Extracurricular activities and the postbaccalaureate student

[biodreamer]

What activities (if at all) do you guys participate in besides the usual hopsital related events? I was thinking about joining the track team at my university for the sake of challenging myself and competing (of course given that it will not interfere with my grades). I was wondering how common this was with the fellow SDNers and if there was an expectation from us to do this. I personally was not involved in any extracurricular activities during my UG career so it may improve my overall application.


I do understand that the point of a postbacc is to enhance your GPA. Many of us also may be considerably older than our classmates. How have these factors affected your participation in student life? Any positive experiences (clubs, organizations, teams) you would recommend to us?

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[darkjedi]

I don't think that it's necessarily 'expected', but the fact that you can take take up multiple ECs in your interest shows adcoms that you can be well rounded and balance your time well.

 

[Xcited392]

Can you join the track team? It seems that it might not be possible since you're not a degree student, unless there's some rule that will let you.

Anyways, if you had some great ECs during undergrad, then I don't think that a lack of ECs in a post-bacc will be problematic.

However, if you didn't have any ECs in UG, then you should try to pull some strings and get some activities in your post-bacc.

It also depends on how big/small your post-bacc school is. I'm at a pretty small post-bacc school and I'm going to talk with one of my professors next fall to see if I can do participate in student research. I'm optimistic about this because the school is small so there's less red tape.

 

[jslo85]

Research (hopefully something substantial comes out of it like abstracts or publications)
Find doctors who are willing to conduct a preceptorship rather than just shadowing
Work in a physician's office
Volunteer at a inner city drug rehab center

I personally live in a bike friendly city so what works for me is volunteering at the community cycling center fixing/tuning/building bikes that people donate so we can give them out to needy organizations. There are no specific hours that are required but y ou can just drop in and help out if you have had prior training. Same goes for computers in stripping/building computers off of donated parts/products from others. I'm sure Portland's not the only place that has these types of non-profit organizations if you're interested in this.

 

[jjf2139]

It's nice to see you have additional interests; med. schools do look for a 'well-balanced' student, aka has other hobbies and activities outside of a hospital. If you're interested in track, you may consider doing what I did - I joined a marathon-running class and will hopefully run one at the end of the semester.

It may be difficult to organize activities with other Postbac students - many have outside lives/families/spouses that they came in with, but you should be able to find a group of like-minded individuals. And don't be afraid to invite undergrads too!