My hope is that by this last post of the series you have a better idea of how to craft your Work and Activities section so that each of your entries comes across as thoughtful, memorable, and engaging. While you don’t have to use each tip in every single entry, I hope that you found some of the advice here helpful and easy to incorporate into your work. The underlying theme in these tips is you need to demonstrate to the admissions committees what you have learned and how you will use that knowledge to be a better medical student and member of the medical community.
With that being said, admissions teams are looking to build a community of diverse individuals. To qualify to be one of the chosen members of the incoming class, it must be clear how you will bring a unique presence to the group. I can’t emphasize enough, if you’re reading this while you’re still a freshman or sophomore, choose activities that represent your passions that will be common themes throughout your application. You do not want to be “the jack of all trades, master of none.” Put yourself in the committee’s shoes. Think of an incoming class as a sports team. Would you rather have a bunch of players that are okay all over the field or a team filled with the best players of each position? Whoever reads your application should be able to understand what your mission is as a medical student and be able to visualize what player you will be on the team. Your Work and Activities section is a great place to illustrate that. This brings me to mistake #5…
Mistake #5: Writing About Activities that Don’t Add to Your Personal Narrative
If you haven’t come up with a personal mission statement at this point in the cycle, you definitely should. Your application should serve as evidence to support your mission. Ideally, your work and activities section will show common themes and interests throughout your application that are representative of your personal narrative. For example, I incorporated a lot of activities related to education, primary care, and exercise across different experience categories.
You do not want to be “the jack of all trades, master of none.”
When the time came to start writing down my list of experiences that I would include in my W&A section, I had more than I could fit in the allotted 15 slots. While this was my case, not all applicants will have more than 15 entries that they have to whittle down. With that being said, you should not feel pressured to fill every slot. Think quality over quantity in this section. If an experience didn’t mean a lot to you or you can’t make a valuable connection to your path to becoming a physician, consider leaving it out. Having random experiences that don’t add to your personal mission may distract the reader from capturing who you are as a person and what role you’ll play in their school. Here are some questions you can as yourself when deciding whether to include an experience or activity:
- Did this activity really have a meaningful impact on me? Now this may seem obvious but I would challenge you to really think about this one. The last thing you want is an entry that evidently lacks passion and reads that way too. I volunteered a lot while I was in college and elected to only write about the service activities that I found meaningful to my goals as a physician. I left out some of my service endeavours from my freshman year because I was still figuring out my vision. Because they didn’t add to my personal mission, I didn’t feel the admissions committees needed to know about it.
- Does this represent my career goals? Some applicants will group all of their research experiences or publications into one entry while others will make an individual entry for each one. Be careful with the latter option. If 7 out of 15 entries are different research experiences, the reader may question whether you want to be a researcher or a physician. Another example is being a teaching assistant. I grouped being a TA and tutor for multiple classes into one entry. I personally felt that I learned a lot of similar lessons between all those experiences and that it was better written as a single entry. Having separate entries for every class you TA’d or tutored for may leave the reader questioning whether you might be a better professor than a physician.
- Have I illustrated all the 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students? This is a list of competencies created by the AAMC (find it here). Each should be represented at least once throughout your application. Match your experiences to this list to make sure that you are covering all your bases.
- Is this experience representative of me? At the end of the day, this is your application to be a medical student. Premeds will feel a lot of pressure to include only experiences that show leadership capabilities or are related to research or clinical employment. While these are strong entries they don’t have to take up all your entries. I have heard of students being discouraged from putting a hobby. I highly recommend putting a hobby entry if you have one that you’re passionate about. Hobbies are memorable and they add a more relaxed and relatable tone to your application. They show that you care about more than just your career and that you have outlets to avoid burnout.
To sum it up, you want each W&A entry to add to your narrative, not distract away from it.
Ask yourself these questions when you come across an activity that you might just be adding to your application to fill up every spot. Admissions committees don’t want to be overwhelmed by a bunch of activities and experiences that don’t add up. After reading your application, they should be able to present you as an applicant and summarize your vision and the type of student you would be at their campus. They want to visualize where you might be involved in and how you will fit into their mission and community. To sum it up, you want each W&A entry to add to your narrative, not distract away from it. I hope this series has been helpful and has given you some guidance on how to tackle the Work and Activities section in your medical school application! As always if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below!
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