- AMCAS Work & Activities Guides + 40 Examples

What is the AMCAS Work and Activities Section?

A major component of the holistic review that most medical schools are moving toward, is the AMCAS Work and Activities section. Before we get into the weeds of this section, I want to talk about the WHY. Why is this section important?

This section allows schools to see you as more than a set of statistics and as a well-rounded individual.

The 2 main goals that this section should accomplish are:

1. For you to highlight experiences that have shaped you to become the individual you are today
2. Highlight experiences that can make you a great fit for a career in medicine

Now to the more nitty-gritty details of this section:

The AMCAS work and activities section shows up BEFORE the medical school personal statement, so readers will have an insight into some of the activities that are important to you. Then the personal statement will weave these activities together into a cohesive narrative essay.

Does the order matter?

Admissions committees will see your experiences listed in chronological order by default. However, they’ll have a choice of how to read these experiences. Some reviewers might rearrange your experiences by category (e.g., a reviewer can rearrange and want to only see your clinical experiences or only volunteering or only your honors or awards) or any other ways.

AMCAS Work and Activities Categories

AMCAS allows you to describe up to 15 experiences with only a 700-character limit for each (including spaces).

Three of your experiences can be designated as “AMCAS most meaningful experiences” and further expanded on in a separate section with a 1,325-character limit.

Here are the categories you can choose from: 



How Did I Choose Which Activities to Include?

I made sure to include a mix of experiences and nearly hit every type applicable to me. I made it to 14 entries. So no, you do not need to use all 15 entries. Remember that admissions committees are getting hundreds to thousands of applications, therefore it will behoove you to strive for quality of experiences over quantity of experiences.

A good rule of thumb is to try and include the categories above that most medical schools tend to look for:

• Clinical experiences (can include either work or shadowing that involved patient contact)
• Community service
• Research

I would include clinical experiences that showed longitudinal involvement, for instance, clinical scribe experience for a few months, or free clinic volunteering experiences over a few years. I would say the same for research, if there is one research project that you continued over a few years that resulted in publications, posters, or presentations. 

Other categories you include will be dependent on your individual interests and experiences as an applicant. Some things to think about in terms of what to include for AMCAS hobbies, and extracurriculars for medical school, is if you can convey in an impactful way the contribution you made or the impact it made on you. For instance, I was a writer for an online magazine that focused on South Asian women’s issues and I did this as an extracurricular activity. I chose to include this under hobbies because I could meaningfully write about what I learned from it (writing skills, interviewing skills, incorporating different perspectives, self-expression), and how it might help me with a healthcare career. 

The qualities that medical schools are searching for in applicants can be identified by looking at the AAMC Core Competencies, which are spread across three areas: 

How did I choose my AMCAS most meaningful experiences?

Regarding the most meaningful designation, I would highly emphasize having at least 1 or more meaningful experiences that are a part of your clinical hours for medical school (can be paid or unpaid) where you participated in direct patient care. After all, you are applying to medical school!

The other two most meaningful experiences can be anything that you have a lot to talk about and have shown extensive time commitment to, or have accolades from, or that you truly are passionate about. This can be a sport that you did for several years, an instrument that you mastered, a research project that you participated in for several years that resulted in publications or presentations, or community service work that had you advanced in leadership/responsibilities.

I would recommend making the 3 meaningful experiences in different categories to show variety, but all 3 should showcase deep commitment and investment into something. This is important because a medical career takes deep investment and commitment, so your experiences should reflect that.

To summarize: Your 3 most meaningful experiences should be ideally from different categories, at least one of them must be clinical in nature, and all 3 should showcase deep commitment or improvement/advancement in some regard, over time.

Here are our tips for how to ace your AMCAS Work and Activities entries!

How to Structure Your AMCAS Work and Activities Entries

I started the work and activities section prior to my personal statement. It was an ongoing process, but this section took me a couple of weeks to a month. I started on it ahead of the application cycle, by keeping an updated medical school CV and modified this document according to AMCAS requirements, after AMCAS opened.

I would recommend as you are going through your college and/or gap year before medical school, to keep up an updated CV or resume that has some of the above categories as headings. Then, as you go through your premed years, I would add those experiences to a document. This can serve as a good tool for you to visually see where you have strong experience already, where you can bolster your application more, and where you feel like you want to further deepen your interests.

For each experience on your resume, I would include some basic details like:

• When you started the experience, and how long you’ve been doing it
• Organization name
• A contact name/email
• Location of the experience
• Total hours
• A brief description of the role, responsibilities, and any metrics that highlight your accomplishments during this experience.
• If you’re including clinical experience, I would recommend keeping a journal of memorable cases or interactions you had either with patients or staff.

Here’s an example of how to structure an AMCAS work and activities entry:

How to Structure AMCAS Most Meaningful Experiences

Some tips on including some important experiences if you feel like you’re pressed for space, is to think about how you can group certain experiences or combine them into one. For instance, you could list various presentations and posters under the research lab section if you make a research experience your “most meaningful” because you will have more character count to list all the accomplishments pertaining to that research. Also, if you were a superstar and won multiple awards during a graduation ceremony, under the honors and awards category, you can list multiple in one entry.

Another challenge is how to include sufficient detail to discuss the experience but not go over the character limit. I recommend starting a Google Doc or Word document and creating your draft on that and then copying your content into the AMCAS application after you’ve edited it and made sure it meets the word limit.

How did I draft my most meaningful experiences?

Below is an example of one of my most meaningful experiences which happens to be clinical in nature. I started by giving an overview of where I worked, who I worked with, and my role and responsibilities. I highlighted any unique aspects of the organization, for instance, if it has a unique mission or serves a specific patient population. I would then use the remaining space to discuss any short anecdotes or lessons learned, or the impact you made within this experience. 

Note: I used a patient encounter from this same experience in my personal statement, but in the work and activities section, I spoke about what I did and how I grew from this experience at a higher level. I discussed several lessons I learned and gave examples that showcase the qualities I exhibited. Some personal qualities I highlighted are teamwork, resolving conflict, efficiency, and focus on patient education. In my personal statement, I zoomed into a more specific patient encounter where I described what happened and how I assisted. 

40 ACMAS Work and Activities Examples

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Paid Employment – Medical/Clinical

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Research/Lab and Presentations/Posters

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Looking for premed research opportunities? Here's a quick guide:

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Community Service/Volunteer

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Wondering how many volunteer hours do you need for medical school? Here's a guide on where to start looking:

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Community Service/Volunteer – Non-Medical

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Teaching Experience

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Honors, Awards and Recognitions

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Shadowing and Clinical Observation

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Taking a gap year before medical school? Consider these best premed gap year jobs:

AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Paid Employment – Non-Medical

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Extracurriculars and Hobbies

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Leadership

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AMCAS Work and Activities Examples: Social Justice and Advocacy

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BeMo Medical School Application Help Reviews

Read some of our BeMo reviews from successful students to see how we can help you with your med school application review!

"They did a fantastic job with the revision process for my second draft of my AMCAS work/activities section. They highlighted all the good things which helped me understand what to keep and provided constructive criticism with specific in-text suggestions and concept ideas. This greatly helped clean up my wording while still getting my point across. Thank you so much BeMo!" - BeMo student.

"I had my AMCAS work/activities section reviewed. BeMo did a fantastic job giving me ideas for what I should put in certain sections, what I should focus on intention-wise, and how to fix all the things that were confusing. For the confusing stuff, they recommended either removing or rewriting it with specific suggestions. They also highlighted the good things I did, which helped me understand what specific things I should keep and the theme I should continue with. Fantastic revision help, thank you, BeMo." - BeMo student.

"Dr Celia was amazing! I worked with her for the AMCAS activities and through her help I was really able to materialize my thoughts." - An, BeMo student.

"I rely appreciate the advisor who helped with my AMCAS Personal Statement! My vision came to life and I am forever grateful for that! It really embodies my voice which at the end of the day is exactly what I wanted!" - Stevie, BeMo student.

"Provided great insight and suggestions for the AMCAS personal statement" - Daniel, BeMo student.

"My AMCAS personal statement brainstorming session with Dr. Narusis was excellent. He helped me to distill my clinical experiences into meaningful, useful components of an effective essay. Moreover, we were able to develop a coherent narrative structure for the piece, avoiding cliché and poor organization. It's certain that these folks know what they're doing; the session was efficient, Dr. Narusis was a joy to work with, and I left our meeting with a clear sense of the direction in which I'll take my personal statement." - Adam, BeMo student.

"The reviewer was very helpful and encouraging. They highlighted areas where I used strong, descriptive wording and also brought to my attention segments that needed to be more personal and highlight my role/growth. I feel like the revisions I made significantly improved my writing." - Brian, BeMo student.

"I just had an amazing session with Brian Shin from BeMo! Our session surrounded the activities section of the AMCAS application, and Brian helped answer all of the major and minor questions I had regarding how to proceed in writing for this section. While I knew that I had strong activities I wanted share, Brian assisted me in figuring out the best ways to maximize the presentation of each of these activities within this section, and also explained to me which activities would be valued by medical schools. I really appreciated all of his help." - Shreya Gundelly, BeMo student.

"Rhoda was amazing in answering the myriad of questions regarding my AMCAS primary applications. She clearly walked me through finding information on school-specific websites using examples instead of just instructing me to find it on the website. She was very friendly, answered all of my questions regarding CASPer, school selections, DO programs and letters of recommendation extremely well and was thorough. She made sure to follow up a day later with a small question I had that she had to double check the answer to. I loved working with her on my application!" - Dewmini D, BeMo student.

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