CV disaster, need help

[mjoo]

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I was hoping for some advice from you. Before med school, i used to be a physicist, and had done lots of research in physics. The other day, my advisor asked me for a copy of my CV, and I panicked. I dont have ANY medical research background, in fact, ever since med school i have not done any extracurriculars, no community service, no clubs, nothing. What on earth do i put on my cv? Does anyone care to see my college, and post-college research that is in no way related to medicine/bio? What do you recommend doing?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I was hoping for some advice from you. Before med school, i used to be a physicist, and had done lots of research in physics. The other day, my advisor asked me for a copy of my CV, and I panicked. I dont have ANY medical research background, in fact, ever since med school i have not done any extracurriculars, no community service, no clubs, nothing. What on earth do i put on my cv? Does anyone care to see my college, and post-college research that is in no way related to medicine/bio? What do you recommend doing?

Absolutely include your activities, jobs, extracurriculars, and awards from college and post-college. High school stuff is going way too far back to matter. But for instance, if you were Phi Beta Kappa or graduated from college with Summa Cum Laude distinction, then definitely include it. Many med students go through med school without any activities or community service. I don't think this necessarily hurts. This may matter for primary care related fields but those fields are not competitive enough for this stuff to matter anyways.

 

[dry dre]

Agreed, any research you've done is good. It's as much about demonstrating that you know how to conduct and write about research as it is to have done it in the medical scienes. Besides, it's physics...more sexy than molecular genetics engineering (if there is anything more sexy that molecular genetic engineering).

Also agreed that not having done much "community service" while in med school shouldn't really hurt you. Much of that stuff is superficial CV-line-filling-stuff anyway. During interviews you will of course want to have stuff to talk about that demonstrates that you aren't a houseplant in your free time.

 

[Koko]

I have to respectfully disagree with the notion that not having extracurriculars makes no difference. Clearly programs will differ on this, and no program will put extracurriculars in the top 3 of their prioritized list of considerations of applicants. That said, involvement does help, especially if it includes leadership. Students describe discussing these topics during residency interviews, and last month a well-known and respected PD of an EM program stated that he likes to see volunteer involvement and that this tells him a lot about an applicant - he said this unsolicited. Yes, that was one PD, but I have not asked this question of other PDs, and it was interesting that he offered the comment spontaneously.

There's no sense having a cow about it. Look to get involved now and you can put something on your CV before submitting it. If you don't want to or can't for some reason, it won't help to fret. Again, it's not nearly as important as grades/performance, LORs.

 

[doc05]

first off, your situation is not a "disaster" by any means. Please lighten up or you'll become way too stressed.

include any college honors and research. Definitely include your physics research as it is probably more interesting than whatever silly case reports your average med student might write up. Extracurriculars in med school are usually too silly to matter much anyway...as another poster stated, most are just CV-padding anyway.