ECs for Residency

[Dr. Scribe]

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How important are ECs for matching into a desired a residency?

Let's say that to get into medical school there is the following distribution of importance: 50% MCAT, 30% GPA, 20% ECs.

What would the distribution look like for Residency with Steps, Grades, and ECs?

Also, if one continues an EC from pre-med through medical school, can one put that on a residency app (similarly to how one can use a high school EC on a med school app if one continues it through UG)?



EDIT: THIS WOULD PROBABLY BE MORE APPROPRIATE IN THE MED STUDENT FORUM

 

[21Rush12]

From what I understand, relatively unimportant.

Med student forum isn’t a place to ask Med students questions, it’s a place for Med students to post.

 

[Planes2Doc]

They will care far more about boards, clinical grades, and class rank. Research would be a good idea, in fact, I would try to do research if you have down time before medical school. Any volunteer work you did prior to medical school will vanish and you will not put it on your ERAS application for residency. Ultimately, ECs should only be the icing on a cake that has a strong foundation with good board scores, clinical grades, and class rank. Don't attempt to become the second coming of Mother Teresa at the cost of boards prep.

 

[Dr. Scribe]

They will care far more about boards, clinical grades, and class rank. Research would be a good idea, in fact, I would try to do research if you have down time before medical school. Any volunteer work you did prior to medical school will vanish and you will not put it on your ERAS application for residency. Ultimately, ECs should only be the icing on a cake that has a strong foundation with good board scores, clinical grades, and class rank. Don't attempt to become the second coming of Mother Teresa at the cost of boards prep.

So continuation of an EC doesn’t work for residency like it does for med school?

If I’ve been published before medical school, can I include those papers on my residency app?

 

[Planes2Doc]

So continuation of an EC doesn’t work for residency like it does for med school?

If you continued an EC into medical school from college (if you find the time that's awesome), then yes. But if you got 2000 hospital volunteer hours and quit once you got an acceptance in hand, then those hours are gone. You go from an altruistic saint to a terrible person again.

If I’ve been published before medical school, can I include those papers on my residency app?

Yes! Research is forever. For the most competitive specialties, you will want to do research specific for that field. The summer between MS-1 and MS-2 is a good time for that. If you're not going into a super competitive specialty, then you can ride the research you already have. If you want to do a fellowship, I would probably consider research.