Should I strengthen my application?

[brood910]

200+ hours of volunteering as a patient transporter/discharger

2~3 months of shadowing

2 years of research on brain cancer (will publish a paper)

4 years in a Christian club as a drummer + secretary

cGPA: 3.9
sGPA: 3.75

MCAT: not taken yet

Is this enough? or do I need to do more activities, assuming that I will get 30+ on my mcat?

Planning to apply to both MD + DO, but MD is my priority.

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[sector9]

Moving to "What are my chances"

 

[Lya]

Some people might suggest you might need more leadership activities. Do you have other non-clinical volunteering as well? I was just curious.

Your shadowing, research, clinical volunteer and GPA look great, though.

 

[Noggin]

Those are pretty minimal ECs. What year are you? If you aren't applying this cycle then you have plenty of time to do more. Your GPA is good though.

 

[brood910]

Those are pretty minimal ECs. What year are you? If you aren't applying this cycle then you have plenty of time to do more. Your GPA is good though.

I graduated yesterday lol, and I am planning to take 2 years off.
Which area should I strengthen? Volunteering?

 

[brood910]

Some people might suggest you might need more leadership activities. Do you have other non-clinical volunteering as well? I was just curious.

Your shadowing, research, clinical volunteer and GPA look great, though.

Nah. I think non-clinical volunteering is useless.

 

[Noggin]

It looks like you have good clinical experience with your patient transporting activity. The shadowing is good too. If you could really get a publication out of all that research that would be a huge plus. If I were you I would look into doing some more leadership activities as well as non-clinical/medical volunteering. Try and find something that really interests you and you could dedicate a lot of time to.

 

[Lya]

I graduated yesterday lol, and I am planning to take 2 years off.
Which area should I strengthen? Volunteering?

You can't go wrong with more research. But in your case, I have to agree with minimal ECs. In other words, they are quite "standard" ECs that the activities you listed don't really make you unique, per se.

What are your passions? Do you enjoy teaching? Do you enjoy starting a new club? Any particular hobbies that you are somewhat serious about? Great ECs are ones that speak for themselves and shed light on what kind of character and passion the applicant has, even without reading his/her personal statements.

It's hard to say. Yes, you can do more volunteer, but I want to see more than just hours you put in. Imagine that you are a doctor working 100 hours a week. Looking back, what are the meaningful activities you wish you would have done before medical school, besides having fun with your family/friends and traveling?

 

[brood910]

You can't go wrong with more research. But in your case, I have to agree with minimal ECs. In other words, they are quite "standard" ECs that the activities you listed don't really make you unique, per se.

What are your passions? Do you enjoy teaching? Do you enjoy starting a new club? Any particular hobbies that you are somewhat serious about? Great ECs are ones that speak for themselves and shed light on what kind of character and passion the applicant has, even without reading his/her personal statements.

It's hard to say. Yes, you can do more volunteer, but I want to see more than just hours you put in. Imagine that you are a doctor working 100 hours a week. Looking back, what are the meaningful activities you wish you would have done before medical school, besides having fun with your family/friends and traveling?

Playing in a band as a drummer. lol and I have done so for the past 4 years..

 

[Lya]

Nah. I think non-clinical volunteering is useless.

With all due respect, I wouldn't say that in front of people, especially interviewers. One of my most meaningful activities is a non-clinical volunteering, and if you want to see what happens when a country (at least for the places I lived) lacks non-clinical volunteerism, I recommend spending several months in Ghana.

Back to your question, have you ever thought of teaching how to play a drum for other kids/students? Do you give free concerts for the public or go to various public events and perform there? Maybe we can expand your drum expertise... Are there other interests besides being a drummer?

 

[brood910]

With all due respect, I wouldn't say that in front of people, especially interviewers. One of my most meaningful activities is a non-clinical volunteering, and if you want to see what happens when a country (at least for the places I lived) lacks non-clinical volunteerism, I recommend spending several months in Ghana.

Back to your question, have you ever thought of teaching how to play a drum for other kids/students? Do you give free concerts for the public or go to various public events and perform there?

I am sorry if I offended you, but I didnt mean that.

Well, we went to some churches to perform before the service for free.
I taught some students who came to the club, but not in a professional way lol.

I might get a chance to teach high school students for SAT by the way..

Currently, my plan is to get CPR certification and apply to be a clinical care technician.

 

[October88]

Nah. I think non-clinical volunteering is useless.

I was pretty shocked by this comment. If it is so useless than why is it one of the selection factors listed on the msar? With the vast majority of applicants having done it...

 

[brood910]

I was pretty shocked by this comment. If it is so useless than why is it one of the selection factors listed on the msar? With the vast majority of applicants having done it...

I only said so because my advisers have told me that med schools usually care about clinical volunteering more because of patient contact experiences. I guess my word choices were wrong. I didnt mean to say it is "useless", but more like "unnecessary".

 

[Lya]

I am sorry if I offended you, but I didnt mean that.

Well, we went to some churches to perform before the service for free.
I taught some students who came to the club, but not in a professional way lol.

I might get a chance to teach high school students for SAT by the way..

Currently, my plan is to get CPR certification and apply to be a clinical care technician.

Oh no you are fine. I wasn't offended =] I just didn't want you to say it during the interviews.

It doesn't have to be professional by any means. If you have any friends or someone who can help you out, it might not be a bad idea to teach. You can also advertise this learning opportunity through your church, and I am sure they will support you as well! I wish I knew someone who can teach me that.

Teaching SAT will be great too. It doesn't have to be SAT or even MCAT, but you can also teach sciences or math as well. Do you have other friends who can assist you for group lessons or are you thinking of one-on-one lessons? Yup, keep working on the clinical side.

Just make sure it's something you truly enjoy, instead of just boosting ECs or filling the checkboxes. I am just trying to find out what you like, so that maybe we can expand that in order to show who you are.

 

[brood910]

Oh no you are fine. I wasn't offended =] I just didn't want you to say it during the interviews.

It doesn't have to be professional by any means. If you have any friends or someone who can help you out, it might not be a bad idea to teach. You can also advertise this learning opportunity through your church, and I am sure they will support you as well! I wish I knew someone who can teach me that.

Teaching SAT will be great too. It doesn't have to be SAT or even MCAT, but you can also teach sciences or math as well. Do you have other friends who can assist you for group lessons or are you thinking of one-on-one lessons? Yup, keep working on the clinical side.

Just make sure it's something you truly enjoy, instead of just boosting ECs or filling the checkboxes. I am just trying to find out what you like, so that maybe we can expand that in order to show who you are.

Well, I have to say, I am mostly interested in soccer + movies.
But I have no idea how to start "something" with these.

 

[Noggin]

I only said so because my advisers have told me that med schools usually care about clinical volunteering more because of patient contact experiences. I guess my word choices were wrong. I didnt mean to say it is "useless", but more like "unnecessary".

Its not unncessary its actually necessary. Most applicants have some sort of non-clinical volunteering. Is clinical volunteering more important? Perhaps. However non-clinical volunteering is essential because it shows that you have other interests besides just hanging out in a hospital. It shows that you are passionate to serving people in general and not just into doing the "bare minimum" to get into medical school. You really should do some sort of non-clinical volunteering if you are interested in going to medical school.

 

[brood910]

Its not unncessary its actually necessary. Most applicants have some sort on non-clinical volunteering. Is clinical volunteering more important? Perhaps. However non-clinical volunteering is essential because it shows that you have other interests besides just hanging out in a hospital. It shows that you are passionate to serving people in general and not just into doing the "bare minimum" to get into medical school. You really should do some sort of non-clinical volunteering if you are interested in going to medical school.

Well, I actually did "volunteering" at my church, but not sure if it counts.
I went to the elders' houses to be their talking friend + cleaned their houses and stuff.. but it was more like church activity than "volunteering". Should I still include this in my app then?

 

[Lya]

Well, I actually did "volunteering" at my church, but not sure if it counts.
I went to the elders' houses to be their talking friend + cleaned their houses and stuff.. but it was more like church activity than "volunteering". Should I still include this in my app then?

If you did that for 4 years throughout (as in, you did that as long as you played a drum in church), I would say that could count as non-clinical volunteer right there. It's quite significant time commitment. You can put that under volunteering and describe it was done through church activities.

If you like soccer, do you have other friends playing the soccer too? Is it like an official team or just casual sports you just play to hang out? I heard about teaching soccer too, but I am not sure what else you could do with that.. Have tournaments for fundraising?

Yeah, watching movies might be difficult to expand as a EC, unless you want to film a documentary and etc...

 

[mcloaf]

Well, I actually did "volunteering" at my church, but not sure if it counts.
I went to the elders' houses to be their talking friend + cleaned their houses and stuff.. but it was more like church activity than "volunteering". Should I still include this in my app then?

Absolutely. Non-clinical service activities are important.