Am I lacking in EC's for competative med schools?

[TheBiologist]

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[hailbate]

Do what interests you! I've come to learn that college is the one opportunity that you'll have to do whatever the **** you want. Go study abroad or learn how to box or run a blog. Literally do things that you enjoy and makes you feel interesting.

 

[Sailor Senshi Dermystify]

You have to work with special needs dolphins and "fast" sloths to get in 🙂

 

[Goro]

Yes, and for lots of reasons. More tomorrow.

ALL med schools are competitive. Your lack of ECs will keep you out of all of them. MD and DO.

Am I lacking in EC's for competative med schools?

So here's where I'm at

My freshman year I worked at Starbucks 35hours a week

I now have a position in a neuro lab that's about 10-15 hrs /week during semester and 40 hours a week each summer. This is until I graduate.

What "counts" as an EC? Between classes, my research, and of course shadowing and volunteering at hospitals, I'm not sure what other activities (at least "organized" activities) I will be able to fit into my schedule.

I have a 3.93 and I do plan to score high on the MCAT. Will the research and the Starbucks my freshmen year be enough?

 

[Glandzburg]

These EC's will not cut it. You need, at the bare minimum, to get some clinical exposure and preferably some non-medical volunteering in the community.

 

[TooMuchPressure]

Yes, and for lots of reasons. More tomorrow.

ALL med schools are competitive. Your lack of ECs will keep you out of all of them. MD and DO.

Am I lacking in EC's for competative med schools?

On a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best, 5 being around average) would you rate my EC's.
-250 volunteering. Ongoing
-30 hours food bank planning to increase to around 50-75. Ongoing.
-Tutor an adult for a year teach them how to read and write (20ish hours so far. we meet once a week for 1-2 hours). Ongoing.
-Casually attend ping pong meetings here and there for the club but i'm nothing special just a member so I doubt this even counts.

I'm going to be doing these for another year so I expect an increase in hours in all 4 of these but should I look for more nonclinical volunteering?

 

[Slave to the Game]

So here's where I'm at

My freshman year I worked at Starbucks 35hours a week

I now have a position in a neuro lab that's about 10-15 hrs /week during semester and 40 hours a week each summer. This is until I graduate.

What "counts" as an EC? Between classes, my research, and of course shadowing and volunteering at hospitals, I'm not sure what other activities (at least "organized" activities) I will be able to fit into my schedule.

I have a 3.93 and I do plan to score high on the MCAT. Will the research and the Starbucks my freshmen year be enough?

You're golden. Make sure to include in your personal statement how you were turned towards medicine because a customer at Starbucks told you that you'd be a good doctor. How else could you possibly find out whether this is the right field for you?

 

[claduva94]

"Competitive med schools"

 

[Goro]

Ahh, you didn't include that! Rough guess is that you're > 6 but < 10. And yes, add more non-clinical volunteering. Show off your altruism!

On a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best, 5 being around average) would you rate my EC's.
-250 volunteering. Ongoing
-30 hours food bank planning to increase to around 50-75. Ongoing.
-Tutor an adult for a year teach them how to read and write (20ish hours so far. we meet once a week for 1-2 hours). Ongoing.
-Casually attend ping pong meetings here and there for the club but i'm nothing special just a member so I doubt this even counts.

I'm going to be doing these for another year so I expect an increase in hours in all 4 of these but should I look for more nonclinical volunteering?

 

[WhittyPsyche]

Ahh, you didn't include that! Rough guess is that you're > 6 but < 10. And yes, add more non-clinical volunteering. Show off your altruism!

Different user

 

[Goro]

Bah!!!

Then OP is in big trouble. More later.

Different user

 

[clippers50fan]

I have a 3.93 and I do plan to score high on the MCAT.

Oh man, that's what I forgot to do. I didn't plan to score highly on the MCAT!

 

[Glandzburg]

Oh man, that's what I forgot to do. I didn't plan to score highly on the MCAT!

If I had a dollar for every time someone said "I plan to do well on the MCAT"...

I would have enough money to open a Caribbean school for all of them that didn't end up doing well.

 

[clippers50fan]

If I had a dollar for every time someone said "I plan to do well on the MCAT"...

I would have enough money to open a Caribbean school for all of them that didn't end up doing well.

Lol savage

 

[cantankerous]

Well you could start with spelling

 

[Govols22]

That's a lot of Starbucks

 

[Goro]

OK, if these are indeed your only ECs, you're in a lot of trouble.

Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanistic side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.

Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??

We're also not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.

I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.


What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!

So here's where I'm at

My freshman year I worked at Starbucks 35hours a week

I now have a position in a neuro lab that's about 10-15 hrs /week during semester and 40 hours a week each summer. This is until I graduate.

What "counts" as an EC? Between classes, my research, and of course shadowing and volunteering at hospitals, I'm not sure what other activities (at least "organized" activities) I will be able to fit into my schedule.

I have a 3.93 and I do plan to score high on the MCAT. Will the research and the Starbucks my freshmen year be enough?

 

[Lost in Translation]

Ahh, you didn't include that! Rough guess is that you're > 6 but < 10. And yes, add more non-clinical volunteering. Show off your altruism!

Do me do me do me!

~340 hours of pediatric outpatient clinic volunteering, not exactly a "medical" experience but I was interacting with the children and their families
>600 hours of emergency volunteering and shadowing. Duties included but not limited to helping doctors with all sorts of procedures, helping nurses, transporting patients
1 academic year of lab research, about 400 hours over that time (about 15 hours a week). No publication, but I wasn't cleaning glassware; I was actually performing the experiment
1 summer of clinical research under a pediatric attending. Results were presented via poster at a national conference, however I was not able to attend the event. The PI presented. But if needed I could talk extensively on the study

That's all I reported on the AMCAS. That's all I really saw the need to report. Other things lasted for half a year and I didn't feel like I should have listed them.

 

[Goro]

Golden! Note... you don't need to do medical thing like putting in central lines, just show us that you like being around sick people, and know what you're getting into .

Do me do me do me!

~340 hours of pediatric outpatient clinic volunteering, not exactly a "medical" experience but I was interacting with the children and their families
>600 hours of emergency volunteering and shadowing. Duties included but not limited to helping doctors with all sorts of procedures, helping nurses, transporting patients
1 academic year of lab research, about 400 hours over that time (about 15 hours a week). No publication, but I wasn't cleaning glassware; I was actually performing the experiment
1 summer of clinical research under a pediatric attending. Results were presented via poster at a national conference, however I was not able to attend the event. The PI presented. But if needed I could talk extensively on the study

That's all I reported on the AMCAS. That's all I really saw the need to report. Other things lasted for half a year and I didn't feel like I should have listed them.