Do I seem to be spreading myself too thin?

[someone9820]

Rising Junior:
Things I've done
-EMT Volunteer at school events (~50 hours/semester): since 2nd sem freshman year (will be cpr instructor too starting this year)
-Help run soup kitchen: since 2nd sem sophomore year (3hrs/week) (will be president starting this year)
-Counselor for Camp Kesem: since 1st sem sophomore year (quitting bc no time bc mcat)
-I was a chair for my colleges premedical club since first sem freshman year but it didn't add that much value to my life so I quit that too.
-Research: 1 year sophomore year, switching into a different lab this year (48 hrs/sem)
-Starting Chem TA job next year (6hrs/week), and starting free clinic EMT volunteering (3 hrs/week) upcoming semester (volunteered at a hospital 2nd sem freshman year but it was just too out of my means to continue doing it, but I want to give this a shot, and the fact that its at a free clinic seems super duper cool)


Does it seem like I'm spreading myself too thin? I understand med schools tend to look for depth of involvement rather than breadth and I feel like I'm picking up and putting down a lot of activities in college.

Also does anyone have any advice for this sort of extracurricular schedule +a 14 credit hour school schedule to study for the MCAT? I'll be studying this summer as well a bit. There's not much more reduction of this that I could feasibly do :/

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[DrRiker]

Make sure you dedicate enough time for MCAT prep. It's no joke. Otherwise, do what feels right for you and your GPA.

 

[someone9820]

MMkay that makes sense. So "spreading yourself too thin" only happens when your gpa drops because of your activities then?

 

[DrRiker]

MMkay that makes sense. So "spreading yourself too thin" only happens when your gpa drops because of your activities then?

Spreading yourself too thin happens when you're burning out such that your performance drops, for which your GPA is a reliable indicator.

 

[929826]

This is a question that only you can answer. You should not compare yourself to others in answering this question. Reflect on your performance in each of these activities. Is it to a standard that you would feel proud of? Another way to look at it is, if someone describe your performance as their own, would you be impressed? Some of my most meaningful accomplishments happened because I had the time to go the extra mile and enact real change. My rule of thumb is "cut the fat". Activities that are uninteresting, for which you have no passion, and that just suck up your time are what I consider "fat". You will never excel in them because you hate them. A good indicator is if you are consistently looking for ways to get out of the activity (calling in sick for example).