Entering Your Activities with Confidence

Boost your confidence in presenting your experiences effectively. Learn how to navigate the crucial step of entering your activities into the TMDSAS Application so that you can feel prepared when you apply. Remember to bring your questions for a live Q&A with TMDSAS staff!
Chapters
02:39 - How many activities can I enter into the TMDSAS application?
03:05 - How far back do I enter my activities?
04:19 - Think about activities holistically to help you decide what to say for each activity
06:20 - Academic Recognition (e.g., Dean's list)
06:52 - Non-Academic Recognition: how you've been recognized outside of the classroom (e.g., all-star track star, lead in a play)
07:40 - Leadership: roles or positions to highlight this skill, and leadership examples
09:12 - Leadership activities can also be listed under other categories and examples
10:11 - Employment activities to highlight teamwork, growth, and other skills
10:58 - Research activities
11:16 - If a research activity resulted in a publication
12:13 - Healthcare: shadow a healthcare provider or direct healthcare work with a patient
12:30 - What if my healthcare activity did not involve shadowing or working directly with a patient?
12:41 - Schools want to see a separate entry for shadowing, scribing, clinical research, patient care tech, a nurse, etc.
13:13 - Healthcare activities for dental and veterinary applicants that are not related to the field of interest
14:05 - Schools want to see one entry per activity, but the two following examples are exceptions to this rule
14:09 - Leadership, make sure that your descriptions are different for each entry
14:32 - Healthcare activity AND Employment can also be entered as two separate entries and how to write the description
14:52 - Unsure where your activities should be entered?
15:10 - Dental Experience: where more than 50% of the time was spent under the direct supervision of a dentist (dental applicants only)
15:22 - Veterinary Supervised Experience: where more than 50% of the time was spent under the direct supervision of a veterinarian (vet applicants only)
15:41 - Vet applicants only enter activities ONCE, regardless of what the activity is
15:57 - Animal Experience: include pet ownership, 4H, and anything where you have exposure to animals
16:28 - Community Engagement: any non-healthcare related activities (pay attention to what is community service vs community engagement)
16:40 - What is community service vs community engagement? (e.g., raising a bake sale vs with this bake sale funds, here is what we can accomplish)
17:41 - Extracurricular Activities: leisure activities, hobbies, why it's important to you, and examples
19:16 - How you can use your extracurricular activity description that shows why you are including the activity in your application
19:29 - Manual Dexterity (dental applicants only): activities that show that you have experience working in small spaces (e.g., video games, crochet, woodworking, etc.)
20:41 - Meaningful Experiences: highlight the top 3 most meaningful activities you already completed and expand on them that the admissions committees need to focus on
21:55 - Planned Activities
22:10 - For example, if you are a scribe right now and will continue throughout the summer
22:35 - How to enter long-term activities in the application with visuals
23:37 - How to enter short-term or sporadic activities in the application with visuals (e.g., dean's list)
24:08 Have an entry for every month for Chronology of Activities (no gaps longer than 3 months)
24:42 - What if you have gaps longer than 3 months?
25:00 - Once the Chronology of Activities is created, it cannot be re-created
25:53 - Quantity vs QUALITY of activities (passion and experience should show in descriptions)
26:49 - Descriptions the schools want to see and examples!
29:03 - I had a lot of community service in high school, is it ok to enter it and where can I place it?
30:31 - What exactly can be used in meaningful activities?
32:22 - How would I list an activity that was long-term but seasonal (e.g., shadowing every summer/winter) and how it would appear on your application
33:46 - What if I'm a non-traditional applicant with years in my gap
34:20 - How do I enter multiple shadowing experiences? Is it a separate entry?
35:53 - What if my research activity can go into many categories?
36:47 - Do schools prefer short-essay or matter-of-fact descriptions?
38:34 - What if I switched from full-time to part-time in the same job? Do I enter it once or separate entries?
40:18 - Entering activities like a resume
41:27 - How to determine what activities to enter in your application