Activities in Medical School

[mdquestion]

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Hey all-

Just wanted some opinions/advice/etc. I go to a Top 20 medical school and was really just wondering how important activities are during your first two years of med school. I've been sort of frustrated in trying to apply for a number of positions (Free Clinic Coordinator, TAing, heading organizations, etc.)....but just haven't been selected for anything yet. Sort of the plight of being in med school, unlike college, where suddenly everyone is baller- it's hard to compete say...against someone who spent 2 years helping to run a clinic in Nigeria when you want to be a free clinic manager. Some of them were attractive because they pay well (less loans=amazing), others are attractive because I legitimately really wanted to do them. So I've been a little down about not getting to lead things, which always kept me happy in undergrad. I'm not entirely buying into the idea of doing things just for a resume boost, but I'm worried not having leadership in anything is going to make me look bad.

I'm involved as a member in a fair amount of clubs, do a lot of pre-med/under-grad/post bac mentoring programs, volunteer in the free clinic basically weekly. Do a lot of admissions stuff as well....though again, not in a leadership capacity. I'm also starting a cool summer research project that I'm excited about (and won an outside fellowship for), I take a lot of elective courses in some of the other schools at my institution. Overall, I feel like I do a lot given the amount of studying/work you have in the first two years. But, I somehow also feel like everyone in my class is somehow building a much better resume than I am. I'm still trying to get involved in other things, but was just curious as to how important in the long run activities really are in med school.


If I'm not a leader in some specialty club, TAing a class, or founding some med school program that teaches underserved high school students...am I somehow shooting myself in the foot for landing a more competitive specialty? My interests are pretty broad now, but include Hem/Onc, Neurology, and Dermatology (all non-surgical specialties) with maybe a pediatrics bent.

 

[mrjohndaniels]

Some people get leadership early, some people get it later on. If you're determined to be a leader, stick it out and the opportunities will come. A lot of those people getting their leadership in now may not continue to engage those activities later, and you'll have an opportunity. It gets harder the farther along you get, but if it's important to you, you can get it. I don't think it looks better one way or the other, but if you get it through perseverance, that's something worth mentioning.

 

[DrBowtie]

Research pretty much trumps all of this stuff, and doing one activity in depth trumps the CV padding that it sounds like is going on at your school.

You need to get cracking on the research/board review if you are shooting for Derm. All others are pretty non-competitive specialties.

 

[DoctwoB]

Hey all-

Just wanted some opinions/advice/etc. I go to a Top 20 medical school and was really just wondering how important activities are during your first two years of med school. I've been sort of frustrated in trying to apply for a number of positions (Free Clinic Coordinator, TAing, heading organizations, etc.)....but just haven't been selected for anything yet. Sort of the plight of being in med school, unlike college, where suddenly everyone is baller- it's hard to compete say...against someone who spent 2 years helping to run a clinic in Nigeria when you want to be a free clinic manager. Some of them were attractive because they pay well (less loans=amazing), others are attractive because I legitimately really wanted to do them. So I've been a little down about not getting to lead things, which always kept me happy in undergrad. I'm not entirely buying into the idea of doing things just for a resume boost, but I'm worried not having leadership in anything is going to make me look bad.

I'm involved as a member in a fair amount of clubs, do a lot of pre-med/under-grad/post bac mentoring programs, volunteer in the free clinic basically weekly. Do a lot of admissions stuff as well....though again, not in a leadership capacity. I'm also starting a cool summer research project that I'm excited about (and won an outside fellowship for), I take a lot of elective courses in some of the other schools at my institution. Overall, I feel like I do a lot given the amount of studying/work you have in the first two years. But, I somehow also feel like everyone in my class is somehow building a much better resume than I am. I'm still trying to get involved in other things, but was just curious as to how important in the long run activities really are in med school.


If I'm not a leader in some specialty club, TAing a class, or founding some med school program that teaches underserved high school students...am I somehow shooting myself in the foot for landing a more competitive specialty? My interests are pretty broad now, but include Hem/Onc, Neurology, and Dermatology (all non-surgical specialties) with maybe a pediatrics bent.

Impression I've gotten is that Boards + Grades + Research >>>>>>>>>> ECs. Residencies may want people that aren't just robots, but you can do other things to "round" yourself without being a president of every organization. For me thats just pick up basketball with friends and some clinical research.

Specialties do want to see that you're interested and committed to them. One way of doing this is being the president of the interest groups, etc. but a much much better way is to do research, shadow, and generally hang out (go to grand rounds, etc.) in the department.

 

[Deferoxamine]

Honestly, having just been through the residency interview process, most programs don't seem to care about what resume buffers you "accomplished" during medical school, because they all know it probably wasn't that much of a time commitment. If anything, they seemed to ask about it just to make sure you weren't making it up on your application. I also expected my TA'ing thing from MS2 to matter, but no one seemed to care.

I actually had some substantial extracurriculars and leadership experience from PRIOR TO medical school, and these were the activities they seemed to focus on instead. Which was fine with me.

 

[Music MD]

I actually had some substantial extracurriculars and leadership experience from PRIOR TO medical school, and these were the activities they seemed to focus on instead. Which was fine with me.

Wait so we can put our activities from before med school on our residency application?

 

[Deferoxamine]

Wait so we can put our activities from before med school on our residency application?

Absolutely.

I also tied them into my Personal Statement. Shows 'em that you're a regular person and are capable of doing very interesting things besides just going to school and binge drinking.