Special Medical Opportunities

<p>This winter I'll be going to a foreign country (somewhat underdeveloped country) and volunteering in one of the hospitals for about 2 weeks (~8 hours/day). I'm definitely doing this because I'm interested in seeing what other countries' hospitals are like (not to just add a line to my resume or anything), but I was just wondering if there is a spot on the application for a small opportunity like this one. Would it count as an extracurricular activity? I think it's going to be a great experience and I definitely didn't want to leave it out of my app, so I was just curious. thanks!</p>

<p>Uh, yeah. As of AMCAS 2008, you get to list 15 activities/awards/publications/conferences/research/blahblahblah on your application. I'm sure that if you run out of room, you can mail each of your schools individually to continue tooting your horn. :)</p>

<p>niiiice haha</p>

<p>do you get to send in a resume?</p>

<p>... resume? That's the 15 blahblahblahs.</p>

<p>Again, if that's not enough, mail each of your schools individually.</p>

<p>its rare that someone has fifteen SIGNIFICANT activities. u'll be fine</p>

<p>hey college, are you going as part of a program or just individually by yourself?</p>

<p>hmmm, not sure exactly... I set it all up myself (meaning, I'm not GOING as part of a program), but I think I am being incorporated into a program at the actual hospital where I am volunteering</p>

<p>The general rule of thumb I've heard is that you DON'T want to fill in all 15 spaces - leave it at 11-13 - and sending schools extra information they didn't ask for is a risky proposition (you never know what the response will be). The reason being is just as Bruinboy said - the experiences need to be SIGNIFICANT. You don't want to put on there that you were an Honors Program Peer Support Group member (not leader) as a frosh if you only went twice and then skipped the rest of the meetings. Even if you went to all of the meetings you probably wouldn't want to mark that down b/c it's meaningless.</p>

<p>The concern is game theoretic in nature. If you fill up all fifteen spots, you run the risk of having schools perceive that you just wanted to fill in all the spots rather than picking only the most significant activities.</p>

<p>It's not that we don't believe you can have fifteen significant activities. It's that you don't want to run the risk of being perceived as having filled in as many spots as you had.</p>