Do med schools care about travelling?

[Steven1991]

As someone who loves travelling and enjoys learning about new cultures, I've been fortunate to have already visited 6/7 continents (no near future plans for Antarctica) with plans to continue exploring new places over the coming years.

Is travelling something that I should/could expand upon as an activity entry for my AMCAS primary? Or is it something that Adcoms don't normally value and should just be left out?

Thanks!

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[JuanPabloCastel]

They're not grading your ECs. If you valued it, and you can explain how it gave you a more informed reason for choosing medicine or prepared you in someway for succeeding in medicine, list it. You can choose up to 15 such experiences to list.


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[Selladore235]

If you can write about how your traveling is relevant to your pursuit of a career in medicine--how your experiences abroad have informed your desire--then yes, write about it. Traveling in and of itself is not relevant to medicine, and depending on how you word your love of it, you risk coming across as oblivious and entitled. That's not to say that you're either of those, btw

 

[Goro]

I'd find it interesting that you are so well traveled. I'd put it under hobbies though. OR, in your PS if it's something that helped you down the road to Medicine. However, the flip side is that unless you're in the military or State Dep't, some reader might think you're a child of uber-privilege.

As someone who loves travelling and enjoys learning about new cultures, I've been fortunate to have already visited 6/7 continents (no near future plans for Antarctica) with plans to continue exploring new places over the coming years.

Is travelling something that I should/could expand upon as an activity entry for my AMCAS primary? Or is it something that Adcoms don't normally value and should just be left out?

Thanks!

 

[sazerac]

Travel was a big part of my life, making me who I am today. It only got a brief mention in my PS, but my travel was one of the two ECs I went into further detail on (a job was the other one).

On the interview trail some schools blew it off, while a few schools were really interested in where I'd been and what I was up to. I wound up matriculating at the med school that was most interested in my travels, because they seemed less cookie-cutter and a better fit.

 

[familyaerospace]

This year I think every school asked about travel (maybe one didn't, I can't remember). I did not put it on my AMCAS but I was asked. Two were before I traveled and two after.

I've only been to three other countries (all in the past 6 months) and 46/50 states.

 

[MedWonk]

As someone who loves travelling and enjoys learning about new cultures, I've been fortunate to have already visited 6/7 continents (no near future plans for Antarctica) with plans to continue exploring new places over the coming years.

Is travelling something that I should/could expand upon as an activity entry for my AMCAS primary? Or is it something that Adcoms don't normally value and should just be left out?

Thanks!

Depends on what you did. WHile interesting, it doesn't mean it's particularly valuable to evaluating you as a potential student and future physician. Jumping out of an airplane while mildly inebriated/high over Rotorua probably won't do much for your application.

 

[okokok]

Yeah I've been to a lot of countries and put it as a hobby on AMCAS and talked about how it helped me communicate with people from other cultures and problemsolve in sticky situations. All my interviewers wanted to talk about it and more than that, share their own traveling stories, which created a nice rapport. Just think about what you learned from traveling and talk about that.

 

[QofQuimica]

I worked abroad as a researcher in a remote area, and I did include this experience on my AMCAS. It was an extremely popular interview discussion topic not only when I applied to med school, but even at some of my residency interviews. It also gave me something to talk to my med student interviewers about, because since I was in the midst of writing my dissertation while interviewing, I was not exactly up on the latest sports, TV shows and movies.