OMSAS ABS: writing the 150-character line
The OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch gives you up to 32 entries across six categories, and each entry gets a description of roughly 150 characters. Not words; characters, including spaces. That is about the length of this sentence and the one before it. The official description of the sketch, its six categories, the since-age-16 rule and the verifier requirement are on the OMSAS sketch page. That page does not print the entry count or the character limit; both are enforced in the live form, so check them there.
What a line has to do
A reader who has fifteen minutes for your whole file is going to scan the sketch as a list. Each line has one job: make the activity concrete enough that the reader can picture it and weigh it. In practice that means four things, in roughly this priority:
- A number. Hours per week, total hours, months, people, dollars, calls, samples. One number per line is enough; two is often better.
- A verb that is yours. "Ran", "trained", "answered", "built". Not "helped with", "was involved in", "participated in", "gained exposure to".
- What you actually did, at the level of task, not theme. "Repositioned patients and restocked supplies" beats "supported patient care".
- An outcome if there is one. A poster, a medal, a number raised, a program that outlived you. If there is no outcome, do not invent one; duration and load are enough.
Leave out: the word "I" (the reader knows), adjectives about yourself ("passionate", "dedicated"), and anything the category or title already says. If the entry title says "Volunteer, St. Michael's Hospital", the description should not start with "Volunteered at St. Michael's Hospital".
Ten rewrites
Each pair below starts with a line that would be accepted by the form and read as filler, and ends with a line that fits the limit and says something. The counts are computed, not estimated. Details in the "after" lines are illustrative; yours must be true and verifiable by the person you list.
Patterns in the rewrites
The long "before" lines were not too long; they were too vague. Almost every "after" line is shorter or the same length and carries three to five times as much information, because a number and a concrete verb replace a sentence of description. The shortest "before" lines ("Shadowed a family doctor", "Member of the varsity rowing team") were not concise; they were empty. Length is not the enemy; the limit is generous if every clause earns its place.
Semicolons are doing a lot of work. The description field is not a sentence, and a committee does not expect one. Two or three clauses separated by semicolons, each with a fact, is the natural shape for 150 characters.
Verifiers
Every line you write has to be something a named person will confirm. That is a constraint on the writing as much as on the activity: the "after" lines above are written so that the verifier will recognise them instantly. If you are unsure whether a number is one your verifier would stand behind, use the smaller number.
The order of work
Write all 32 lines badly first, in a spreadsheet, with the character count beside each one. Then rewrite the ones that matter most first: for Ottawa that is the top three you flag in each category, for Queen's the top three in Employment, Volunteer and Extracurricular. Then trim the rest. Do not try to write a perfect line into the OMSAS form directly; the form is for pasting, not drafting.
This article describes published rules as understood on 2026-09-06. Rules change each cycle; the linked official pages are the authority. Not affiliated with OUAC, the AAMC or any school.