I just started my second week of college, and I'm trying to figure everything out. I'm trying to get involved in everything, but I don't know how these organizations will balance out with my coursework. The work from my classes has started to get heavier, so I'm not sure if I should commit to all of these things and possibly risk my GPA, or just commit to a few things and have the chance at a higher GPA. I'm sure most of you have gone through something identical.
Balancing Time During College
- Thread starter Wheat
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Quality over quantity. Don't fall into the trap of thinking doing a million things will make your application look good; it won't. Pick one or two things you're comfortable with to start and do those for four years.
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I would recommend not overextending yourself while still staying involved in a couple key activities.
I did a varsity sport, 7hrs a week of tutoring, research (pubs and presentations), pretty heavy volunteering via my sports team, and pre-med shenanigans. It was too much. While I was able to maintain a decent GPA, dropping an activity or time commitment to those activities would have skyrocketed my GPA and made me much more competitive for schools I ended up being interested in. Although I had solid ECs and respectable MCAT, my ability to land higher ranked schools was inhibited by a few low grades and average GPA due to an overextended schedule. If I could redo undergrad, I would have changed things the first 2.5 years by toning down my schedule and raising my GPA.
Although the ECs I had were impressive, they didn't trump having higher stats IMO. Of course, be active in things you're passionate about but don't try and do too much. This is especially true about cookie-cutter things and activities you are not getting a lot out of.
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I was super duper involved in college, and while I would never let ECs interfere with academics, it can take a personal toll being stressed out from the demands of student organizations and leadership roles. Use your freshman year to figure out what you actually enjoy being a part of, and then drop anything you could live without. It's better to invest in a few activities and gain leadership experience than be a member everywhere. Make sure to account for personal time too--socializing, R&R and fitness are important as well. PM me if you have any other questions! College is the.bomb.com, enjoy it.
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Well said, Doctor Strange.
Speaking from experience, I found that blocking out time devoted to studying helped a lot. I'm far from perfect at it, but if I knew I had to do something in a certain block of time, let's say two hours, I would plan accordingly what I would do in those two hours.
In terms of activities, I would say explore a few and then see which ones are the most interesting to you or you would have the best amount of time to dedicate to. Much of my extracurricular "pruning" was done after freshman year.
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Find a good place to get clinical volunteering experience. I highly recommend the income based clinic venue. Identify something you are interested in and look for a club or organization that fits that interest. If you think you might like doing martial arts, see if your school has some clubs. I take Aikido ~2 hours per week and it is a great way to drop stress, learn a cool and different skill set and socialize. PM me if you have any questions about free clinics and volunteering with them. Good luck!
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You can always add ECs, but it's not easy to repair a tanked GPA later on.
Do as many ECs as you're comfortable doing, but keep your coursework a priority. Once you get used to your courses and know where you can cut some corners and are more aware of how much free time you have, then commit to ECs accordingly.
Also, as someone earlier said, quality over quantity. Get really involved and make progress in a few ECs, rather than trying to do a bunch and not really being able to do a lot in each one. There's some silent requirements, like clinical volunteering etc...but otherwise, do what interests you.
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Not trying to hijack OP's thread, but perhaps to expand upon his question; would leadership in one club be enough to fulfill that role of application padding?
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The Stanford admissions rep who came to my school a year or two ago specifically mentioned leadership in places like clubs only really counted if you personally made some sort of a lasting change/difference/improvement during your tenure. It didn't seem as though having a club leadership position meant much more than being in the club unless you distinguished yourself in some way - and yes, they were using being a club president as the example.
This doesn't answer your questions but is more meant to discourage you from taking on a club leadership position for the padding effect...
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You'll have to be more specific with what you mean by "application padding."
Nobody is going to be impressed that you brought snacks to your monthly premed meetings, so I wouldn't necessarily consider it worthwhile as leadership unless you have something real from the experience you can share in your application. Leadership experience is also a small part of a larger and more complex package.
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Don't usurp leadership roles for the sole purpose of resume padding. If you're not interested in leading for the sake of leading, then don't do it. It wouldn't be fair to the student organizations for which you're responsible. There's nothing inherently wrong if you're more comfortable as a team player.
