Extracurricular Activities DURING Medical School?

[965978]

What kinds of extracurricular activities are realistic for medical school?

Can you play a club sport, join a band, have a volunteer internship?

I’m absolutely not talking about what looks good for residency. We’re just talking about personal fulfillment here.

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[atomi]

All of those are possible. Especially preclinical.

I personally ran a small home-based business that occupied 30 hours a week. It sucked all my free time leaving me no other hobbies but it was technically do-able. If I could do that then you can join a basketball league.

Other people had families and that’s where their 30 hours went.

You should be able to find up with 30 hours a week of disposable time to do with whatever you want.

40 hours a week for studying and school activities and about 5 on the weekend are good rules of thumbs.

 

[907914]

If additional volunteering and work activities etc. are not necessarily expected during medical school, then how much really does the ERAS application change from you AMCAS application?

 

[965978]

If additional volunteering and work activities etc. are not necessarily expected during medical school, then how much really does the ERAS application change from you AMCAS application?

Not too much. You should have at least a few new things, e.g. research, volunteering, club leadership, and hobbies that you've done during med school. And there will probably be some things from AMCAS that you will not include on your ERAS application as well. On ERAS you can/should include some things from before med school, but only longer-term commitments and/or activities that showcase your interests within medicine, or unique experiences that help show who you are as a person.

From what I gather, med schools care a lot about the things outside of the medical/scientific sphere. They care about volunteering, hobbies, EC’s, your life story. Etc.

Residencies, for the most part, only care about things that directly affect how easy you will train and what kind of team player you will be. These include things like your clinical skills, motivation for the field, letters of recommendation, and board scores.

 

[Mike Bagwell]

Medical school is not college. If you want to hit the books hardcore and then be selfish and spend your free time with a few friends, that's perfectly fine. No volunteer gigs for me in med school. This is about ME now.

 

[907914]

From what I gather, med schools care a lot about the things outside of the medical/scientific sphere. They care about volunteering, hobbies, EC’s, your life story. Etc.

Residencies, for the most part, only care about things that directly affect how easy you will train and what kind of team player you will be. These include things like your clinical skills, motivation for the field, letters of recommendation, and board scores.

So, even if you don’t do anything extra curricular wise in medical school, some things like publications, past military, or past significant health care employment might still be things you carry on through your application?

 

[907914]

Medical school is not college. If you want to hit the books hardcore and then be selfish and spend your free time with a few friends, that's perfectly fine. No volunteer gigs for me in med school. This is about ME now.

While just a Pre-MED I believe I will want to be in the same boat. Study as much as I need during the week, then most weekends just enjoy time with family/not touching the books.

 

[differentiating]

Yes, residencies do care about the things you listed. However, I also had lots of conversations during my residency interviews about hobbies/interests outside of medicine that I listed on my ERAS application, as well as some of my undergrad experiences that were related to my specific interests within medicine.

This - you should still have a decent number of ECs, whether in med school or prior. Almost all of my interviews wanted to talk about my research experiences, and my hobbies were also discussed more often than not. You don’t have to kill yourself with extracurriculars, but I think residencies are more interested in them than people say.

 

[drdpmn]

I'm an M1 and find I have, for the most part, quite a bit of time to pursue other interests. I don't participate in many traditional extracurriculars (clubs etc) but instead save my time for things that give me the most enjoyment. From observing my peers I would say I am less stressed and happier than many of them, so I think it is worthwhile.

 

[jurassicpark]

It will be very hard to be able to dedicate a set amount of time to an organization with a hard schedule, like bands etc. Most medical students at most will get involved in maybe a club or two but also research which will eat about a huge amount of your free time. Your schedule will change constantly depending on your classes. If you have labs, practice exams, etc.

As people have suggested, intramural sports seems to have been the most popular. For me, it was the Halo competitions :-D And drinking, drinking is an extracurricular, right?

 

[mvenus929]

It’s all about your priorities. I knew people in my med school who did the university marching band during preclinical years, another that joined the university orchestra and was a conductor during our fourth year. Multiple people volunteered as EMTs for the local fire department. Others had families and kids. Most of us just kinds went with the flow and did things as groups when we had time, but established activities are certainly possible.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

OP is correct to be thinking about EC's in terms of what gives a person joy. Wellness is a buzzword these days, but for good reason. As physicians, we work hard, and one needs to MAKE time for other activities that bring us joy. Mostly, this is about finding ways to meaningfully interact with others, including people outside of medicine. Club sports will be one route at medical schools that are part of the bigger university . Most universities with a rugby team, water polo team, badminton team etc, are club teams and grad students get to be a part of the teams. You may miss some practices and games, but not usually a problem. And some schools have other intramural sports activities.

There will be time to shadow specialties that you might not get exposure to in medical school, like IR, radiation oncology, dermatology, ophtho, pathology, etc. There will be courses for Spanish for medical professionals at most schools or other electives such as in global health or social justice. Research is always possible, though with some of the schools where there is a compressed curriculum (1.5 yrs) for preclinical, one needs to be careful of spending too much time doing research. Students have, as one poster mentioned, run businesses in their "spare time" in medical school. Many schools have a free clinic that is a good way to get hands-on some clinical experience with the guidance of near-peers, even very early in the clinical year, and can ultimately get leadership responsibility as an upperclassman.

Residencies care little about EC's - though certainly leadership is always important to residencies, so if you develop leadership roles in your EC.s they care. Or if you teach in a role in your EC's, that is appealing bc being a resident means teaching junior residents and medical students.

 

[965978]

OP is correct to be thinking about EC's in terms of what gives a person joy. Wellness is a buzzword these days, but for good reason. As physicians, we work hard, and one needs to MAKE time for other activities that bring us joy. Mostly, this is about finding ways to meaningfully interact with others, including people outside of medicine. Club sports will be one route at medical schools that are part of the bigger university . Most universities with a rugby team, water polo team, badminton team etc, are club teams and grad students get to be a part of the teams. You may miss some practices and games, but not usually a problem. And some schools have other intramural sports activities.

There will be time to shadow specialties that you might not get exposure to in medical school, like IR, radiation oncology, dermatology, ophtho, pathology, etc. There will be courses for Spanish for medical professionals at most schools or other electives such as in global health or social justice. Research is always possible, though with some of the schools where there is a compressed curriculum (1.5 yrs) for preclinical, one needs to be careful of spending too much time doing research. Students have, as one poster mentioned, run businesses in their "spare time" in medical school. Many schools have a free clinic that is a good way to get hands-on some clinical experience with the guidance of near-peers, even very early in the clinical year, and can ultimately get leadership responsibility as an upperclassman.

Residencies care little about EC's - though certainly leadership is always important to residencies, so if you develop leadership roles in your EC.s they care. Or if you teach in a role in your EC's, that is appealing bc being a resident means teaching junior residents and medical students.

Do medical schools allow students to take their MS-3 clerkships in any order that they want?

Because if they do, I was thinking that I’ll perhaps get my surgery clerkship done during the time that the undergrad university has their summer vacation so that I wouldn’t have to miss out on club activities (because the undergrad clubs are usually inactive during summer).

 

[mvenus929]

Do medical schools allow students to take their MS-3 clerkships in any order that they want?

Because if they do, I was thinking that I’ll perhaps get my surgery clerkship done during the time that the undergrad university has their summer vacation so that I wouldn’t have to miss out on club activities (because the undergrad clubs are usually inactive during summer).

Going to vary from school to school. At my school, there was a specified order to the clerkships themselves (so Peds always followed IM, which was followed by OB and FM, etc), but we lotteried into which one we wanted to start with. After my class, they changed the rotation blocks somewhat (divided it into 4 blocks instead of 6), and kept students in their pre-clinical cohort of students, so there wasn't much choice for the students in the matter.

 

[965978]

Going to vary from school to school. At my school, there was a specified order to the clerkships themselves (so Peds always followed IM, which was followed by OB and FM, etc), but we lotteried into which one we wanted to start with. After my class, they changed the rotation blocks somewhat (divided it into 4 blocks instead of 6), and kept students in their pre-clinical cohort of students, so there wasn't much choice for the students in the matter.

Thank you! Am I correct is assuming that surgery is generally the most time intensive clerkship?

 

[differentiating]

Do medical schools allow students to take their MS-3 clerkships in any order that they want?

Because if they do, I was thinking that I’ll perhaps get my surgery clerkship done during the time that the undergrad university has their summer vacation so that I wouldn’t have to miss out on club activities (because the undergrad clubs are usually inactive during summer).

My school is a lottery system both for clerkship sites and for order - so theoretically yes, but realistically you're not going to get the exact order that you want. Unlike the school mentioned above, you can do clerkships in any order, rather than following a set pattern. Each school will be different.

Thank you! Am I correct is assuming that surgery is generally the most time intensive clerkship?

IM and OB/GYN are also very time-intensive, at least at my school. I'd suggest planning on doing the bulk of your ECs during MS1 & MS2, since MS3 is generally pretty busy. You get more time again when MS4 rolls around, for a last hurrah of activities prior to applications.

 

[DrFortiusNatando]

Do medical schools allow students to take their MS-3 clerkships in any order that they want?

Because if they do, I was thinking that I’ll perhaps get my surgery clerkship done during the time that the undergrad university has their summer vacation so that I wouldn’t have to miss out on club activities (because the undergrad clubs are usually inactive during summer).

Some schools do let students put in their rotation preferences - ours does. And sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not.

No one is ever guaranteed to get the order that they request though. At our school, students get to request and then a computer program runs the requests and some students seem to get everything they request, while others get nothing that they requested.

Other than for activities, why would students want to request a particular order? There is often not really a way to know what the "best" order is for any given student. But there is some folklore that makes some sense - someone who thinks they are interested in pediatrics might not want to do that first, but they also do not want to wait to do it last either. And some students who have some weddings to go to in the summer might want to request a rotation that does not have weekends for their summer clerkship (ie Primary Care).