The autobiographical sketch (ABS) is a specialized curriculum vitae.  Similar to a résumé, you must list relevant activities along with a short description of the experience in order to account for your endeavours prior to applying to medical school.  This list provides the admissions committee with a quick “snapshot” of your accomplishments.

Admissions committees look for applicants who are strong academic performers and have a well-balanced life outside of the classroom.  Most schools will ask you to categorize your activities into seven major areas: (1) formal education, (2) employment experience, (3) volunteer activities, (4) extracurricular involvement, (5) awards and accomplishments, (6) any research conducted or publications that you have written, and (7) ‘other’ – a category designed to capture additional meaningful experiences (such as travel, etc.) which do not fit into the previously listed categories.

Verifiers

Most autobiographical sketches require applicants to disclose the name of a person who can verify each item listed (i.e., someone who can attest to your involvement in the activity).  It is your responsibility to provide the contact information for each verifier (in the event that the admissions committee decides to follow-up with respect to your participation).  Although schools rarely take this step, it is important to find a suitable contact person.  Selecting an individual who supervised you (such as a university club president or your manager at work) is a far better strategy than listing your peers within the club or your co-workers.

You should keep a record of each contact’s name when a specific activity ends so that you will have it easily accessible for the application process (which may take place a few years down the road).  When completing the autobiographical sketch, remember to contact each of these individuals and ask for their permission to list them as a verifier.  This will serve two purposes: first, it will ensure that their contact information is correct, and second, it will avoid any surprises if they are contacted by a school and asked to speak about your involvement.

Formatting Documents Online

The process of inputting information into fields can be time-consuming, so it is recommended to draft all of your information in a word processing document first – which is more conducive to the editing process.  Once the final version is complete, then transfer the material into the OMSAS (or other) application by copying and pasting the information into each of the appropriate fields.  Preparing your autobiographical sketch in this manner also provides an easier process to manage the character counts of your entries (which as mentioned previously can be extremely limited and may require significant editing).  We suggest that you keep a master document containing the full text (i.e., entries that are not condensed for word count) which may be useful for applications to other medical schools.