I am doing a paramedic ride along program and had the opportunity to perform CPR on a patient who initially had no pulse and was declared DOA, by the time we reached the hospital we had gotten his pulse back and up to 50+. Could I say something like “Administered life-saving CPR to patient who was initially declared DOA” for my activity description? Would it help my chances?
This is wonderful. I don’t think it will increase your chances of getting accepted into colleges, however.
Where do you plan to put this on your application?
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I would definitely consider this for the relevant activity description. Will it help? Who knows. But I think it is always worth considering ways to make your application a little more interesting and a little more memorable for these poor readers trying to get through dozens of applications every day.
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A wonderful thing — but I don’t think it will get you into a college you are not otherwise qualified to attend.
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I was thinking of putting it as an activity description for my CPR certification & Paramedic Ride Alongs, which are two activities I was thinking of combining into one.
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Okay, if my stats are otherwise competitive for a university, would this maybe give me an edge?
That’s what I was thinking as well, I want to try to get the AOs as captivated with my application as possible so that they spend a bit more time reviewing it.
Clarification: By helping my chances, I want to know whether–if I have otherwise competitive stats for a university–it would give my application an edge.
All you can do is present your accomplishments in the best light, and see what happens.
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And just remember…if you don’t (or do) get accepted at these reachy schools, you will never know why.
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I don’t see how you could do this in the activities section. CPR and Paramedic? Yes, list that, but would you list it if the patient hadn’t survived? Usually in the activities section you don’t list specific statistics, like “Band member, 9-12” but not “Played the trumpet solo in the winter concert in 10th grade - but wasn’t chosen for 11th grade”
I do think you should list the CPR and ride along. Then as an essay write about how much you like doing ride alongs, how you were part of a team that saved a person, how you like the science or excitement or whatever you do like about it (or don’t like about it).
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Does it give you a quantifiable edge? No. Is it something that an AO reading 25 applications that day might find interesting and stick in their head the tiniest bit, creating a moment of serendipity? Maybe. Is it also a little weird on a college application? Yeah.
I don’t think there is a clearly right answer here, so I’d go with your gut, or if you’d regret not saying it, then just go for it.
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True
Yeah that’s valid.
Honestly, if the guy hadn’t survived, I would have most likely put that in as an essay. It wouldn’t make much sense to say “failed to save patient with CPR” on the activities section, but saying something like “I saved someone with the skills that I learned” would make much more sense on this section. After all, from what I’ve heard colleges are looking for your impact and quantitative evidence of that.
Appreciate the insight as well.
Thank you for your advice, much appreciated.
Is there still a section on the app that asks “is there something else we should know about”? Or something like that… Add it there.
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My two cents is if you have the space in an Activities description for an illustrative example, that is fine. And it is worth considering doing that if it would be interesting enough.
Like you could just put, “reading Philosophy,” but why not put, “reading Philosophy, including all of Plato’s Dialogues,” instead? Assuming that is accurate, I do think it is more memorable, and actually suggests a level of interest that may not be obvious from the more generic description.
Up to you of course, and I would not be so bold as to say this will definitely give you an “edge”. But I do think looking for opportunities like that across your application, including essays and so on, can collectively make for the best possible application overall. And I think you want to submit your best possible application, even if you don’t know what if anything will actually help.
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True but I feel like I already have a good bit of information in that section.