Class president: pros and cons

[MicrogliaMan]

Can past class presidents comment on your experience?
Was it worth it?
A major time committment?
Were you able to work with faculty and your classmates to get stuff done?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Suit]

If you're really asking how it'll look to programs, it won't look as good as pubs and a nice step score.

Become a president if you really want to do the job.

 

[justkeepswimming]

It probably depends on your school, but here are my answers based on my experience:

Was it worth it- yes. It's a good learning experience if you're interested in any kind of administrative position in the future. Med students as a group are pretty whiney and being part of your school government is a good way to learn how to sort out what's important to act on and what's not. It's also a great way to get closer to faculty members that you might not ever have a personal relationship with otherwise, and you get to be 'in the know' about a lot of cool things throughout the year. Plus, it's just fun to feel helpful and useful for your classmates!
A major time commitment- kind of. It's what you make it. If you want to be highly involved and proactively take things on, it will take up more time. If you decide to be pretty hands-off then your only time commitment is whatever meetings your school wants you to attend. No matter what, though, you will end up fielding a lot of weird questions and pseudo-emergencies that always seem to end up happening right around exam time 🙂
Could you get stuff done- yes, but again it depends on your school and how willing you are to put in extra time to work on things.

Long story short, I agree with Suit. Do it for the leadership opportunity and the relationships you'll form, but don't do it just for the resume because it's a lot of work for not a lot of weight on your CV.

 

[ProfMD]

If you want to do it, then do it.

Don't expect it to help much with residency applications.

 

[Señor Científico]

Echo previous statements. Pubs and good Step are more important.

Although something not mentioned above is the networking opportunities. The benefit to this is highly dependent on the individual and school, but leadership opportunities (whether via interest groups or class/school leadership) often cause you to meet and converse with people you otherwise wouldn't. I've really like this advantage from my leadership opportunities, but again this was just a bonus. Only do it if you want it for the experience, not the resume.

 

[MicrogliaMan]

Thanks for your advice everyone. I certainly considered it, but after looking at other commitments (longitudinal volunteering and ongoing research projects) I am not sure that my time would be best spent as a class officer.

 

[GomersGoToGround]

Being class president is tough. You think you can make Step 1 great again? Share lecture notes on unencrypted servers? Get real, dude.

But for real- my close friend is our CP, and she's always inundated with requests, assignments, complaints, etc. You don't want to be somebody's scape-bitch. You'll get that enough. Focus on school, research, Step, and whatever else you want to do. Majority of students who match well are not class president ;-)

 

[mistafab]

Pro: You can slap it on your CV
Con: You be lame as hell

 

[StrongIslandDoc]

It really depends on the structure of your school, how much your administration GAF about student life, etc. At my medical school, the administration has a big ole bone if you're involved in a leadership position in the student run free clinic programs and student government. I was not the president of my medical school class, but I was for the Graduate Student Senate when I was in graduate school (which as part of a big name medical school, FWIW) and it was a lot of work for not a lot of credit, and it also sucked having to be accessible even to people who annoyed the F out of me or who I did not like for personal reasons - very difficult to separate yourself from that when you have that kind of role in the class.

Majority of students who match well are not class president ;-)

Just to echo this, per ERAS cycle, there are only a possible 300-400 applications with "Class President" on them - far, far more good match positions available than that.