EC question

[youngmo]

What would be an example list of great EC's on an application?

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[Hospitalized]

Anything less than the following will be immediately rejected:

1.) A meaningful contribution to the cure of cancer
2.) Division I athlete in multiple sports with multiple national championships
3.) At least 1 Olympic gold medal
4.) >1000 hours of intensive medically related research, with multiple publications and an MD/PhD PI (with stellar LOR)
5.) At least 500 hours of service abroad, including fluency in the respective language (preferably Spanish)
6.) Dean's list every semester
7.) You must be the president of every pre-health related club at your college
8.) At least 20 hours of shadowing every specialty
9.) LOR from the head of admissions
10.) >1000 hours of volunteering with the needy and poor
11.) >1000 hours of medically-related employement

This is not an exhaustive list being only 11 things; you have 15 activities to fill. Get on it.

 

[Doctor Dream]

Anything less than the following will be immediately rejected:

1.) A meaningful contribution to the cure of cancer
2.) Division I athlete in multiple sports with multiple national championships
3.) At least 1 Olympic gold medal
4.) >1000 hours of intensive medically related research, with multiple publications and an MD/PhD PI (with stellar LOR)
5.) At least 500 hours of service abroad, including fluency in the respective language (preferably Spanish)
6.) Dean's list every semester
7.) You must be the president of every pre-health related club at your college
8.) At least 20 hours of shadowing every specialty
9.) LOR from the head of admissions
10.) >1000 hours of volunteering with the needy and poor
11.) >1000 hours of medically-related employement

This is not an exhaustive list being only 11 things; you have 15 activities to fill. Get on it.

If only my silver medal was gold...Guess I'll be going DO.

 

[md-2020]

What would be an example list of great EC's on an application?

Many different things.

But for the most extreme cases, see: Myron Rolle, FSU Med '17 (NFL player, Rhodes scholar, Clinton charity, finished undergrad in 2.5 yrs), and William Hwang, PGY-1 (MD PhD, multiple super impact pubs, absurd volunteering/leadership)

 

[GrapesofRath]

Many different things.

But for the most extreme cases, see: Myron Rolle, FSU Med '17 (NFL player, Rhodes scholar, Clinton charity, finished undergrad in 2.5 yrs), and William Hwang, PGY-1 (MD PhD, multiple super impact pubs, absurd volunteering/leadership)

Damn time flies I think Hwang is an attending now officially.

Myron Rolle was just a beast. Has the NFL ever had another medical student; kinda intersted to see if they did.

 

[md-2020]

Damn time flies I think Hwang is an attending now officially.

Myron Rolle was just a beast. Has the NFL ever had another medical student; kinda intersted to see if they did.

The Hwang is actually an internal med intern at Mass General going into rad-onc

And Rolle...yeah seriously. Man was a surefire 1st round pick, and turned it down for a year....to go study at Oxford

Timi Wusu, who went to Feinberg, played briefly with the Raiders.

 

[Gandyy]

The Hwang is actually an internal med intern at Mass General going into rad-onc

And Rolle...yeah seriously. Man was a surefire 1st round pick, and turned it down for a year....to go study at Oxford

Timi Wusu, who went to Feinberg, played briefly with the Raiders.

Man there are so many tiers of Internal Medicine programs... its insane. Guy who gets by barely in medical school can match an Internal Medicine residency... but then people like Hwang match into an ultra

top tier Internal Medicine program. I think it might be because there are so many competitive sub-specialties that you have to first complete IM for.

 

[Catalystik]

Anything less than the following will be immediately rejected:

1.) A meaningful contribution to the cure of cancer
2.) Division I athlete in multiple sports with multiple national championships
3.) At least 1 Olympic gold medal
4.) >1000 hours of intensive medically related research, with multiple publications and an MD/PhD PI (with stellar LOR)
5.) At least 500 hours of service abroad, including fluency in the respective language (preferably Spanish)
6.) Dean's list every semester
7.) You must be the president of every pre-health related club at your college
8.) At least 20 hours of shadowing every specialty
9.) LOR from the head of admissions
10.) >1000 hours of volunteering with the needy and poor
11.) >1000 hours of medically-related employement

To help fill out the rest of your list:
12. History of active military service.
13. Won the Iditarod.
14. A couple of first-author publications in Nature.
15. Won a Goldwater Scholarship.

 

[md-2020]

Man there are so many tiers of Internal Medicine programs... its insane. Guy who gets by barely in medical school can match an Internal Medicine residency... but then people like Hwang match into an ultra

top tier Internal Medicine program. I think it might be because there are so many competitive sub-specialties that you have to first complete IM for.

Yup. Same with gen surg. Very different people match into that, you got your career general trauma surgeons and then your earning-topping CT surgeons.

 

[Goro]

In all seriousness, I like:

Military service
> 500 hrs volunteering in anything
Substantial research accomplishment ( for a UG student, that's any sort of publication)
Peace Corps
Habitat for Humanity
Any hospice or nursing home experience
TFA

What would be an example list of great EC's on an application?

 

[md-2020]

In all seriousness, I like:

Military service
> 500 hrs volunteering in anything
Substantial research accomplishment ( for a UG student, that's any sort of publication)
Peace Corps
Habitat for Humanity
Any hospice or nursing home experience
TFA

Why these two? They seem like relatively run-of-the-mill pre-med activities, no?

 

[Goro]

Actually, no they're not, at least at my school. Most 20-somethings are very uncomfortable with the dying or the frail/elderly or demented.

And HforH is in an uncommon EC in the apps I see.

Why these two? They seem like relatively run-of-the-mill pre-med activities, no?

 

[Gandyy]

Yup. Same with gen surg. Very different people match into that, you got your career general trauma surgeons and then your earning-topping CT surgeons.

I'm extremely interested in surgery for various reasons. I would be totally happy with being a general surgeon. Actually I have a big interest in the cardiovascular system. I did research in cardiology for my entire undergrad. Internal Medicine-cardiology or General Surgery-CT hopeful here.

Of course... I have to get into a medical school first.

 

[Gandyy]

Why these two? They seem like relatively run-of-the-mill pre-med activities, no?

From my own experience as a pre-med, I find it is relatively rare to see people talk about working or volunteering in a Hospice as well.

Most of the time though it seems that they are not aware of "hospice volunteering". many pre-meds dont even know what a hospice is.

 

[GrapesofRath]

Huge difference between your cookie cutter volunteering at hte local hospital behind the desk and getting involved in hospice work where your often allowed to do alot more and work with terminally ill, disabled and more frail patients of variety of backgrounds.

And yes Gandy hit it, most people don't even know what hospices are. That in itself make extensive hospice volunteering something that draws attention.

If you were to ask what are the two ways to stand out where the opportunity to obtain involvement in those activties isn't as difficult I would say.
a) hospice work. The work is grueling and committing full time to it is hard but it's not hard to walk into the door and ask to volunteer. The opportunity to really stand out exists if you want it; it's capitalizing on the opportunity that you need to do that many don't want to.
b) clinical research; papers depending on the right project and PI aren't that hard to produce. Sure high impact basic science publications would help more but work hard in clinical research(where if you have basic data analysis skills and ability to write you have the skills to do well) and it's not unreasonable to obtain a couple publications. And several publications in medicine, even if they aren't the highest impact does stand out.

 

[evansh]

How unique is first response? I have a lot of experience as a volunteer EMT, but I'm kind of curious how med schools will look at involvement in firefighting and rescue operations. I've got a few thousand hours of mixed volunteering/paid work there as well while in undergrad, and 2 or 3 significant leadership achievements as a first responder.

 

[ChrisMack390]

In all seriousness, I like:

Military service
> 500 hrs volunteering in anything
Substantial research accomplishment ( for a UG student, that's any sort of publication)
Peace Corps
Habitat for Humanity
Any hospice or nursing home experience
TFA

I am published as 3rd author on a paper in relatively decent journal (impact approx 4). However, the paper is in entomology and it would be quite a stretch to relate it to medicine in any way. Does that detract from the value of the publication (to an adcom) or does it not matter?

 

[Goro]

It's a pre-med urban legend that everything they do has to somehow be clinically connected.

Research is research and getting published in anything is fine!

Entomology, botany, quantum physics, etc, all are laudable when you show that you have learned something about the scientific principle, and getting published, even better.

I am published as 3rd author on a paper in relatively decent journal (impact approx 4). However, the paper is in entomology and it would be quite a stretch to relate it to medicine in any way. Does that detract from the value of the publication (to an adcom) or does it not matter?

I have a high regard for first responders.

How unique is first response? I have a lot of experience as a volunteer EMT, but I'm kind of curious how med schools will look at involvement in firefighting and rescue operations. I've got a few thousand hours of mixed volunteering/paid work there as well while in undergrad, and 2 or 3 significant leadership achievements as a first responder.

 

[youngdoctorsalk]

I have unique ECs, including substantial volunteer and clinical experience. I am worried that my weak research(1 year bench, 300 hours no pub, 1/2 clinical ER studies, 300 hours, no pub) will hurt my chances at top schools. What do you guys think?

 

[WedgeDawg]

To help fill out the rest of your list:
12. History of active military service.
13. Won the Iditarod.
14. A couple of first-author publications in Nature.
15. Won a Goldwater Scholarship.

I know a couple people who had 14 and 15 coming out of undergrad. I don't think either are going to med school though.

 

[ChrisMack390]

I know a Goldwater winner. She is at Tufts with a massive scholarship.