Hanna Renaldi's Blog: 5 Ways to Stand Out in the AACOMAS Experience and Achievements Sections

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The Experiences section in the AACOMAS application asks you list your non-academic work, including healthcare-related work, non-healthcare work, volunteer work, and extracurricular activities. The Achievements section is the space for you to include academic honors, awards and scholarships. Below are five tips for completing this section of the AACOMAS.

1. Categorize your activity by type.

The AACOMAS application doesn’t let applicants list hours twice. If you experience includes two different types of activities – like research and clinical work – divide the experience and hours into two separate categories (e.g. 10 hours research and 30 hours clinical work). The AACOMAS doesn’t have a section for publications and poster presentations. You should put them in the Achievements section.

2. Focus on quality, not quantity

Admissions committees aren’t impressed by a large number of activities that require minimum commitment. Instead, they look for depth of experience and time dedication.

3. College and post-college experiences only

Don’t include experiences from high school.

4. Do not include future experiences

If you haven’t started an activity yet, you should not include it in the AACOMAS experiences section. Hypotheticals, theoreticals and “not yets” aren’t experience.

5. Write in complete sentences

When you describe your experiences, use complete sentences rather than bullet points. This simply adds to the professional appearance of your application.

Remember that the experiences section of the AACOMAS is your opportunity to present non-academic achievements to the admissions committee. Use the space to impress the committee with your dedication, your compassion, your communications skills, and your leadership – with the non-academic, qualitative and human side of you.

Use the Achievements section to highlight academic achievement that goes beyond good grades and a solid GPA.

Jessica Pishko graduated with a J.D. from Harvard Law School and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She spent two years guiding students through the medical school application process at Columbia’s PostBacc Program and teaches writing at all levels.