Extra-curriculars and published research that's 7 years old. Worth including on application?

[Thomas121]

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During college (and shortly thereafter), I was quite insistent on going to medical school. During that time, I had some pretty amazing experiences, including working as an Emergency Room scribe for 4 years where I was essentially taking entire medical histories on my own. After I graduated, I also worked in a biochemistry lab for about a year and my work was published in a chemistry journal.

However, I was also programming as a hobby and ended up getting a fairly decent job offer that I really couldn't turn down, and have been doing that ever since.

For years, however, there's been a growing urge to go back into medicine. And within the last year, there have been some personal events in my life that have really opened up my eyes and changed me as a person, and I finally now feel like I truly know what I want to do in life, and it's medicine.

The MCAT is something I will obviously have to retake, but I'm wondering about all of the ECs and research experience that I had from 2010 - 2013. Should this be included on an application? It was amazing experience for me personally, but I'm not sure if school's will think differently of it since it occurred 7 years ago.

Thoughts?

 

[Goro]

Research, yes.
ECs? Only the ones that are most significant. Get some new ones in. You need to show that you want Medicine NOW.

 

[deleted972488]

It sounds like you and I have strikingly similar stories. I included my ECs from college on my application but also included more recent activities for every category.

 

[Thomas121]

Research, yes.
ECs? Only the ones that are most significant. Get some new ones in. You need to show that you want Medicine NOW.

Should the majority of the ECs on my application be newer? Would a 50-50 ratio of newer and older ECs work?

I have a few ideas for what I want to do, but I'm not sure how much of it I need to do given the wealth of quality ECs I have from 2009-2013.

 

[Catalystik]

Should the majority of the ECs on my application be newer? Would a 50-50 ratio of newer and older ECs work?

I have a few ideas for what I want to do, but I'm not sure how much of it I need to do given the wealth of quality ECs I have from 2009-2013.

Many nontrads would use one space to summarize significant collegiate activities, one for the scribing, and one for the publication and research, with the rest being more recent or updated.

 

[LizzyM]

You get 15 slots. One should be the job you've held since graduation because otherwise that looks like a huge hole in your CV. You should always include all your pubications. Obviously, you'd include under the research tag, whatever research you did that resulted in the publication(s). Clinical experiences in college could be lumped together and ditto non-clinical volunteering done in college (to show that you have longstanding interest in serving others). Of course, any non-clnical volunteering you've been doing since college graduation should be included too as well as more recent clinical exposure (paid or volunteer).

 

[Goro]

Many nontrads would use one space to summarize significant collegiate activities, one for the scribing, and one for the publication and research, with the rest being more recent or updated.

This

 

[deleted972488]

I'm not sure how much of it I need to do given the wealth of quality ECs I have from 2009-2013.

I’d make sure to cover your bases and get recent experience in clinical volunteering, non-clinical volunteering, and shadowing. You don’t need any more research or paid clinical experience.