EC quantity vs. quality evaluation?

[DocBoudreau]

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I am looking for a bit of advice regarding my current EC's. As it stands i don't have much variety in my activities but what i do have is quality in the few i have. I am mostly falling back on my varsity athletic background. I started swimming competitively at 10 and i've neeb swimming 20+ hours a week since i've been 14. so 5 years of 20 hours a week for roughfly 48 weeks a year. I have also many distinctions in the sport (5 age group provincial record (im Canadien), 3 time male swimmer of the club, Canada games team captain and CIS qualifier (university canadien championship like NCAA). Other then that i will have 50+ hours of volunteering at swim meets 100+ at a hostpital and one summer of reaserch. How would this stack up? Will med schools understand that with this comitement to swimming that i don't have time for other things? What would be any good sugestions as what to add to my resume?

 

[pathophys17]

Quality and being able to show passion when you discuss activities at interviews is definitely >>> quantity. Why would you do it if you didn't enjoy it/get anything from it? The swimming is definitely a good thing; they like to see well-rounded applicants and that you were able to handle extracurriculars (a varsity sport is definitely time-consuming) with your school work, and that you didn't just get excellent grades because all you did was study.

Some volunteering and shadowing are a must, in my opinion. I'm not sure how anyone can know they want to be in this profession for the rest of his/her life without clinical exposure, and the adcoms have to consider that. But with volunteering and especially research to balance out the sports, it seems like you're good to go. I would just continue with the hospital volunteering and get some shadowing in if you haven't done so.

 

[DocBoudreau]

Shadowing would seem like a good idea. So shadowing and more hospital volunteering because a 100 hours seems like the bare minimum people apply with. Anything else?

 

[wahoo2009]

There are a few key components to medical school admissions.

1. Good scores/Grades
2. Good LORs
3. EC's in the form of
a. Volunteer work ( does not have to be in a hospital. When I applied I had volunteered for a year at a crisis hotline )
b. Clinical experience ( ADCOMs want to know that you have some idea of what you are getting into) this can come in the form of shadowing, working in a hospital, doing EMT work, et cetera. Volunteering in a hospital can count - but I would consider this pretty weak clinical experience.
c. Research - if you do clinical research, you can kill two birds with one stone. Ideally, when you do research your PI will be a physician, who can later write you a LOR.

The key to EC's is the quality- do things for at least a year so you have something meaningful to talk about when they bring it up.

Hey best of luck to you. I hope this helps!