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Choose the Right Category for your AMCAS Experiences

AMCAS provides 18 categories in which you can classify your experiences. They are:

Artistic Endeavors
Community Service/Volunteer – Not Medical/Clinical
Community Service/Volunteer – Medical/Clinical
Conferences Attended
Extracurricular Activities
Hobbies
Honors/Awards/Recognitions
Intercollegiate Athletics
Leadership – Not listed elsewhere
Military Service
Other
Paid Employment – Medical/Clinical
Paid Employment – Not Medical/Clinical
Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation
Presentations/Posters
Publications
Research/Lab
Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant

Sometimes an activity can match two categories. When that happens, lean on the clinical categories, if applicable. (For example, if your activity is both Leadership and Community Service – Medical/ Clinical, choose the latter.) If clinical is not relevant, then choose the category in which you have the fewest activities.

A client who came to me as a re-applicant a few years back told me that a school from which she was rejected indicated that they had not counted a clearly clinical activity as clinical because she had classified it differently. So be sure you consider the categories deliberately in crafting your AMCAS.

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How To Craft Stand-out Most Meaningful Paragraphs

Back in 2012, seemingly out of the blue, a new component appeared on AMCAS®. Applicants were being asked to identify up to three of their most significant extracurricular experiences and support their selections with more writing. The instructions stated:

This is your opportunity to summarize why you have selected this experience as one of your most meaningful. In your remarks, you might consider the transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the experience and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation. 1325 max characters.

Now the Most Meaningful Paragraphs are par for the course, but applicants routinely make a few avoidable errors in crafting them. Here are tips to do your best work:

1) Don’t merge the descriptors with the Most Meaningful Paragraphs; they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with a maximum of 700 characters each, plus up to three Most Meaningful Paragraphs with a maximum of 1325 characters each. The fact that these are two different tasks might seem clear to some, but every year, I receive AMCAS drafts to edit with merged descriptors and Most Meaningful Paragraphs. 

2) Don’t use patient anecdotes in your Most Meaningful Paragraphs: Most medical school applicants have patient vignettes to share, which means that a patient story does not distinguish an applicant from the masses of other candidates. Also, these patient stories can sound trite or even inadvertently condescending. Talk about yourself instead. (See below.)

3) Don’t repeat what you’ve written in your descriptor. The Most Meaningful Paragraphs are an opportunity to delve deeper into your achievements. Let’s say you’re showcasing your experience as a teaching assistant (TA) who was promoted to head TA or simply asked to return the next semester. Highlight teaching achievements that propelled you to get the lead position or the return invite. Did you offer an unconventional way of learning the difficult material? If so, what was it? Did you provide service that was above and beyond what was required? If so, what exactly did you do and how did it help your students? Did you get excellent teaching reviews? By delving deeper, you can truly demonstrate the “transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the experience and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation.” Make sure you address at least one of the three topics mentioned in the prompt – transformative nature, impact, and/or personal growth – in your Most Meaningful Paragraph. 

Bottom line: The Most Meaningful Paragraphs are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your distinctiveness and worthiness for medical school. Write substantively to make sure you don’t waste the opportunity to further your candidacy.

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Ten AMCAS Mistakes You Absolutely Want to Avoid

Here’s a quick and dirty list of AMCAS Work and Activities section errors to avoid at all costs:

1. Don’t write to write, and don’t fill to the maximum character count unless necessary. While you want to include many strong achievements, you do not want your AMCAS to be so wordy that your reader is tempted to skim.

2. While you need to be brief, don’t write in phrases; use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.

3. Don’t assume your reader will carefully study the “header” section (including the title of the activity, hours, etc.). Make sure your descriptor could stand alone: Instead of “As an assistant, I conducted experiments…” use “As a research assistant at a Stanford Medical School neuroscience lab, I conducted experiments…”

4. Don’t be vague or trite. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly and substantively. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you will not get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions.

5. Avoid abbreviations. Again, you want to be formal, and abbreviations you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.

6. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Doctors without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Doctors without Borders.

7. Avoid generalities and consider using numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 300 participants says it all.

8. Don’t merge the descriptors with the most meaningful paragraphs because they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with up to 700 characters each plus up to three most meaningful paragraphs of up to 1325 characters each.

9. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.

10. Choose the right category for each activity, so you get “full credit.”

Bonus: Get help. Do not submit your medical school application without having it reviewed by someone with experience. You do not want to showcase suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.

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Choosing the Right Category for your AMCAS Experiences

AMCAS provides 18 categories in which you can classify your experiences. They are

Artistic Endeavors
Community Service/Volunteer – Not Medical/Clinical
Community Service/Volunteer – Medical/Clinical
Conferences Attended
Extracurricular Activities
Hobbies
Honors/Awards/Recognitions
Intercollegiate Athletics
Leadership – Not listed elsewhere
Military Service
Other
Paid Employment – Medical/Clinical
Paid Employment – Not Medical/Clinical
Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation
Presentations/Posters
Publications
Research/Lab
Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant  

Sometimes an activity can match two categories. When that happens, lean on the clinical categories, if applicable. (For example, if your activity is both Leadership and Community Service – Medical/ Clinical, chose the latter.) If clinical is not relevant, then choose the category in which you have the fewest activities. 

A client who came to me as a re-applicant told me that a school from which she was rejected indicated that they had not counted a clearly clinical activity as clinical because she had classified it differently. Be sure you consider the categories deliberately in crafting your AMCAS.  

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Urgent, Urgent, Urgent, Emergency?

The AMCAS open-for-submission date came and went, and the question I’m getting now is: Should I panic if I haven’t yet submitted my AMCAS?

The answer is no – and depending on where you are in the process – yes. Submitting on Day 1 precisely is not worth losing your mind over, so if you didn’t do so, please don’t kick yourself. On the other hand, submitting very soon is to your advantage because of rolling admissions.

So, if you are wrapping up your work and have your written materials in a superior state, just keep moving and get your application submitted promptly. If you are behind the eight ball and don’t feel that you can craft outstanding written materials speedily, consider waiting a year to apply. Every season I encounter re-applicants who, during the previous application cycle, submitted their AMCASes in August or September…thus making them re-applicants :(. 

So… on your mark. Get set. Go!

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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