Let me start by saying that I know I'd be lucky to get into medical school at all, let alone a T20.
I'm a second-year at a top 20 undergraduate institution in the US, and my school has a lot of competitive pre-med clubs that offer a lot of "prestigious" opportunities like shadowing, clinical research, etc. at our top hospital/medical school. These clubs are extremely competitive and have a very low acceptance rate, which is even worse because the average undergraduate here is already cracked. Many of these students go onto top medical schools.
I would say that I'm in a pretty good spot - I have a 4.0, a publication during my freshman year (from research I did in high school), am a research assistant in a non-clinical lab in the med school, hold officer positions in both a volunteer program affiliated with our hospital as well as a more "minor" hobby club, work part-time (not medicine related though), and have both clinical and non-clinical volunteer opportunities. Eventually, I hope to get a job as a scribe or EMT, try getting involved in clinical research, and find shadowing opportunities.
From my POV, I have all the opportunities available to me to create a "competitive" application, but the hype at my school about these competitive pre-med clubs is making me doubt myself. I'm pretty sure most of the people who go to T20 medical schools from my undergrad are part of these clubs. Is it worth joining one of these clubs just for the extra opportunities, and is it really that hard to come across those opportunities on my own? I really don't want to write 50 200-word essays and go through 16 rounds of interviews just to get rejected because I'm not friends with the board members...
I'm a second-year at a top 20 undergraduate institution in the US, and my school has a lot of competitive pre-med clubs that offer a lot of "prestigious" opportunities like shadowing, clinical research, etc. at our top hospital/medical school. These clubs are extremely competitive and have a very low acceptance rate, which is even worse because the average undergraduate here is already cracked. Many of these students go onto top medical schools.
I would say that I'm in a pretty good spot - I have a 4.0, a publication during my freshman year (from research I did in high school), am a research assistant in a non-clinical lab in the med school, hold officer positions in both a volunteer program affiliated with our hospital as well as a more "minor" hobby club, work part-time (not medicine related though), and have both clinical and non-clinical volunteer opportunities. Eventually, I hope to get a job as a scribe or EMT, try getting involved in clinical research, and find shadowing opportunities.
From my POV, I have all the opportunities available to me to create a "competitive" application, but the hype at my school about these competitive pre-med clubs is making me doubt myself. I'm pretty sure most of the people who go to T20 medical schools from my undergrad are part of these clubs. Is it worth joining one of these clubs just for the extra opportunities, and is it really that hard to come across those opportunities on my own? I really don't want to write 50 200-word essays and go through 16 rounds of interviews just to get rejected because I'm not friends with the board members...
