Help! Application confusion

[poliscijunkie]

Just a quick question,

On the poli sci online application for MA at UBC it says "Please describe any professional employment experience you have that you feel is relevant to the field of studies you plan to pursue."

Anyone have an ideas is this is to mean attach a point form semi-resume/cv interpretation of experience OR a actual write up with the details ??? soo confused !

[fuzzylogician]

My guess would be that "describe" means to do an actual writeup with details.

I would even go as far as saying that it invites you to include things that may not be straightforwardly regarded as "relevant experience," as long as you can explain how they are pertinent in 1-2 short sentences.

You may want to include a CV/resume regardless (assuming that you have enough things to put in it).

[poliscijunkie]

That is what I was leaning towards, just seems so out of ordinary. Thank you for the advice ! In terms of attaching a resume wouldnt this seem contradictory? Even if there are other experiences that relate that I wouldnt include in the description? (ie extra cirrics, part time employment throughout school, etc)

My guess would be that "describe" means to do an actual writeup with details.

I would even go as far as saying that it invites you to include things that may not be straightforwardly regarded as "relevant experience," as long as you can explain how they are pertinent in 1-2 short sentences.

You may want to include a CV/resume regardless (assuming that you have enough things to put in it).

[fuzzylogician]

Hmm, I don't really know what is (extra)ordinary for poli sci applications. I would say, interpret the prompt in the most favorable way, which to me would be to provide explanations of your work and how it's pertinent to your application. I always attached a CV to my applications because it seemed like a good way to sum up everything that the app contained (and usually every app did not ask for some thing or another that was on my CV). None of my apps actually required a CV, but they all had a place to upload additional documents ( it was a "add anything you think may be relevant here" type field). If you really don't have anything to add, then you're right, a CV may be unnecessary.

[poliscijunkie]

many thanks!

Hmm, I don't really know what is (extra)ordinary for poli sci applications. I would say, interpret the prompt in the most favorable way, which to me would be to provide explanations of your work and how it's pertinent to your application. I always attached a CV to my applications because it seemed like a good way to sum up everything that the app contained (and usually every app did not ask for some thing or another that was on my CV). None of my apps actually required a CV, but they all had a place to upload additional documents ( it was a "add anything you think may be relevant here" type field). If you really don't have anything to add, then you're right, a CV may be unnecessary.