Anybody accepted without leadership on AMCAS?

[rudziutki]

I am looking through old SDN threads and saw speculation that some schools auto-reject without a dedicated leadership activity. Anybody recently apply and get accepted to multiple places without leadership on your AMCAS? I will try to get a position and email updates, but I am concerned that updates hold less weight than actually having the activity on AMCAS.

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[punkedoutriffs]

I had no leadership and I got into 3 schools. Leadership... Aint nobody got time fo' dat.

 

[SilverCat]

No leadership here either. 1 MD, 1 DO acceptance. I was rejected from 1 school post interview due to a lack of leadership, however.

 

[Aerus]

Although leadership experience is useful to have when applying to any schools, it doesn't become that necessary until you are also shooting for the top schools.

 

[darkjedi]

not required for an acceptance, but almost everyone at a top school has some sort of leadership type experience.

 

[deleted307836]

No leadership here either. 1 MD, 1 DO acceptance. I was rejected from 1 school post interview due to a lack of leadership, however.

Woohoo, congrats on your MD acceptance - I'm assuming it will be cheaper than CCOM. I remember your thread with those crazy numbers...

 

[solesurprise]

What is meant by leadership? Like being president of a club?

 

[MadRadLad]

Is being a trainer/staff assistant at your place of employment considered leadership?

 

[medicalpassion]

Leadership is not defined by a title. Talking to an elder, helping a friend, making conversation with introverts/shy people are all great ways to be a leader.

If you really reflect on your college experience, I am positive you can find some aspect in which you were a leader. Having a formal title is an 'easier' way to check the box of leadership but it's definitely not the only way.

Everyone can't be president of a club.

 

[DocGodfather]

I was wondering what really qualifies as leadership experience? I did go with a group of alumni to a number of rock climbing trips to help out with the high school I graduated from. I also helped train new employees at the bank I worked at a year and a half ago, as well as manage a gas station for a year. Any of those count as leadership?

 

[jr93]

Come up with some time when you had to be a leader. Being the older sibling, running projects at work, etc. You should be able to come up with something unless you always avoided any type of control.

 

[circulus vitios]

I've never been a "manager," but I've had to train and direct people at a crappy grocery store job I worked while in college. You've never done anything similar?

 

[LizzyM]

I would define it as organizing and directing others toward a common goal. I generally don't think of an adult organizing and directing very young children as "leadership" (not that there is anything wrong with that activity) but organizing and directing other adults (or other people your age or older) would be leadership. (Is "first grade teacher " a leadership role compared with school principal?)

You need not be an officer in a club to be a leader. I am a leader of a semi-annual food collection and distribution project for an organization in my community although I'm not an officer in the group.

 

[TheShaker]

I've been asking around about why I did not get in this year. I asked 3 sources, all of them serve on adcoms, two of which were at schools I had a decent shot at speaking by numbers (RFU and MCW). All of them said the main crippling factor was being complete in mid sept but 2 of them noted my lack of formal leadership activities. Both schools were pre-interview rejections so weak interviewing skills were not a factor. I made it fairly clear that my research experience includes leading the development of the project and training new members but either I did not highlight the "leadership" aspect enough or it just wasn't what most people considered leadership. I also have one semester of doing SI.

So who knows, two adcoms cited my lack of real leadership as one of the reason for getting rejected. I don't know how big a role it played so make whatever you will of it.

 

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