Do I need leadership and/or academic teaching experience?

[idemandeuphoria]

Quick question. Listed above.

I picked some activities that I liked and stuck to them, but I'm a California resident, so I know applying will be tough...

Anyway, basic summary of all my current/past activities: hospital volunteering, crisis center volunteering, misc service activities (run through my church), meaningful research (poster presentation and potentially a publication), shadowing, experience living abroad (fluent in French), and misc jobs to pay the bills 🙂

I want to be competitive, but I also have been trying not to overwhelm myself. Should I have joined a club or try to join a club and get on the board? Should I do some paid/volunteer tutoring? My gpa is very high, and I'm on academic scholarship at my university. I will take the MCAT next year.

Or if you have other recommendations of what I can do this next year besides kill the MCAT, feel free to share!

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[LizzyM]

In my opinion, tutoring fellow students or serving as a TA would be a good addition.

 

[Moko]

I second having teaching experience(s) on your application. Both paid and unpaid opportunities are looked upon favorably. Teaching is something that I look for when I review applications. As a physician, almost everything you do (apart from paperwork) will be related to teaching, whether it be to students, colleagues, patients, their families, etc. Even if it didn't help on the application, it should still be done to help prepare for a career in medicine.

With leadership experiences, being on the board is not enough. Too many people in these club leadership positions have nothing significant to show for it. Keep that in mind if you do plan on pursuing a leadership role. Personally, I find "leadership" to be very overdone and check-boxy (though many do still value it)...

 

[idemandeuphoria]

I second having teaching experience(s) on your application. Both paid and unpaid opportunities are looked upon favorably. Teaching is something that I look for when I review applications. As a physician, almost everything you do (apart from paperwork) will be related to teaching, whether it be to students, colleagues, patients, their families, etc. Even if it didn't help on the application, it should still be done to help prepare for a career in medicine.

With leadership experiences, being on the board is not enough. Too many people in these club leadership positions have nothing significant to show for it. Keep that in mind if you do plan on pursuing a leadership role. Personally, I find "leadership" to be very overdone and check-boxy (though many do still value it)...

Thanks for your comment! I feel very comfortable with teaching/tutoring as I was an instructor at a learning center during high school. I didn't bother with it in college because I found other cool non-academic jobs that I liked, were fun and flexible, and paid well. But if it will help my application, I think it could be fun to tutor again

And yeah, I don't have any real "leadership" experience, but I feel like in all my activities I've tried to contribute my best and help others to succeed as well (particularly in my research lab and job). I don't think of myself as a natural-born leader, but I often work unsupervised and have confidence in myself to be independent and make decisions. I don't really want to join a club and, for example, become the social media chair to prove leadership/organizational skills unless it would really make a difference in my app

 

[Moko]

Thanks for your comment! I feel very comfortable with teaching/tutoring as I was an instructor at a learning center during high school. I didn't bother with it in college because I found other cool non-academic jobs that I liked, were fun and flexible, and paid well. But if it will help my application, I think it could be fun to tutor again

And yeah, I don't have any real "leadership" experience, but I feel like in all my activities I've tried to contribute my best and help others to succeed as well (particularly in my research lab and job). I don't think of myself as a natural-born leader, but I often work unsupervised and have confidence in myself to be independent and make decisions. I don't really want to join a club and, for example, become the social media chair to prove leadership/organizational skills unless it would really make a difference in my app

Seems like you are more passionate about teaching. I would recommend doing that instead and letting your passion shine through.