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[278181]

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o p

 

[Stratego]

My first piece of advice is that you shouldn't get so over-involved that your GPA suffers. Your first priority to to maintain a high GPA. After a good MCAT score, activities are third on your to-do list.

If you are just starting your sophomore year, you are doing very well. You already have leadership, teaching, a bit of research, and some community service. If by "medical recorder" you mean you are acting as a scribe for a physician, then you have some clinical experience as well. IMO, clinical exposure doesn't get better than that, so keep it up for as long as you can. Doing this for 4 hours a week is enough. The planned shadowing is important, and if you are a physician scribe, shadowing is embedded in that position. If you can do this with three doctors, one of whom is primary care, that would be nice. Volunteering in the peds NICU short-term would be a great experience, a little different than many have. As far as the research, I'd suggest that you try to settle in one lab rather than hopping about so much. The necessary Letter of Reference you'll obtain will be stronger if the same PI mentors you over a longer period of time. And you'll be more likely to get included in publication authorship, if that is your goal (and this would help you stand out). You can let the e-board thing go, as you have other leadership. The Resident Counselor position (presumably for a dorm?) could be merely employment that gets you room and board, or could be leadership if you organize events and see that they are carried through. You could also highlight it as a problem-solving position if that's what you do, as in resolving conflicts between roommates and such.

I'd say you're ahead of the game in acquiring the necessary activities. Don't burn yourself out and mess up your GPA. A lower GPA with a lot of activities does not suggest that you have good time management skills to an adcomm.

 

[flip26]

So I'm a sophomore right now, and I'm not too sure how I'm doing on my EC's-- some days I feel thoroughly overwhelmed, and others, I feel like on paper, I'm just plain boring.

Advice?


So far::

Resident Counselor (continue for the next few years)
TA for upper level Bio Class (ditto)
Coordinator for Women in Science Program (ditto)
Medical Recorder at Free Clinic (cutting down on hours this sem, but have ~70 so far)
1 summer of Research
American Cancer Society Relay for Life (leadership role)

Planned::
Research this summer (SURF, or maybe go back to where I was this summer)
Research next semester in a professors lab
Volunteer at Pediatric NICU in my hometown this summer
Shadow doctors over winter/spring break


I'm also a member of a cultural group e-board... but due to some complicated reasons, I feel the need to resign. I'm wondering if I should stay on, if it appears that I need more leadership/culture. I'm an over repped minority, so I feel like it wouldn't help, it's a time suck from my classes, and I'm losing my initial enthusiasm for it for many complicated reasons.

How on track am I? How boring am I? What sorts of things should I consider doing to make myself stand out a bit?

Thanks!

--ML

The bolded/underlined are what matters.

The others are nice to have, but not essential. Not sure what you do as a medical recorder and if that entails any patient contact, but your time would be better spent in direct contact with patients (doing exit interviews, initial histories, etc).

You will stand out if your ECs reflect your passions in life. Most applicants are simply looking to accumulate the "usual suspects" in terms of ECs, in various quantities of hours...if that is the best you can do, then do it, but if you could find something that really fuels your passions, and then communicate that to med schools through your PS and interviews, you will then stand out above the crowd.