Does anyone plan to join clubs in college?
Started by xnfs93hy
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Plan to join plenty of clubs. Gatta make sure I can find time for work though, if I get enough hours I will be able to have my bike by next riding season.
My advice, as far as med school admissions is concerned, would be to join few clubs but get really involved in them (or just one, even). Being a "member" of a club doesn't look any better on a med school app (nor will it be any more rewarding) than if you'd done nothing at all. Sure, if you're just joining cause it's fun and don't expect it to matter for med school, go right ahead (I joined a few fun clubs just for the hell of it) but you probably won't have that much time to go to their meetings every week. However, if you want it to count toward your application, make sure you only do things that you'll really be involved in. Rise through the ranks, become a leader, start your own club.
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Sorry, but I'm not going to do just a few clubs. I'm doing activities that I will enjoy, not that are going to pad my resume for Med. school.
Hahaha you don't have to apologize, I'm just giving you advice. I did say that if you're only going to do it for fun, then enjoy it. However, in my experience seeing all the other premeds at my school, something's gotta give, and usually the fun clubs that you just participate in for kicks are the first to go when you get overwhelmed with work and EC's. "Leadership", like research, shadowing, and volunteering, is one of the unofficial requirements for the more competitive med schools. If I recall correctly, you're dreaming of Hopkins, which is awesome, and which probably expects some leadership experience in college. I'm just saying, focus on obtaining that and don't spread yourself too thin.
Don't worry, I should be keep myself nice and thick 🙂 . I plan on doing leadership for a few clubs, but I would like to continue things like basketball, football, ect (not varsity or anything) and possibly work on being a cpt for speech (college I'm going to has one of the top programs in the nation). I also am going to be working the hospital (after volunteering at two this summer) and doing some volunteer work here and there. I do most of those things because I enjoy them, but I see where you are coming from. Most pre-meds are crazy 😛 .
Your call. She's right, though. You'll have to be heavily in those activities if you want them to matter. Enjoyment is great and all, but enjoyment doesn't get you into med school.
Well, some people are masochists.
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Don't worry, you should have plenty of time to play intramurals, and do stuff for fun, as long as you figure out how to manage your time. A large part of this is learning how to study effectively, and determining the least amount of effort necessary to do well in each class. For your first 2 years at least, its really easy to do well, as long as you can figure out your profs testing and grading style. I would say that after you learn the basics of whatever is being taught, this is the most important thing to figure out. This changes a bit once you hit some upper-level classes, but by that time you pretty much understand what it takes to be successful. Seriously, pre-med really isn't that hard, just do yourself a favor and pick an easy major.
Are there better activities other than clubs? You say that you have to be really involved in them for them to count. Well, then I'm not so sure I want to do that.
I know I need:
Clinical Experience
Volunteer Hours
*Research
High MCAT score
High Science GPA
what else?
Is it necessary to join clubs? I mean, it isn't undergrad admissions, it's med school. Are there..better activities out there? Something that looks better than a club.
And what do you guys mean by leadership experience? How do I get that? And do I need to join a club to get it?
If I do not do any clubs will it look bad?
I like working with special needs children as well but that and ER volunteering all falls under the same category. I suppose the former looks nice.
I must be missing other things...
I know I need:
Clinical Experience
Volunteer Hours
*Research
High MCAT score
High Science GPA
what else?
Is it necessary to join clubs? I mean, it isn't undergrad admissions, it's med school. Are there..better activities out there? Something that looks better than a club.
And what do you guys mean by leadership experience? How do I get that? And do I need to join a club to get it?
If I do not do any clubs will it look bad?
I like working with special needs children as well but that and ER volunteering all falls under the same category. I suppose the former looks nice.
I must be missing other things...
Leadership position. Be the president of U.S.A. !
Let's see, let me try to go through this methodically:
- the point of joining a club for the purposes of med school admissions (not for kicks) is twofold: to show interest in something, and to show leadership. The former doesn't matter THAT much, except it might make you look like an interesting/unique applicant (if it's kind of a random club, or just un-premed-like) and make you stand out, not to mention having something cool to talk about in your interviews. Far more important is the issue of leadership.
- you can achieve "leadership experience" in a number of ways, and you seem to be forgetting that most colleges have TONS of extracurricular clubs that are incredibly different from one another. Leadership experience could be achieved by rising through the ranks of an academic society (pre-med club, science club, spanish club, international club...you name it) or even a random club like the Simpsons appreciation club or something, but that will (obviously) look slightly less serious. Otherwise, you could start your own, if you find a niche that you think your school is missing, like starting an organization for helping special needs children and making it grow during your time there. Or you could become editor of a paper. Or you could become captain of a team, or first violin in an orchestra. If your interests lie in volunteering, then instead of just volunteering, become the person who organizes other volunteers. Set up a trip abroad with a philanthropic organization to do medical relief work. Raise money for a cause.
See what I mean? The opportunities are really endless, but the point is, just being the passive member of a club isn't going to do anything but take up your time. What's important is showing initiative and leadership. As a doctor, you'll be the leader of each patient's vast healthcare team, and it'll be up to you to organize and unite the other members of the team to achieve a common goal. Extensive leadership experience in college shows admissions people this skill. I'd like to point out that this is less of a "required" part of your resume for the less competitive med schools.
As far as the stuff you need to get into med school, you covered most of it. Definitely volunteer and do some shadowing. Research comes in handy for the more research-oriented schools (although even within research, "leadership" is important- don't just spend a couple of years cleaning glassware). GPA (both science and non-science, by the way- your cumulative gpa has to be high too) and MCAT are both very important. To be truly competitive, you want to also be interesting, be multidimensional. You'd be hard-pressed to find a pre-med who doesn't have all the things I mentioned. If you really want to stand out, leadership helps because it shows initiative and creativity and maturity.
Hope this helps!
Yea helps me a lot rocked my heart. 😎
So yeah, when you say multidimensional? What does that mean ?
Does that mean to get many kinds of leadership positions like Tennis champion, Club President, Student government, dancing club, ?
Thanks LET, this helped a lot. Yeah I do not know what multidimensional means either. I think she means someone who does a handful of different things.
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Uh.. Yeah..
Health Profession Club, intramurals, student gov, mentoring, honor society's all that fun stuff..
Might as well live up the college experience
Multidimensional means that there's more to you than meets the eye, that you're an interesting person the adcom might want to meet. I think this factor is really underestimated by premeds, especially on this site. It's so easy to fall into a typical formula (volunteer this many hours, shadow this many hours, do this many years of research) and then get totally lost in the sea of applicants who are exactly like you. So pursue not only what you "should" but also what you'd like, and do so intensely and to a high level. For example, if you're only interested in science, then do something you find interesting and unique within science. Find a professor who does what you like, and be persistent. Otherwise, pursue your other passions. Play an instrument, learn a new language, take writing classes. Involve yourself in non-premed stuff and it'll not only make your college experience a lot more pleasant and less stressful, but also make you a more interesting and unique applicant.
Clubs are not necessary, I was never in one and it doesn't seem to have hurt me. What will hurt you is if you can't give good anwsers to questons like "what do you do for fun", or "what do you do outside of science/pre-med stuff". This is where the multidimensional aspect of your application that LET is talking about comes in. Multidimensional is basically the same as saying well-rounded.
Leadership experience can be gained in a multitude of ways. Positions in clubs are one of the easy ways to get leadership experience. Since I didn't join any clubs, I got most of my leadership through my jobs. Some do it withing their religious organization, others sports, really anything where you're doing something with other people offers opportunites for leadership.
Clubs in my experience are a waste of time and a resume padder that adcoms will not be impressed by. It is just an obstacle that they have to read over before they can get to the stuff that shows dedication to medicine and make you an interesting person. Why not volunteer at a free clinic doing triage or as a phlebotomist? That way you get actual patient contact. Email doctors and set up shadowing. Get involved in research. Try out for theatre or the choir or something. Write a grant to do some research abroad in a topic you love (history, foriegn language, &c.) Every club you join takes away time from something else. Use your utils wisely.
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