EC's???

[rg2o3]

Hey everyone,

I want to start by saying thank you for checking out my post and I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I apologize if this is a silly question.

I will be starting medical school this summer and have a quick question regarding EC's. I know that this is slightly premature, but my mind gets to wandering when I have nothing going on (currently on break). I see over and over on the forums that ec's play a role in attaining residency. So, what exactly are these ec's? For example, I see students who wish to match EM, and speaks about their ec's. Are these ec's conducted based on the specialty in which you wish to match? What exactly do they consist of?

Thanks! Again I apologize for the somewhat silly question.

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[Anti-PD1]

It's a hard transition from pre-med to med school when it comes to ECs. In med school, ECs should be things you are naturally interested in, as opposed to what it's like in pre-med (I mean yeah, we all want to help people, but standing around in the ER entrance with a red coat trying to be useful is not my idea of time well spent, but I did it, the rest is history).

Let it be organic. Say you enter medical school interested in EM and Surgery. So, join the interest groups. As you move further along, you might decide on EM and stick with that interest group, organize talks, set up CPR training in your community etc.

ECs should also be things you like to do regardless of medicine. Most consistent question on the interview trail for me was, outside of medicine, who are you? What do you do? If you have hobbies, pursue them. If not, find a hobby. It differentiates you, and importantly, you care to do it.

 

[Gray Fox]

Hey everyone,

I want to start by saying thank you for checking out my post and I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. I apologize if this is a silly question.

I will be starting medical school this summer and have a quick question regarding EC's. I know that this is slightly premature, but my mind gets to wandering when I have nothing going on (currently on break). I see over and over on the forums that ec's play a role in attaining residency. So, what exactly are these ec's? For example, I see students who wish to match EM, and speaks about their ec's. Are these ec's conducted based on the specialty in which you wish to match? What exactly do they consist of?

Thanks! Again I apologize for the somewhat silly question.

I can actually speak for EM--and surgery to a lesser extent.
An EM faculty (APD?) commented on this in another thread.
For EM, SLOEs and EM sub-I grades are king, followed by STEP scores.
If you consider EM specific research an EC, that goes a long way. Every program I interviewed at spoke highly of EM research, even famous county and community programs were hungry for students with strong, relevant research experience. Academic, ivory tower shops even more so. This is assuming you have strong SLOES and STEPs.
Other high-yield ECs: National leadership and involvement in AMA, ACEP, and SAEM is also very impressive. Helping improve EM curricula or introducing new ways of teaching is also impressive. You could try to start a new drug intervention or violence intervention program at your hospital if one doesn't exist already or implement models that have been shown to work.
For surgery, STEPs and surgery rotation grades, and LORs are super important. I would say the most important thing you can do for surgery as an EC is research. Research, research, research. My best friend is applying to surgery, and he said research was the name of the game at top programs.

 

[rg2o3]

Thank you both for the responses! I’m sure my interests will change drastically over the next couple of years as I navigate through the first few years of medical school. It just seems that there is so much that goes into it besides the actual schooling and I appreciate being able to hop on here and pull from such a wide range of experiences.