Experiences & Activities
In addition to academic metrics and written essays, health professional applications include sections dedicated to your lived experiences. These sections allow admissions committees to understand how you have explored your profession, developed key competencies, and contributed to your communities over time.
Depending on the application service, these sections may be referred to as Work and Activities, Experiences and Achievements, or similar titles. While the format and character limits vary, the goal remains the same: to provide context for the experiences that have shaped your development as a future healthcare professional.
Applicants should think strategically about the experiences they include. Admissions committees are generally interested in a broad range of experiences, including clinical exposure, community service, research, leadership, employment, teaching, extracurricular involvement, and other meaningful commitments. The strongest applications demonstrate sustained engagement, personal growth, and a thoughtful exploration of the profession rather than simply accumulating activities.
You have the flexibility to choose the experience category that best reflects the story you want to tell, so select the one that most closely aligns with the focus of your description. As you categorize your experiences, review your application as a whole to ensure it reflects a diverse range of experiences and avoids unnecessary repetition where appropriate. Use the following links to explore the experience categories of your chosen health profession’s application:
When deciding whether to split or combine experiences, focus on how best to highlight your growth, skills, and meaningful takeaways.
| Split Experiences | Combine Experiences |
| When roles led to distinct skills or growth
| When activities were similar with comparable takeaways
|
As you prepare your application, maintain detailed records of your experiences, including dates, hours, supervisor information, and key accomplishments using the Northeastern University PreMed and PreHealth Advising Program’s Experience Portfolio Template. Accurate recordkeeping will make the application process significantly easier and help ensure your experiences are presented clearly and consistently across applications, secondary essays, and interviews.
Sample Portfolio: EH Experience Portfolio.xlsx
When writing experience descriptions, focus on more than just listing responsibilities. Admissions committees can often infer what a role involved; what they cannot infer is what the experience meant to you. Strong descriptions highlight your contributions, skills developed, lessons learned, and insights gained. Consider how each experience influenced your understanding of healthcare, your personal growth, or your readiness for professional training.
Some application services also allow applicants to designate particularly meaningful experiences or provide additional reflection on select activities. These opportunities should be used thoughtfully to highlight experiences that had a significant impact on your development, values, career goals, or understanding of your chosen profession.
Northeastern University provides students with unique opportunities to engage in full-time co-ops, global experiences, and post-baccalaureate education—experiences that can help shape a distinctive and compelling application to health professional programs.
Co-op experiences allow students to develop professional skills, explore diverse fields, and gain perspectives that extend beyond traditional healthcare settings. When reflecting on these experiences, consider the challenges you encountered, how you adapted, and what skills you developed along the way.
Similarly, global experiences can demonstrate cultural humility, adaptability, communication skills, and an ability to navigate unfamiliar environments. Reflect on the ways your time abroad challenged you to engage with different perspectives, adapt to new cultural norms, and communicate across potential language or cultural barriers. These experiences can highlight your ability to build relationships with individuals from diverse backgrounds, recognize the impact of culture on health and well-being, and develop the skills needed to provide compassionate, patient-centered care in an increasingly interconnected world.
For post-baccalaureate students and career changers, your academic and professional journey provides valuable insight into your motivation for pursuing healthcare and the unique perspectives you will bring to the profession. Whether your experiences occurred in healthcare, research, business, technology, education, or another field, focus on the transferable skills and personal growth that connect to the core competencies sought by health professional programs. Your nontraditional experiences are not separate from your healthcare journey—they are part of the story that makes you a thoughtful, resilient, and well-rounded future healthcare provider.