- Today we're going to discuss approaches
to writing your AMCAS Work and Activities section.
The first step in getting into top medical schools
is of course, getting through your AMCAS primary.
A lot of applicants spend a ton of time
on their personal statement,
which seems like the most daunting part
of the primary application,
but sometimes they neglect the other key component,
the Work and Activities section.
I'm Dr. Shirag Shemmassian, medical school admissions expert
and founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting.
I'll go over sample entries and give you strategies
to write compelling descriptions
of your various extracurricular experiences.
Let's get started.
The Work and Activities section is more important
than you might think and it's definitely not something
you want to complete haphazardly.
Give yourself as much time to review
your extracurricular, service, and work history
as you gave yourself to brainstorm your personal statement,
ideally a week or more.
This is what your Work and Activities entry
will look like in the end.
You're allowed to describe up to 15 activities
and you get 700 characters to write about each of them.
You're also allowed to choose three of those 15 activities
and designate them as "most meaningful" which will
give you 1325 additional characters for each of them.
Those are the basics.
In this video I'll discuss strategies for getting
from the blank page to an entry like the one you just saw.
I'll talk a little bit about choosing
what to put in your entry
and give you some ideas for
how to actually write those entries.
Step number one, prewriting.
Before you open your AMCAS to get going
on the Work and Activities section,
take a moment to write down every activity
that you can think of having had participated in.
You should include only activities
that you've been a part of since graduating high school.
Some students were really involved in activities
that meant a lot to them in high school
but including those makes you look younger
and less mature of an applicant.
Some examples of things you might put down
in this initial prewrite: clubs, sports teams,
jobs, internships, service and volunteering,
theatrical or musical productions, shadowing,
research, hobbies, honors, or honor societies.
Now you should go through everything you've written down
and start to make some more notes by each one of them.
And then answer these questions for each activity.
How much time did you spend on this activity?
What were my responsibilities and accomplishments?
What kind of impact did I make?
How can I measure or show that?
What does this activity say about
my personal qualities and strengths?
Now you've got not just a list of stuff you've done,
but the beginnings of entries.
Step number two, choosing what goes in
the Work and Activities section.
Remember that there are four buckets
of extracurricular activities that medical schools
want to see from their applicants.
Community service or volunteering,
both medical and non-medical,
research,
patient exposure,
and shadowing.
You'll want to choose up to 15 activities
that demonstrate how you're a well-rounded candidate
with experience in all of those areas.
You should also leave yourself space for a few activities
that have nothing to do with those four buckets.
Don't assume that your four years
in your a capella group are going down the drain.
Your application doesn't all have to be wet labs and clinics
but make sure those bases are covered first.
So, how do you choose?
Some students don't have 15 activities and that's okay.
You definitely don't want to force it,
because it's obvious when you're just filling space.
an ideal is about 12.
Other students, especially those who have taken time off
between undergrad and med school will have more than 15.
If you're in that camp, use those four buckets
to keep you priorities straight.
Even if you've done years and years of lab research
and you're working in a lab now,
and you have tons of publications,
you probably don't want seven of the 15 entries
to be about research at the expense
of entries highlighting your service and patient exposure.
Students often ask about their shadowing, honors,
and publications entries should look.
If you've only had a few shadowing experiences,
say one or two, you can write out each one separately.
If you have a decent bit of experience,
we'd suggest listing shadowing all in one entry,
fragments are okay here.
It could look like this.
Grady Hospital, Emergency Department, Summer 2019,
shadowed several physicians in the ED.
primary contact, Max Wilkins, M.D.
Emory University, Department of Surgery, Fall 2019,
observed multiple surgeries and attended patient pre-op
and post-op consultations.
primary contact, Sheena Seth M.D.
Remember that breaking the entries up will mean
you have to have a specific insight about each one.
As for honors, awards, and publications,
you can have one entry that lists all your honors
and awards, and one for your publications,
if you have a few.
You can also mention them in the activities
that they're relevant to.
For instance, you could reference the article
you have forthcoming in the entry about your lab.
Step number three, choosing your three
"most meaningful" experiences.
Remember that you get 700 characters to write
about each of those 15 activities.
But you also get to pick three activities
that are your "most meaningful"
and for those you get 1325 additional characters.
Meaning you've got to write 700 characters
and then 1325 more on top of that.
That gets confusing sometimes.
You should pick the three activities
you really did love the most,
and start thinking about what you'd be able to write about
if you had extra space for those entries.
Then, take a step back.
Let's say all three of your most meaningful related
to the dance groups you were in as an undergrad.
You should make some adjustments in that case.
At least one of your most meaningful activities
should probably be medical or clinical
because you're applying to medical school,
I assume that shouldn't be a stretch.
Step number four, writing the initial 700 character entries.
Now that you've chosen your 15 activities,
including your three "most meaningful,"
you can return to those bullet points you answered earlier.
How much time did I spend on this activity?
What were my responsibilities and accomplishments?
What kind of impact did I make?
How can I measure or show that?
And what does this activity say about
my personal qualities and strengths?
Use these as your starting point,
but this time write in full sentences.
Applicants sometimes ask if they can do
the Work and Activities in fragments or bullet points
like a resume, and we really don't suggest that.
That's because the Work and Activities
isn't really a resume,
it's more like 18 short answers or tiny essays.
You have to have a thesis for each one,
and that's pretty hard to convey when
you're not writing in complete sentences.
You'll answer that first bullet point
in the form part of the AMCAS,
the rest of those three bullets will get answered
when you write out your sentences.
Here are a few small writing tips
for putting together these entries.
Avoid dead office verbs, like streamline,
optimize, synergize.
Avoid cliched nouns like leadership, service, initiative.
Prefer specific verbs like filed, interviewed or published.
Don't waste space with throat-clearing language
like "I was responsible for overseeing,"
instead write "I oversaw."
Lastly, always, always remember that you're not
just summarizing your experiences.
You want to find a connection to how these experiences
will make you a better doctor.
If you run Sunday School groups at your church,
you might talk about how you've learned
to manage rooms full of children,
which will be really helpful as a pediatrician.
Step number five, writing the "most meaningful" entries.
After you've gotten the basic down for all 15 activities,
it's time to go back to the three
you marked as most meaningful.
That first 700 character entry
for these activities should stand alone.
You're going to use your additional space
to elaborate a little more.
You should still focus on the experience itself;
this isn't a time to get as reflective
as you were in your personal statement
but you might have room for a mini story
or mini anecdote in this section as long as it really
is elaborating on what you've already said.
Step number six, review and submit.
Make sure you give yourself plenty of time
to edit the language and revise.
Look for spelling and proofreading errors,
along with places you could have chosen more precise verbs
or places you repeated yourself.
If you've found this video helpful,
give it a thumbs up and subscribe
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And if you'd like to learn more
about the med school admissions process,
including a whole section on how to develop
a school list that maximizes your admission odds
or more robust information on
your work and activities section,
including multiple full-length examples,
click the link in the description
to get my free comprehensive guide,
"How to Get into Medical School."
The strategies in the guide are the same ones we use
to routinely help students get into schools
like Yale, Hopkins, and Mayo.
All right, thanks again for watching.
See you next time.