarchy and status simply do not matter for verifiers.
Tip #3: Be Honest Admissions committees in Ontario read
so many sketches in a given application season that any whiff of insincerity or posturing will
be detected as such. Part of our Tip #1 is being artful and accurate in your language,
but another part of this is speaking truthfully and not embellishing a given entry.
If a given volunteering experience was a trying or even a letdown,
don’t embellish it into some kind of life-altering transformation. Not only will your verifier likely
not back that up, but the stink of dishonesty will come through to the people reading your sketch.
One of the skills experienced admissions committee members develop is the ability
to piece together an actual, working picture of the student whose sketch they’re reading.
Entries that stick out from the tone and character of their surrounding entries will almost always
read as ill-fitting or even hypocritical. A smart tactic when considering how to present
the details of an experience is to assume a kind of omniscience in your eventual reader—assume any
atom of falsehood will be sensed, and carefully refine your language to avoid embellishment.
Similarly, don’t exaggerate your hobbies or other entries that will rely on self-verification. You
may be tempted to list a marathon or two if you enjoy running, but admissions committees don’t
care about your ultimate level of athleticism so much as the fact that you’re a disciplined
person who’s mindful of their own health. In short, there’s often no need to embellish,
so don’t bother attempting it. Sample OMSAS ABS entries and analysis
Let’s take a look at some examples. First, let’s check out a simple formal education
entry. Pay attention to how the dates are entered, and note also how the formal education
is described quite clearly and concisely. Formal Education Entry
From: 2000-09 To: 2005-04
Description: U of Toronto: BSc Geographical Location: Toronto/ON
Consistency of formatting and language is important throughout the sketch, so be mindful
of how the entry should be structured, for example, the year-month date format,
and using a forward slash instead of a comma for the location. Make sure to maintain uniformity:
erratic punctuation may not automatically get your application chucked in the bin, but
providing evidence that you have an eye for detail and organization will help you tremendously.
In this next example, notice how “Full time” is separated from “academic and summer term”.
Additionally, note how this candidate has effectively and creatively used their
150-character limit to provide a very clear and concise description of their roles and
responsibilities. It is acceptable to use short hand and point form in your descriptions so long
as they are clearly understood by others—the tilde (~) to symbolize “approximately” is especially
useful for employment and volunteering entries. Employment Entry:
From: 2000-05 To: 2000-11
Description: Ford Motors Inc: Cars & Tech Support Intern
Geographical Location: San Fran/USA Verifier: 13
Level of education: 4th yr. B. Eng. Hours: ~800 hrs.
Full/part-time – Summer or Academic Year: Full-time; academic & summer terms
(6-mo. internship)Responsibilities: Coordinated global media events by organizing test drives,
scheduling car transport and maintenance, and creating inventory tracking processes.
Again, the point is quality not quantity, even within a given entry—more words don’t necessarily
help, and in fact will often bog down an entry or description without affording enough space for
additional detail. This also speaks to the need to give yourself time to refine and edit your entries
as well. Avoid putting yourself in a position where you need to rush through your sketch
so that you can really polish each phrase to be as economical and impactful as possible.
If we haven’t made it abundantly clear yet, the most important strategy for
crafting stellar sketch entries is time. Start early, be comprehensive,
and be creative too. You don’t have to list 20 different esoteric activities to stand out,
but you do want to be mindful of the things that make you unique,
and give their entries enough time and care to really sparkle. And, lastly, try to enjoy
the process of compiling and editing your sketch entries as an exercise in reflection—take stock
of what makes you who you are, and feel confident that you’re headed for a meaningful vocation.
Check out our blog to read more OMSAS ABS. I have included a link in the description of
this video so you can find the blog easily. If you would like us to help you with your
medical school applications, visit visit bemomedapplication.com to schedule your free
initial consultation. Hopefully you enjoyed the video so please subscribe, like and leave
a comment. If you have any questions about OMSAS that I didn’t cover in this video,
let me know in the comment section and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Don’t forget that
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