ilovemangoes13
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- Apr 23, 2025
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Hello,
I am a pre-med sophomore and I am planning on applying in a year. I would really like some help and guidance on what I should try to improve on my application before I apply and I would like to know whether the activities I am doing now are benefitting me. I'm also a bit worried because I know the work and activities section has 15 activities, but I only have like 8 rn.
Here's an overview of my EC's:
Clinical:
- Clinical volunteering at a needle exchange/free clinic. I get to take histories for patients and observe + help the doctor in the free clinic in addition to handing out supplies/needles. I have about 120ish hours so far and I started in December of my freshman year. --> I really enjoy this activity
- I am starting a job as an ED scribe in mid May where I will be working around 14 hours per week. I am hoping to get at least 500 hours before I apply
- shadowing: 40 hours with a pediatric cardiologist (I did this before I knew that it was better to shadow a variety of specialties for less hours each than one speciality for a long time; but it was still a good experience)
- Question: Are my clinical hours too little?
- I am also taking an EMT course through my school, which is my backup in case scribing doesn't workout for whatever reason (but I have heard it is difficult to get EMT jobs where I am)
Non-Clinical:
- Camp counselor for a camp helping kids who have a family member with cancer (freshman year, am going again this year)
- this is also a club on my campus and I am an outreach coordinator for the club this year (is this more leadership or volunteering?)
-Question: should I separate my experiences as a camp counselor and outreach coordinator or should I put them together since its for the same organization?
- violin teaching: I teach violin at a local conservatory to beginner/intermediate students. It is a paid job but only around 4 hrs/week (is that too little?). I did want to do more hours per week but I do not have reliable transportation and can only go once a week --> around 200ish hours so far
- Question: Does my violin job show a good example of leadership? If I put this job in my work and activites section, would it be redundant to add violin as a hobby as well?
- Question: For my camp counselor volunteer hours, would I put a full 72 hours if it is a 3 day camp? Or do I have to subtract the time I was sleeping and stuff?
- I would also like to volunteer at a childcare center that focuses on child development (something that I am interested in), hopefully I can do that during summer
Research:
- this one is very concerning, because I recently got dropped from a research lab I was in since freshman year along with 2 other premeds. I am sad about it, but it is ultimately better to drop it because our lab was not very productive and our PI had some weird opposition towards pre meds
- I am concerned because I spent around 200 hours in the lab but was not able to present. I had applied for a grant and got rejected. We were supposed to present but our PI decided to let us go last minute and said that we will not present or make a poster.
-Question: Should I even mention this? I really enjoyed the project we were working on but our PI dropped us for several reasons (funding getting cut, the lab was shutting down for construction in summer, he felt that we wanted more results from our research that his lab couldn't give us) and I also didn't really get to make a poster or anything.
- I am looking for a new lab and found one that I may start in this summer (hopefully). It is more of a biochem lab, not super medically related but it interest me. I do have to join a chem focused lab because I am in a chemistry honors program for which I need to write a thesis
Other:
- I am an officer in a (biology club) club, not sure how to describe my official title (activities coordinator?) It is a bit disorganized and having clubs on my campus is difficult since we have such a big commuter population. I am not sure if I should include this. I have mostly led general meetings and was going to teach a workshop series teaching students research techniques (like PCR, micropipetting), and I have hosted only one so far (to which only one person came)
- NCAA DI Cross country and Track & Field: this one is quite important since I will have around 2000 hours by the time I apply. I have a #5 time for my school in cross country but have not really gotten any significant awards/medals at conference or anything. I will probably keep running for the rest of my time in college, but may focus more on track than cross country.
- Question: will it looks "bad" if I have 2000 hours in my sport but only like 600 clinical hours?
Concerns:
- my biggest concerns are with clinical hours, research and leadership
-leadership is especially hard for me as I am not super extroverted and I am sometimes anxious to take lead; for xc and track, our team does not really have "captains" so I can't really use that
- with research, I am hoping to get trained over the summer in my new lab and hopefully present at least once before applying.
-balancing my scribe job with athletics --> I heard that this program is not super kind with your schedule, they will take your school schedule into account but I am not sure about practice/meets.
-finding doctors to shadow (it is quite difficult, and I got very lucky with the first doctor who I was able to shadow)
-My GPA is 3.97 because of a dual enrollment class I took in high school that is stuck on my transcript (I got a B), but my science GPA is 4.0 so far
- What is some advice you have for me, and what should I focus on strengthening the most before applying? Does it seem like there are any red flags on my application?
-Is my non-clinical volunteering too little?
- I know showing your impact in an activity is very important. I feel that I did make some impact (made beginner violinists more confident and taught them new skills, recruited new campers for camp, etc), but it just feels like I should be doing something more. I am kind of overwhelmed and honestly don't know what to do sometimes. I know people do stuff like starting non-profits, which I think is really cool but I don't know where I would even start with doing something like that and if it is even worth it/would it even make a positive impact in the world.
Thank you.
I am a pre-med sophomore and I am planning on applying in a year. I would really like some help and guidance on what I should try to improve on my application before I apply and I would like to know whether the activities I am doing now are benefitting me. I'm also a bit worried because I know the work and activities section has 15 activities, but I only have like 8 rn.
Here's an overview of my EC's:
Clinical:
- Clinical volunteering at a needle exchange/free clinic. I get to take histories for patients and observe + help the doctor in the free clinic in addition to handing out supplies/needles. I have about 120ish hours so far and I started in December of my freshman year. --> I really enjoy this activity
- I am starting a job as an ED scribe in mid May where I will be working around 14 hours per week. I am hoping to get at least 500 hours before I apply
- shadowing: 40 hours with a pediatric cardiologist (I did this before I knew that it was better to shadow a variety of specialties for less hours each than one speciality for a long time; but it was still a good experience)
- Question: Are my clinical hours too little?
- I am also taking an EMT course through my school, which is my backup in case scribing doesn't workout for whatever reason (but I have heard it is difficult to get EMT jobs where I am)
Non-Clinical:
- Camp counselor for a camp helping kids who have a family member with cancer (freshman year, am going again this year)
- this is also a club on my campus and I am an outreach coordinator for the club this year (is this more leadership or volunteering?)
-Question: should I separate my experiences as a camp counselor and outreach coordinator or should I put them together since its for the same organization?
- violin teaching: I teach violin at a local conservatory to beginner/intermediate students. It is a paid job but only around 4 hrs/week (is that too little?). I did want to do more hours per week but I do not have reliable transportation and can only go once a week --> around 200ish hours so far
- Question: Does my violin job show a good example of leadership? If I put this job in my work and activites section, would it be redundant to add violin as a hobby as well?
- Question: For my camp counselor volunteer hours, would I put a full 72 hours if it is a 3 day camp? Or do I have to subtract the time I was sleeping and stuff?
- I would also like to volunteer at a childcare center that focuses on child development (something that I am interested in), hopefully I can do that during summer
Research:
- this one is very concerning, because I recently got dropped from a research lab I was in since freshman year along with 2 other premeds. I am sad about it, but it is ultimately better to drop it because our lab was not very productive and our PI had some weird opposition towards pre meds
- I am concerned because I spent around 200 hours in the lab but was not able to present. I had applied for a grant and got rejected. We were supposed to present but our PI decided to let us go last minute and said that we will not present or make a poster.
-Question: Should I even mention this? I really enjoyed the project we were working on but our PI dropped us for several reasons (funding getting cut, the lab was shutting down for construction in summer, he felt that we wanted more results from our research that his lab couldn't give us) and I also didn't really get to make a poster or anything.
- I am looking for a new lab and found one that I may start in this summer (hopefully). It is more of a biochem lab, not super medically related but it interest me. I do have to join a chem focused lab because I am in a chemistry honors program for which I need to write a thesis
Other:
- I am an officer in a (biology club) club, not sure how to describe my official title (activities coordinator?) It is a bit disorganized and having clubs on my campus is difficult since we have such a big commuter population. I am not sure if I should include this. I have mostly led general meetings and was going to teach a workshop series teaching students research techniques (like PCR, micropipetting), and I have hosted only one so far (to which only one person came)
- NCAA DI Cross country and Track & Field: this one is quite important since I will have around 2000 hours by the time I apply. I have a #5 time for my school in cross country but have not really gotten any significant awards/medals at conference or anything. I will probably keep running for the rest of my time in college, but may focus more on track than cross country.
- Question: will it looks "bad" if I have 2000 hours in my sport but only like 600 clinical hours?
Concerns:
- my biggest concerns are with clinical hours, research and leadership
-leadership is especially hard for me as I am not super extroverted and I am sometimes anxious to take lead; for xc and track, our team does not really have "captains" so I can't really use that
- with research, I am hoping to get trained over the summer in my new lab and hopefully present at least once before applying.
-balancing my scribe job with athletics --> I heard that this program is not super kind with your schedule, they will take your school schedule into account but I am not sure about practice/meets.
-finding doctors to shadow (it is quite difficult, and I got very lucky with the first doctor who I was able to shadow)
-My GPA is 3.97 because of a dual enrollment class I took in high school that is stuck on my transcript (I got a B), but my science GPA is 4.0 so far
- What is some advice you have for me, and what should I focus on strengthening the most before applying? Does it seem like there are any red flags on my application?
-Is my non-clinical volunteering too little?
- I know showing your impact in an activity is very important. I feel that I did make some impact (made beginner violinists more confident and taught them new skills, recruited new campers for camp, etc), but it just feels like I should be doing something more. I am kind of overwhelmed and honestly don't know what to do sometimes. I know people do stuff like starting non-profits, which I think is really cool but I don't know where I would even start with doing something like that and if it is even worth it/would it even make a positive impact in the world.
Thank you.
