Guidance on Relevant Experiences or Coursework
The Relevant Experiences or Coursework section of our application gives you a chance to tell us more about yourself beyond the basic admissions requirements. We ask you to fill out this section instead of submitting a resume or CV for a variety of reasons:
(1) To help reduce implicit bias in our application reviewers.
(2) As part of our holistic review process, application reviewers are given rubrics against which to score applications. The variability in length, format, and content of CVs makes it challenging to create a robust rubric.
(3) We want you to reflect on, and then tell us about, the experiences and coursework that have most prepared you for a career in genetic counseling.
A wide array of experiences and coursework can help prepare you for a career in genetic counseling and give you transferable skills that will help you be a successful genetic counselor.
Some experiences or courses may give you insight into the challenges that other people face and help teach you empathy, such as experience with a crisis hotline, involvement with advocacy organizations, or being a resident advisor. You may have an academic path that gives you a unique perspective. Job shadowing, research, or teaching experience might have exposed you to aspects of your future career. Working part-time or full-time in various jobs may have taught you customer service and time management skills, as well as helped you develop a strong work ethic.
You can list a MAXIMUM OF 10 experiences or coursework that have influenced your decision to become a genetic counselor and/or helped you prepare to enter the profession, including jobs, internships, volunteer experiences, shadowing, conferences, courses beyond the prerequisites, etc.
tips for fILLING OUT The fields
● From date: Select the month and year that the experience/coursework began.
● To date: Select the month and year that the experience/coursework ended or will end. If you're not sure when it will end, list the current month and year and then in the description box below, explain how much longer you expect it to be.
● Hours per week: List the approximate number of hours per week that you spend/spent on this experience or course.
● Organization: List the name of the organization that you work/ volunteer at or the name of the educational institution for coursework.
● Experience Type: Select the type of experience.
● Description: Briefly describe how this experience has prepared you, or given you transferable skills, for genetic counseling by sharing what you did as part of this experience (e.g. duties, responsibilities, activities), or how you were influenced by the course you took. If you have more to share about a particular experience or course, consider elaborating about it in your personal statement or in your short-answer essays.
PRO TIP
Take time to review your resume/CV and transcript(s) and make notes about what you want to include before filling out this section. It will be easier to compose your responses in Word, or another word processing app, and then copy and paste them into the application. Remember, list a MAXIMUM OF 10 experiences or coursework.
Questions?
If you have any questions about this section, contact us.