TLDR

The OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch (ABS) is a structured list of up to 32 experiences since age 16, sorted into six categories. Each entry gives you a 150-character description plus dates, hours, location, and a verifier who can confirm you actually did it. It’s one of the most important non-academic parts of your application to Ontario’s medical schools, so the goal is quality over quantity: pick experiences that show real impact and growth, write them in clear, active language, and line up reliable verifiers early.

What is The OMSAS ABS and Why Does It Matter?

The Autobiographical Sketch (ABS) is one of the most important parts of OMSAS, the central application portal for Ontario’s medical schools. There are now seven schools in the system: the University of Toronto, McMaster, Western (Schulich), Queen’s, the University of Ottawa, NOSM University, and the newest addition, the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) School of Medicine in Brampton.

The ABS is where you show who you are beyond grades and test scores — your experiences, achievements, skills, and growth. It gives admissions committees a holistic picture of your character, your potential, and whether you’re a good fit for medicine. Because so much of the rest of your application boils down to numbers (GPA, MCAT, Casper), the ABS is your chance to come across as an actual person.

It covers a lot: extracurriculars, employment, research, volunteering, cultural experiences, even hobbies. Committees read it to gauge your dedication, leadership, interest in medicine, and ability to juggle commitments — so it’s worth crafting carefully.

Want a mentor who’s done this before? Browse hundreds of AcceptedTogether consultants here — many are current med students who wrote their own ABS not long ago.

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How the ABS is structured

Before you write anything, it helps to know exactly what the ABS asks for. Here’s the structure at a glance:

Element	Details
Total entries	Up to 32 (you do NOT have to fill all of them)
Categories	Six: employment, volunteer, extracurricular, awards & accomplishments, research, other
Description limit	150 characters per entry — very tight
Each entry also needs	Dates, hours/time commitment, location, and a verifier
Verifier	A contact who can confirm your involvement if a school reaches out

Good to know: a few schools ask you to flag your most important activities. For example, the University of Ottawa has you pick your top 3 activities in each category (up to 18), and Queen’s asks for your top 3 in employment, volunteer, and extracurricular (up to 9). Some fields also have their own quirks — the location field is short (around 12 characters, so a postal code often works better than a city), and research entries have extra sub-fields. Always check the current OUAC Sketch & Verifier requirements for the exact details.

Choosing which experiences to include

Deciding what goes in is one of the hardest, most time-consuming parts of the ABS — and one of the most important. With limited slots, you want the activities that best show your skills and qualities as a future physician. Here’s the good news: you don’t need an entry in every category, and you definitely don’t need to fill all 32.

Cover a range of experiences

The six ABS categories — employment, volunteer activities, extracurricular activities, awards and accomplishments, research, and other — let you show different sides of yourself. Aiming for a spread across categories paints you as well-rounded, with diverse interests rather than a single focus. But spread is a guideline, not a rule: it’s fine to leave a category thin if your strengths clearly show up elsewhere.

Know what admissions committees look for

A great trick is to step into the committee’s shoes and ask what they’re hoping to see. The CanMEDS framework is the cheat sheet here. It lays out the core qualities of a good physician: Communicator, Collaborator, Leader, Professional, Scholar, Health Advocate, and Medical Expert.

Try to provide a few examples for each role, and prioritize activities that hit several at once. That said, committees aren’t looking for robots who only do “medical” things. They want real, well-rounded people, so don’t be afraid to include a hobby or cultural experience that shows individuality — even if it doesn’t map neatly onto a CanMEDS role. That authenticity adds depth.

Quality over quantity

This is the single most repeated piece of ABS advice, and it’s true. It’s tempting to fill all 32 slots, but committees care far more about depth and impact than volume. Picture a reviewer slogging through a dozen filler entries that go nowhere — it works against you, not for you.

Instead, choose a smaller number of experiences that genuinely show your growth, development, and fit for medicine, and make sure you can explain why each one matters. Skip anything where you barely participated. And balance structured activities (formal roles with official verifiers) with non-structured ones (self-directed volunteering, recreation, cultural experiences) — the latter can show initiative and real community engagement.

Pro tip: plenty of successful applicants submit well under 32 entries. A tight, high-impact list of 20 beats a padded list of 32 every time.

How to write your entries

Once you’ve picked your experiences, the next step — often the most time-consuming — is writing them well. In 150 characters, you need to show what you did, the skills you used, and (if there’s room) what you took away from it.

Lead with what you did

Focus first on your actual actions and contributions. Committees can’t appreciate what you learned or which CanMEDS qualities you showed if they don’t understand what you did in the first place.

Be specific and direct. Skip vague, flowery language — you don’t have the characters to spare. For each activity, name your responsibilities, your tasks, and the skills you used. Use the active voice, and lean on point form if it reads clearly. When you can, add a number: quantitative results are concrete and credible (“tutored 15 students weekly” lands harder than “tutored students”).

Then, if you have space, what you learned

After describing what you did, you can highlight what you gained — but only if you have the characters to spare. Ideally committees see not just the activity, but how it shaped your growth, development, or understanding of medicine.

For example, a medical outreach program might have taught you the value of altruism and shown you real healthcare disparities, deepening your empathy. Research might have built your critical thinking, attention to detail, and perseverance. A short reflection like this gives a deeper sense of who you’re becoming, when space allows.

Use the CanMEDS framework well

CanMEDS is great for showing the qualities committees want — but show, don’t tell. You generally should not name the CanMEDS roles outright in your entries; reviewers tend to find that superficial. Instead, write your descriptions so the qualities come through naturally in what you did and learned.

Pro tip: in our experience, “collaborated” is the single most overused word in the OMSAS ABS. Leaning on CanMEDS terms as buzzwords makes entries feel shallow. Use a concrete example instead and let the quality speak for itself.

Finding and managing verifiers

Verifiers are essential: none of what you write counts if no one can confirm it’s true. Each activity needs a contact who can vouch for your involvement, so take time to pick good ones, brief them clearly, and give them plenty of lead time.

Selecting verifiers

Choose reliable people who can attest to what you’ve written. For structured activities, that’s usually a supervisor, manager, or coach. For non-structured ones, it could be an organizer, mentor, or someone who simply knows the activity is real (a supervisor who knows you’re an avid swimmer, say). Try to limit how many friends you use as verifiers — a supervisor who can vouch for a hobby is safer.

Pick people who worked closely with you and can speak to your involvement with real, firsthand knowledge. Avoid anyone you have unresolved conflict with — they may not represent you fairly, which can put your whole application at risk. You want someone who’ll give a balanced, accurate account.

Contact them early

Reach out as soon as you can. Some verifiers — especially for activities from a few years back, or people you’ve lost touch with — take time to track down and hear back from. Finding contact info, sending emails (sometimes several), and making calls all adds up, and some people are slow to reply. Build that delay into your timeline so an unresponsive verifier doesn’t derail you near the deadline.

Heads up: double-check that you have each verifier’s current, correct contact information. An out-of-date email or phone number is one of the most avoidable ways to weaken an otherwise strong ABS.

What to ask your verifiers

When you reach out, first confirm they’re comfortable being listed. Explain clearly what it involves: a school may contact them to confirm your role, so they need to be willing and able to respond promptly. Ask whether they’re familiar enough with your involvement to speak to it and add detail if needed. Then share the exact description you wrote for that activity, and ask them to review and approve it — that way you’re both on the same page if a committee follows up.

Be Yourself!

The best way to stand out in your ABS is to be genuine. Committees read thousands of applications and are good at spotting insincerity, so present a true picture of who you are and what shaped you.

Stick to the truth — don’t embellish or exaggerate your achievements or your role. Honesty is always the better bet. With thousands of applicants, the easiest way to be unique is simply to be yourself: lean into your real quirks, passions, and perspective. That authenticity is often the difference between a generic application and one that actually reflects you.

Want a mentor who’s done this before? Browse hundreds of AcceptedTogether consultants here — many are current med students who wrote their own ABS not long ago.

Click to see hundreds of consultants who can mentor you:

Get a second set of eyes

Editing your own ABS is hard — after hours of work, it’s easy to miss errors or awkward phrasing. An outside reader can catch mistakes and flag where an entry isn’t landing. Good people to ask: medical students who’ve been through it, mentors who know med school admissions, strong writers you trust, or doctors who understand the profession firsthand.

Good luck with your OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch — here’s to the sketch that lands you the interview you deserve!