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Seek the advice of my fellow SDNers regarding what EC's to focus on this year. I'm a non-trad in that I played pro-sports right out of HS, then started my own company (which ultimately bankrupted me), then joined the AF reserves to get life back on track and cover education expenses. Did a year @ a CC, then my big state school this past year, and then was lucky enough to get accepted as a transfer this fall (my junior) to one of the H/Y/P/S schools.
I plan to take the MCAT some time in April and will be devoting myself to studying for that Jan-April. Early June AMCAS submission... I'm not sure how brutal the step up in academic load will be and know GPA/MCAT are the priority in this process, don't want to overload myself w/EC's. Do I need to pursue further clinical volunteering this fall or is it safe to just do some shadowing and drop in w/the volunteering I've been doing back home when I'm off for breaks (could add another 50-100 hrs pretty easily at the VA while home on breaks).
As it stands here are my EC's (all done this year as few opportunities @ my old CC):
Research - 7 mos in a marine bio wet lab, 5 mos public health research (1 publication)
Shadowing - 8 hrs (Derm)
Clinical Volunteering - ~200 hrs VA hospital ER - also started a group recruiting volunteers from my college for the VA and training them up
Volunteering - ~40 hrs campus volunteer group various activities
Work - AF Reserves ~400 hrs/yr monthly drill + 2 weeks/yr
my options this upcoming yr - could do it all theoretically:
Shadowing program through school will get me at least 32 hrs this fall
Low income clinic - min time commitment will be 12 hrs/month and 6 months
Research - really want to dive into a lab here at the adjacent med school and figure I should count on 10-20 hrs/week devoted to this
College Marching Band - random EC but figure it'd be cool to have even more diversity to my activities to go along w/pro-sports and military
not sure where I'm weak and what EC's I should prioritize this fall...obviously the inclination is to cull the clinical volunteering and just do it while home on breaks to maintain that long period of VA ER volunteering, a mistake? GPA is strong 3.99 and I'm done w/my Chem, Orgo, Bio, Phys requirements.
I plan to take the MCAT some time in April and will be devoting myself to studying for that Jan-April. Early June AMCAS submission... I'm not sure how brutal the step up in academic load will be and know GPA/MCAT are the priority in this process, don't want to overload myself w/EC's. Do I need to pursue further clinical volunteering this fall or is it safe to just do some shadowing and drop in w/the volunteering I've been doing back home when I'm off for breaks (could add another 50-100 hrs pretty easily at the VA while home on breaks).
As it stands here are my EC's (all done this year as few opportunities @ my old CC):
Research - 7 mos in a marine bio wet lab, 5 mos public health research (1 publication)
Shadowing - 8 hrs (Derm)
Clinical Volunteering - ~200 hrs VA hospital ER - also started a group recruiting volunteers from my college for the VA and training them up
Volunteering - ~40 hrs campus volunteer group various activities
Work - AF Reserves ~400 hrs/yr monthly drill + 2 weeks/yr
my options this upcoming yr - could do it all theoretically:
Shadowing program through school will get me at least 32 hrs this fall
Low income clinic - min time commitment will be 12 hrs/month and 6 months
Research - really want to dive into a lab here at the adjacent med school and figure I should count on 10-20 hrs/week devoted to this
College Marching Band - random EC but figure it'd be cool to have even more diversity to my activities to go along w/pro-sports and military
not sure where I'm weak and what EC's I should prioritize this fall...obviously the inclination is to cull the clinical volunteering and just do it while home on breaks to maintain that long period of VA ER volunteering, a mistake? GPA is strong 3.99 and I'm done w/my Chem, Orgo, Bio, Phys requirements.
