EC's you regret doing

[Political]

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Im sure a bunch of you guys had an EC that you hated being a part of, but did it anyway because it looks good or because you had to.

In my experience, during the summer before freshman year of college I thought it would be a brilliant idea to intern, with no stipend, for a congresswomen during her reelection campaign. Let me tell you, it was the worst summer of my life. I harassed the elderly by badgering them to vote for her. I harassed people on the phone, by calling them nonstop to "get the vote out" I harassed people on the street by asking them if they were a "registered democrat" and harassing them to fill out a petition. And I got the worst farmer's tan in my life b/c of all the canvassing i did for her, mind you I live in New York City and the summer's here are BRUTAL.

Every day spent on the campaign didnt have the same rewarding feeling that you get at the end of the day when you go volunteering or do something actually productive or meaningfull. Rather days felt like time cards, mundane and arbitrary, with nothing to look forward to. Somehow I lasted the summer because i had nothing better to do, and i thought it might look cool on my resume.
In retrospect i wouldn't do this ever again, even if they paid me.

In all; avoid politics. Sure saying you worked for Chuck Shumer or whatnot sounds cool and all, but, like politics, it will EAT AT YOUR SOUL

*yes i know; its ironic coming from a guy named political*

In a way this is kind of a warning thread for people to stay way from particular ECs and do something a bit more worthwhile with their time

 

[CoolWhipp]

Looking back, I don't regret any. But if you asked me when I was doing it, teaching a class. Dealing with the excuses undergrads come up with is so bullsheet man. I thought because I was an undergrad too, they would tell me the truth. One person said he was sick, saw him at the gym the day after. Girl asked for an extension because she went through a hard break up, she was my friends friend. Turns out, her boyfriend was my facebook friend. Wasn't going to go to his party, but went anyways just to make sheet awkward. Yea, I did that. They were still together.

 

[Westonski]

Most of them. What a waste of time.

 

[deleted357625]

Most of them. What a waste of time.

For reals... I do them just cause...

 

[MCATism]

I regret every EC I've done since deciding to apply to medicine. I feel like I've forgotten what I actually like, and have become a research and hospital volunteering drone.

Need to break out of this before I turn into a gunner, because truth be told, I'd rather be reading through SDN, baking pies, watching Fresh Prince, etc.

 

[Ansar]

So much for believing people stop after high school.

 

[WellWornLad]

I've never done an EC that I didn't find interesting or fun. I didn't sell my soul to go to med school.

 

[gettheleadout]

I've never done an EC that I didn't find interesting or fun. I didn't sell my soul to go to med school.

👍

I regret every EC I've done since deciding to apply to medicine. I feel like I've forgotten what I actually like, and have become a research and hospital volunteering drone.

Need to break out of this before I turn into a gunner, because truth be told, I'd rather be reading through SDN, baking pies, watching Fresh Prince, etc.

Keep in mind med schools don't want drones, and baking pies sounds fun and normal and you could use it to counteract the whole "drone" image.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Hospital volunteering was total crap. One of my gigs was fun but completely useless as far as clinical experience goes. The other, ER volunteering, was miserable in every way. I wouldn't say I regret either of them, but I'd definitely scrub that ER time from my memory if I could.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I co-TA'ed a lab class for credit... I wish I could take that back but it did help me realize I never wanted to go to grad school...

 

[the duck]

I've enjoyed all my ECs to date, including my ER volunteering. The key is to find things you actually want to do, instead of just trying to check boxes.

 

[nolookpass]

Hospital volunteering was total crap. One of my gigs was fun but completely useless as far as clinical experience goes. The other, ER volunteering, was miserable in every way. I wouldn't say I regret either of them, but I'd definitely scrub that ER time from my memory if I could.

What were bad about those things?

 

[crixx]

Hospital volunteering was total crap.

But why did we all do it?

 

[Gunneria]

ugrad research diring the year..missed getting hammered on fridays

 

[Spin]

I regret joining Alpha Epsilon Delta, my school's co-ed pre-health honors fraternity. I had to go to all these social events and random one-time volunteer things like "spend a day doing arts and medicine at the hospital." One-time volunteer experiences are pretty meaningless, and I could have used the time AED took up MUCH better.

 

[MediCynical]

Volunteering in the Emergency Department... I restocked & cleaned rooms, didn't learn anything. It's much better to find somewhere you can actually interact with patients (room them, take vitals, chief complaints, etc.). Volunteering at a clinic for the uninsured allowed me to do that and was very rewarding, as well

 

[mmmcdowe]

I joined the pre-med interest group. Never went to another meeting, but it was a waste of 20 dollars....

 

[kexy]

how about all the EC's i regret NOT doing, because i was busy changing sheets at the hospital. grr

 

[StudyShy]

Sometimes tutoring makes me want to shake the student (shaken student syndrome), but it's good for me to know that other people learn things differently.

 

[samuraiR]

Sometimes tutoring makes me want to shake the student (shaken student syndrome), but it's good for me to know that other people learn things differently.

I love tutoring!

 

[URHere]

I loved most of my ECs, except for these:

-ER volunteering. You can only fetch so many warm blankets before you lose faith in your own usefulness.

-An internship at a language-learning lab. I spent 90% of my time programming and "interpreting" fluffy, soft-science data. Not my thing.

-A stint in computational research. Fascinating stuff, but I don't think I was smart enough to do it without inducing major brain-pain.

-Being a TA for a low-level Calc class. I love TAing, but that one was just painful.

-Paying for useless honor societies. Only PBK amounted to anything in the long run.

That being said, most of these were stepping stones to finding research and teaching gigs that I actually enjoyed, so I don't completely regret them.

 

[MilkmanAl]

What were bad about those things?

The one I enjoyed was just pushing people wherever they needed to go in a hospital. The ER one just involved me running around changing beds and giving people blankets. Both were wholly worthless as far as informing my decision to attend med school and gaining clinical experience go. Had I been forced to apply again, though, you bet your ass I would've talked them up as the most educational experiences ever.*

*Did both after I had applied.

 

[Janieve]

I've loved most all my ECs; one of them does frustrate me if I let it, though. I've been a member of my pre-health society for a long time. I'm active - I help prepare for events, take care of advertising, do clean up and occasionally act as a liaison between other groups, but they still won't let me have an officer position. No matter what I do, I'm apparently only good enough to be an errand girl.

But like I said, it only frustrates me if I let it.

 

[TTigers70]

I was part of the planning team for a philanthropy event that had an awesome cause. However, what I was told I was signing up for and what I actually signed up for were two totally different things. I was told the weekly commitment would start out at about 3-4 hours and ramp up to 5-7 as the event got closer. Within a week of starting, that turned into an easy 10 hours. This progressively grew to about 20 hours the week before the event and the week of the event forget about it...

It was an EC I really wanted to do and certainly not something to fill check-boxes as some people naively assume but it was a nightmare. The time commitment wasn't the worst thing, it was also the way the higher-ups treated us and I wasn't even a grunt! There was no effort made to make the event as painless as possible for participants and terrible leadership lead to a lot or repeated work and a scramble to the finish. I couldn't/wouldn't quit midway through but I definitely won't be signing up for that anymore.

 

[nolookpass]

The one I enjoyed was just pushing people wherever they needed to go in a hospital. The ER one just involved me running around changing beds and giving people blankets. Both were wholly worthless as far as informing my decision to attend med school and gaining clinical experience go. Had I been forced to apply again, though, you bet your ass I would've talked them up as the most educational experiences ever.*

*Did both after I had applied.

Yea I've read a lot of different things about ER volunteering/hospital volunteering on here. Some people loved it and got a chance to do important things, others hated it because it was mostly just cleaning things.

Second semester of my freshman year, so I decided to start doing some hospital volunteering this semester for clinical experience and see the hospital environment. Hopefully it goes well, especially since everyone says it's needed. I'm actually pretty excited to work in a hospital though.

What gave you clinical experience then?

 

[MCATism]

👍

Keep in mind med schools don't want drones, and baking pies sounds fun and normal and you could use it to counteract the whole "drone" image.

yeah, exactly. going on study abroad helped me get away from my pushy fellow stereotypical premed classmates (all gunners, i swear), and now i do ECs i actually like. are they "medical"? hell no. do they make me who i am, which - give or take - is hopefully what adcomms will like? sure.

i'm trying not to be a desperate premed, but also trying not to hate on those that are, because it's a slippery slope. toward the end, you start believing that changing sheets on the hospital beds is a great privilege that totally required all of those advanced biology and physics courses.

 

[apumic]

I've enjoyed all of my ECs. Don't do things just to check boxes. Nobody wants a mindless drone. People who have actual interests are much more...interesting. To get medical/clinical experience, I have often fit those experiences into other ECs and/or found opportunities that looked like a lot of fun (think ski patrol/medic or camp "nurse"-type positions, both volunteer and paid). Outside of my [paid clinical] job, I haven't done hardly any stocking or pt transport. My volunteer positions have been EMS and free clinic-related, so I have done assessment, triage, crowd control, surgical assisting, IVs/phlebotomy, filled out lab orders and such for the doc, administered in-house labs (blood glucose, UAs, troponin, etc.), and so forth. Outside that, my ECs have been largely fun, outdoors activities, although I've done my time in the lab.

 

[n3xa]

Looking back, I don't regret any. But if you asked me when I was doing it, teaching a class. Dealing with the excuses undergrads come up with is so bullsheet man. I thought because I was an undergrad too, they would tell me the truth. One person said he was sick, saw him at the gym the day after. Girl asked for an extension because she went through a hard break up, she was my friends friend. Turns out, her boyfriend was my facebook friend. Wasn't going to go to his party, but went anyways just to make sheet awkward. Yea, I did that. They were still together.

If you come off as a no-nonsense type of person the first day, the BS tends to decrease a bit.. a bit.

I remember one pre-pharmacy student tried to beg for more points on her lab report. Her reasoning was that she wrote the right equation down and did everything correctly but ended up miscalculating something (she received partial credit for it).

I replied that I saw that and wrote her reasoning in red along the margin of her paper, congratulated her on getting most of the problem correct, and then asked her if she's going to say the same excuse when she accidentally miscalculates something for a patient's prescription.

She stormed off.

 

[TheMagician17]

None, I feel like even the ones I despised most, they built character and helped me find myself, my likes, and dislikes.

 

[apumic]

If you come off as a no-nonsense type of person the first day, the BS tends to decrease a bit.. a bit.

I remember one pre-pharmacy student tried to beg for more points on her lab report. Her reasoning was that she wrote the right equation down and did everything correctly but ended up miscalculating something (she received partial credit for it).

I replied that I saw that and wrote her reasoning in red along the margin of her paper, congratulated her on getting most of the problem correct, and then asked her if she's going to say the same excuse when she accidentally miscalculates something for a patient's prescription.

She stormed off.

Sounds like something I'd say. Nice job! lol.

 

[wanderer]

I don't regret anything because a lot of what I did helped me get into school. The volunteering I did was at times fun, at times informative, but also a lot of the time just annoying. It did help me get into medical school, in addition to teach me a little bit about the profession, so I can't complain, though maybe I shouldn't have done it for as long as I did.

I was a part of student government; I don't remember if I joined as a resume-booster or because a lot of my friends were in it and I thought I'd enjoy it, but I did end up enjoying it.

I also did the campaigning/GOTV thing for a short time. It was cool being a part of team like that, and I believed that the candidate I was supporting was the best one out there. Sure it was annoying walking around a neighborhood 4-5 hours at a time, but I believe being told to "go f*** yourself" a couple times can toughen you up. I didn't put this on the app since I only did for a couple of weeks, but I wished I had found out about this earlier.

Basically looking back now, I have no regrets, but I might have been singing a different tune 1-2 years ago.

 

[alwaysaangel]

This is going to be my new question if I get to interview med school applicants again in the future.

Awesomeness. Just to see the blank look of people who really did regret something before they stammer out "no no, they were all valuable experiences."

Stop doing check box premed. It shows in applications and interviews.

If everyone would just do what they like instead, the world would be a better place. And yes, some of you wouldn't get into medical school. But in 4 years you may wish you hadn't. (the checkbox premeds who are now my classmates hate medicine and are going for the specialties for the most pay and least hours all the while they hate their lives)

 

[curlytop]

If everyone would just do what they like instead, the world would be a better place. And yes, some of you wouldn't get into medical school. But in 4 years you may wish you hadn't. (the checkbox premeds who are now my classmates hate medicine and are going for the specialties for the most pay and least hours all the while they hate their lives)

Depressing.

 

[curlytop]

1. Being involved in a club for my major.
2. 70% of the time I spent at a hospital job before I quit.
3. Most of my ECs senior year, now that I've been accepted.

 

[MilkmanAl]

This is going to be my new question if I get to interview med school applicants again in the future.

Awesomeness. Just to see the blank look of people who really did regret something before they stammer out "no no, they were all valuable experiences."

Stop doing check box premed. It shows in applications and interviews.

If everyone would just do what they like instead, the world would be a better place. And yes, some of you wouldn't get into medical school. But in 4 years you may wish you hadn't. (the checkbox premeds who are now my classmates hate medicine and are going for the specialties for the most pay and least hours all the while they hate their lives)

I agree with you as far as picking EC's you're going to like goes, but seriously, how many of us would do research or volunteer if we didn't have to to get in? Probably not too many.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Depressing.

Extremely. Its why people really need to evaluate what THEY want, and not what their parents want for them or what they just always expected from themselves.

Medicine is demanding and its the rest of your life and too many people go into it without really wanting it.

 

[uclaussr]

So i signed up for a seemingly meaningful job of helping the homeless. I was told i would serve as an advocate for homeless youth and help raise money for their cause-sure im all bout helping the homeless so i joined! What this involved was going door to door in random neighborhoods and harassing people for money. Then they promoted me to doing this next to the enterance to a supermarket. I was to stand there for hours at a time and come up to strangers and guilt trip them into making a "small" $150 donation to the homeless. Needless to say i lasted a week, and had a terrible sunburn to show for it. The one interesting thing that came out of that was a 3 hour conversation i had with a homeless man during a shift, which left me with a brand new picture of homelessness in America.

 

[apumic]

I agree with you as far as picking EC's you're going to like goes, but seriously, how many of us would do research or volunteer if we didn't have to to get in? Probably not too many.

I don't know about that. Research is interesting. I did it for the experience long before I decided "I wanted to be a doctor." And, really, the feeling I get from helping someone as well as the camaraderie that is built by working with others for nothing but a good cause is refreshing. I took another clinical volunteer position in addition to my first b/c of the excitement of it. While some people may not have volunteered if it weren't "required," I doubt this is as uncommon as you make it out to be.

 

[circulus vitios]

Hospital volunteering was total crap. One of my gigs was fun but completely useless as far as clinical experience goes. The other, ER volunteering, was miserable in every way. I wouldn't say I regret either of them, but I'd definitely scrub that ER time from my memory if I could.

I did it for 8 hours before quitting.



Sad thing is I'll have to do it next summer for real because hospital volunteering seems to be an unwritten rule. Ughhh. 40 or 50 hours total and I'm done.

 

[apumic]

I did it for 8 hours before quitting.



Sad thing is I'll have to do it next summer for real because hospital volunteering seems to be an unwritten rule. Ughhh. 40 or 50 hours total and I'm done.

If your hospital doesn't provide a good experience, find somewhere else to go. There are plenty of organizations in need of help. Go find one. Hospitals aren't the only (and most definitely nowhere near the best) places to get clinical volunteer experience.

 

[n3xa]

I agree with you as far as picking EC's you're going to like goes, but seriously, how many of us would do research or volunteer if we didn't have to to get in? Probably not too many.

Well I'm a non-trad who spent many years doing organic synthesis, so yes on the research.

And I guess I lucked out with volunteering 'cos it might not be the busiest ED in the area, the people who work there are really chill and I happen to like helping out staff that much more I get along with them great.




(ok, ok they just hired an adorable male nurse not too long either and that helps too)

 

[circulus vitios]

If your hospital doesn't provide a good experience, find somewhere else to go. There are plenty of organizations in need of help. Go find one. Hospitals aren't the only (and most definitely nowhere near the best) places to get clinical volunteer experience.

I don't like volunteering at all so there is no 'good experience.' I'll grin and bear it then never do it again after I've completed my extracurricular checklist.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I agree with you as far as picking EC's you're going to like goes, but seriously, how many of us would do research or volunteer if we didn't have to to get in? Probably not too many.

So get a job or do a volunteer position about something you're passionate about.

I tend to disagree. Many of my classmates love research and do it for the sake of the research. Many of my classmates feel strongly about giving back to the community and do it for the sake of helping others and enjoying something they love.

The people who wouldn't be doing it if they weren't trying to get into medical school have great risk of hating medicine. There is a huge element of self-sacrifice in medicine that often goes hand in hand with enjoying volunteering and giving back to the community in your free time.

 

[curlytop]

I agree with you as far as picking EC's you're going to like goes, but seriously, how many of us would do research or volunteer if we didn't have to to get in? Probably not too many.

There's no way EVER I'd have done research if it wasn't all but required at most schools. EVER. I would volunteer, but probably not in the hospital, like I did to get in.

 

[apumic]

I don't like volunteering at all so there is no 'good experience.' I'll grin and bear it then never do it again after I've completed my extracurricular checklist.

What aspect of volunteering don't you like? Medicine is huge on self-sacrifice from my observation (as a healthcare worker and having grown up in a family of docs & other health professionals).

 

[MilkmanAl]

So get a job or do a volunteer position about something you're passionate about.

That's actually what I did - pharm tech position and volunteering at my elementary school's daycare...not that I'd say I was "passionate" about either, but I did enjoy them - but most people are just jumping through hoops.

Many of my classmates love research and do it for the sake of the research. Many of my classmates feel strongly about giving back to the community and do it for the sake of helping others and enjoying something they love. The people who wouldn't be doing it if they weren't trying to get into medical school have great risk of hating medicine. There is a huge element of self-sacrifice in medicine that often goes hand in hand with enjoying volunteering and giving back to the community in your free time.

I knew zero pre-meds (who later went to med school) in college who did research because they enjoyed it. I know a handful in med school who did/do research because they enjoy it. I guess we're in very different places, in that regard. I'm interested in giving back to the community, and that's why I'm pursuing a profession in which I do nothing but that. I don't need to be someone's transportation bitch (or do any other community service) to prove my dedication to myself or to anyone else. It just seems really ass-backwards to essentially require people to volunteer when, by applying, they're already volunteering a gigantic portion of their lives to public service.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

I knew zero pre-meds (who later went to med school) in college who did research because they enjoyed it.

You know me Al! 😛

I enjoy research. A lot. My undergrad degree was in bio and 99.9% of it involved mindless memorization. Conducting research gave me a chance to use my brain for thinking instead! I'm also planning on staying in academia for a mix of research, teaching, and clinical duties. At least, that's the plan at the moment. Things could change in the future (ie. I find out I hate clinical research or something and that I can't balance a basic science lab with clinical duties, etc).

To stay on topic, I enjoyed pretty much all of my ECs. Most of them were things I was involved in from a while before even entering college (ie. music, sports, etc). I volunteered in the ER but there were some really cool physicians who would call us (volunteers) over whenever there was a cool case or a trauma coming in and spend the time teaching us about it. I learned a fair amount from that experience I would say. Would I volunteer in a hospital again in the future? Probably not. At least not in the premed sense. If I was more involved in taking care of the patient, then most likely yes.

 

[circulus vitios]

What aspect of volunteering don't you like? Medicine is huge on self-sacrifice from my observation (as a healthcare worker and having grown up in a family of docs & other health professionals).

Why are you comparing medicine to volunteering?

Transporting hospital food/transporting patients/"organizing" a blood drive/other pointless crap vs identifying diseases/drawing up treatment plans/performing surgery/reading MRIs/other interesting things.

They're completely different.

 

[nolookpass]

What do people do when they volunteer at a clinic compared to a hospital?

 

[apumic]

Why are you comparing medicine to volunteering?

Transporting hospital food/transporting patients/"organizing" a blood drive/other pointless crap vs identifying diseases/drawing up treatment plans/performing surgery/reading MRIs/other interesting things.

They're completely different.

I absolutely agree. The examples of volunteering you're using are radically different from the ones I am using. I wouldn't want to be doing that kind of stuff for long either. I love volunteering in things I am interested in. Volunteering as food service and transport -- no thanks -- but actually doing some pt care as a volunteer is a lot of fun and a good learning experience. If you hated volunteering b/c you're not getting paid or similar, that would be very different from disliking it because you're doing things you don't enjoy. That's why I asked what aspect of volunteering you hate so much.

What do people do when they volunteer at a clinic compared to a hospital?

YMMV, but in my experience:

Clinic: prescription assistance, pharmacy tech, physical assessment & pertinent med Hx*, surgical prep*, teaching*, stocking, registration/scheduling, etc.

Hospital: transport, stocking, v/s in triage (if lucky), finding wheelchairs, talking w/ pts and families (no clinical conversation)

* Generally requires additional training and/or supervision. I often bring unlicensed prehealth students back to assist in direct pt care under close supervision.