The Medical School Application: Key Tips to Consider Before you Begin Drafting the Work and Activities Section

The AMCAS application allows for a total of 15 entries. For each entry, you will provide a description of the activity (700-characters including spaces), experience dates, and completed/anticipated hours. You will then designate three of these entries as your “most meaningful,” which will give you an additional 1,325 characters (including spaces) to provide depth on the perspective you gained during the involvement.

Key tips to consider before you begin drafting:

• Take advantage of all 15 entries. What have been your most meaningful experiences that influenced your decision to apply to medical school? To start, brainstorm and write them all down in chronological order, limiting yourself to college or postgraduate experiences. This section is purposely broad and can include activities from a multitude of categories. (Read about the newly established social justice/advocacy category here.) If you can’t find 15, think about that one-day community service event that had a particular impact on you, that tutoring involvement where you worked with middle school students, or how playing the piano helps you to de-stress. While not all experiences will be equally meaningful, several are probably still worth sharing if they influenced your path in some way.

• You may also include anticipated experiences—past experience(s) that you have participated in and expect to continue with after you submit your application or an entirely new experience you have yet to start, but have a good idea what your work will involve. Just keep in mind that you may not enter anticipated activities in the following categories: Honors/Awards, Conference, Publications, Presentation.  

• After brainstorming all of your potential activities, take note of the 15 most relevant, some of which should fall into clinical work, research experience, community service, and social justice/advocacy, though make sure to span a diverse array of categories.

• When selecting your three most meaningful experiences, highlight first those that will show the reader your commitment to medicine. Then think about those that will show the reader your abilities in critical thinking and problem solving and/or leadership, as these qualities set physicians apart from other members of a healthcare team. What did you think, feel, see, and do in each involvement? What did you learn? How did you grow? 

• After writing each of your descriptions, read them aloud, and edit. Confirm that you are within the allotted number of characters. Such a stringent character limitation emphasizes the importance of clear language and perfect grammar. Treat these descriptions with as much care as you would your personal statement.

• Note that medical schools receive entries in plain text. If you write your descriptions and paste them into AMCAS, do not use formatted text (such as bullets) as it may not come across as you intend and you cannot edit the section after submission. 

The Work and Activities section gives the medical school admissions committee a summary of your meaningful involvements since the start of your college career experiences, which reinforced your interest in the study and practice of medicine. Thus, it is vital to ensure each word moves your candidacy forward in a compelling way.

Related:

AMCAS Work & Activities Section: Hobbies

2024 AMCAS Work & Activities Section Will Include New Experience Category: Social Justice/Advocacy

2024 AMCAS Work & Activities Section Will Include New Experience Category: Social Justice/Advocacy

The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) just announced that the 2024 application will include a new experience category in the Work and Activities section: Social Justice/Advocacy.  

AMCAS defines a social justice/advocacy experience as “one in which the applicant worked to advance the rights, privileges, or opportunities of a person, a group of people, or a cause.” It is specifically noted that experiences in this category do not need to be tied to any particular ideology, and that the category is “not intended to solicit experiences campaigning for a particular political candidate or party.” Rather, it is based on the applicant’s understanding of social justice/advocacy.

AMCAS provides examples of social justice/advocacy activities, which include: Registering people to vote, advocating for civil rights, decreasing health inequities, addressing food deserts, building awareness for a particular cause or health condition, advocating for vulnerable populations (children, homeless, etc.), and assisting with policy change or development. Previously, some applicants might have included advocacy work and social justice-related volunteering in other categories.

It's likely that you’ve already had experiences that will fall into this category. If so, we recommend that you include them. More schools are emphasizing social justice in their mission statements—and they’re looking for students whose values align with theirs.

As you consider this new category, remember these tips:

• Provide specific information about your social justice/advocacy experiences instead of making broad or generalized statements. For what specific issues did you advocate? What vulnerable population did you intend to benefit? What actions did you take on behalf of this issue/population? What did you learn that will make you a more effective member of the medical community?

• Avoid using overly-political or inflammatory language in your description. You want to resonate with a broad audience. Keep your description centered on the issues or population for which you worked and explore how it prepared you for medical school and your future career.

• While showing dedication to social justice and advocacy is important to admissions committees, ensure that you come across as well-rounded and include experiences across many different categories. If you have many social justice/advocacy experiences, select the strongest few to share or group them together. Consider the efforts where you played a meaningful leadership role, issues that you have a particular passion for, or experiences that relate directly to the mission of a school where you are applying.

• Conversely, if you don’t have any of these experiences, first think carefully about your volunteer activities and if there are components of those activities that may fit into this category. A good deal of volunteer work advocates for vulnerable populations or seeks to change an issue. However, if you are unsure or uncomfortable, don’t try to stretch an experience to make it fit. While this is a meaningful category for the medical community, there are many other experiences that will also prove your readiness for medical school.