Extracurriculars as Non-Traditional

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AB92

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What is everyone doing for extracurriculars as a non-traditional applicant? I'd love to quit my job, and focus 100% of my time of developing EC's for my application, but that's not feasible as I still need health insurance, money for bills, etc.

I currently volunteer at a hospital, and am heavily involved in an education outreach committee for a professional organization I'm in (engineering related, as that is my current occupation. I'm also on a committee at my current employer (after being nominated and selected as 1 of 10 people in our 800+ person company)where we review and reward employees for acts of service and innovation. What kind of EC's are they looking for from a non-traditional?

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Those aren't bad ECs, but you probably need more or a bit more variety at least since most are related to your job. Most of us have full-time jobs and/or full-time school so you are really not expected to dedicate 100% of your time to ECs. Try to do some non-clinical or clinical volunteering with underserved communities.
 
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TBH I have my job, do some volunteer science peer tutoring for other students with children, research, and my hobbies. Not enough time to do this other nonsense ECs - If 6 years army reserves with 4 years as a mental health advocate/counselor and 6 years as a lab tech/phlebotomist isn’t enough for a given school then I don’t want to go to that school.
 
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I did a few hours a week (less than 5) for two years to get my EC numbers. I did hospice for clinical, and taught special needs Sunday School and did church volunteering for non-clinical.

I also counted all the volunteering I did with my kids over the years. Room Mom, PTO, assistant coach of rec sports teams, fundraising for school sports, etc. I chaired committees and got most of my leadership positions through those opportunities, and it amounted to over a thousand hours of volunteer time.
 
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TBH seems okay since you're volunteering at a hospital as long as you have enough patient contact. If you had any volunteering in earlier jobs or in college, you can also put those down. There's only so much you can do at once and adcoms understand that you are working, in my experience.
 
TBH seems okay since you're volunteering at a hospital as long as you have enough patient contact. If you had any volunteering in earlier jobs or in college, you can also put those down. There's only so much you can do at once and adcoms understand that you are working, in my experience.
I was curious about what people thought about including my extracurricular for undergrad. I did have a lot of EC’s from undergrad, including leadership roles, but I wasn’t sure how adcoms would feel about those, since they were 5 years ago and were done when my intentions were to be an engineer and not a doctor.
 
I was curious about what people thought about including my extracurricular for undergrad. I did have a lot of EC’s from undergrad, including leadership roles, but I wasn’t sure how adcoms would feel about those, since they were 5 years ago and were done when my intentions were to be an engineer and not a doctor.

Absolutely include those. That’s the benefit of being a nontrad. You have more experience to pull from!
 
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I post this about three times a day.... Your ECs tell a story, as a non-trad you already have a unique position. Adcoms know you don't have the freedom of midweek scheduling like an undergrad does. If you are committed to your activities and have adequate clinical and service hours, you will be fine.
 
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I was curious about what people thought about including my extracurricular for undergrad. I did have a lot of EC’s from undergrad, including leadership roles, but I wasn’t sure how adcoms would feel about those, since they were 5 years ago and were done when my intentions were to be an engineer and not a doctor.
I think it shows that you were able to balance school and ECs regardless, that you had an interest in other things, and that you didn't just.. decide to be involved to look good for med school. (Even if the clinical stuff is new, your desire to be involved in the community in some capacity is not.) I'm pretty sure some of mine were 10 years old, no issues.
 
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OP: It depends. What are you interested in?
 
OP: It depends. What are you interested in?
Like interested in volunteering in? I love meeting people and learning about them. I recently signed up with a vision loss non-profit in my area to get matched up with someone who has vision problems and needs help running errands, grocery shopping etc. I think it will be fun! Everyone keeps mentioning volunteering with an underserved population- what exactly does that mean? The eldery? Homeless? Women's clinics?
 
That's what I meant. Congrats on your work w/the vision nonprofit--hope it goes well. I feel like it doesn't matter who you're helping as long as you make a positive contribution, you know? Just my $.02.
 
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Everyone keeps mentioning volunteering with an underserved population- what exactly does that mean? The eldery? Homeless? Women's clinics?

Yeah elderly, homeless, immigrants, etc
 
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Like interested in volunteering in? I love meeting people and learning about them. I recently signed up with a vision loss non-profit in my area to get matched up with someone who has vision problems and needs help running errands, grocery shopping etc. I think it will be fun! Everyone keeps mentioning volunteering with an underserved population- what exactly does that mean? The eldery? Homeless? Women's clinics?

Anyone who would have a barrier to receiving good healthcare due to a variety of circumstances, including geography, socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, etc.
Usually includes the elderly, veterans, homeless, LGBTQ, battered women, immigrants, prison populations, rural communities, etc.
 
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Keep an open eye/ear out and let people know you're looking for some cool volunteer experiences. It's sounds like you're already finding some things that appeal to your interests. By word of mouth I learned about a program at a nearby college where the school pool was taken over on Friday nights by local kids with disabilities, their siblings and 1:1 volunteers. You didn't have to be a student to volunteer - just be OK with a background check and available 6-8pm Friday evenings. Sometimes I was exhausted after a long week at work, but I ended up always looking forward to those evenings. Actually since I wasn't a student I was often more dependable than many of the college kids who would become scarce around exam times. I had the chance to volunteer with the same child multiple years. Plus, I got in a weekly swimming session without paying a gym fee :)
 
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Keep an open eye/ear out and let people know you're looking for some cool volunteer experiences. It's sounds like you're already finding some things that appeal to your interests. By word of mouth I learned about a program at a nearby college where the school pool was taken over on Friday nights by local kids with disabilities, their siblings and 1:1 volunteers. You didn't have to be a student to volunteer - just be OK with a background check and available 6-8pm Friday evenings. Sometimes I was exhausted after a long week at work, but I ended up always looking forward to those evenings. Actually since I wasn't a student I was often more dependable than many of the college kids who would become scarce around exam times. I had the chance to volunteer with the same child multiple years. Plus, I got in a weekly swimming session without paying a gym fee :)
This is awesome! In high school and college I was a lifeguard at a summer camp for kids with special needs and I loved it!
 
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Anyone who would have a barrier to receiving good healthcare due to a variety of circumstances, including geography, socioeconomic status, race, sexual orientation, etc.
Usually includes the elderly, veterans, homeless, LGBTQ, battered women, immigrants, prison populations, rural communities, etc.

I would also add these groups:
  • Indigenous poor, such as Native Americans on reservations
  • Farmworkers
  • Runaway youth
  • Mentally ill
  • Injection drug users
  • Street sex workers/prostitutes
  • Day laborers (jwho may or may not be undocumented/immigrant)
  • Patients of serious or terminal illness, such as cancer, stroke, autoimmune and neurological diseases, or are in a hospice
  • The poor, both working and unemployed
Be aware that many people cross the lines among these groups, i.e. they belong to multiple categories, medically and socially underserved circumstances. So by helping one group, you can contribute to helping those from other groups. For example, my past ECs include: the homeless, injection drug workers and sex workers, some LBTQ. At the free clinic, most of our clients were homeless, had mental health and substance abuse issues, with high rates of HIV and heptatis C. I had a regular client at the free clinic who was an elderly, chronically-depressed, HIV+, homeless lesbian who was addicted to cocaine and heroin.

What about looking at a microcosm or subset of one of these populations to ask how these people's health and well-being are impacted by their living arrangement? For example:
  • People forced to live under duress due to unusual housing or substandard housing. There were homeless living in the steam tunnels beneath the campus of my college. There are also homeless living in the flood control tunnels beneath the Las Vegas Strip, or in subway tunnels in San Francisco and New York City ("mole people"). Where I live now, many homeless live along railroad lines (noisy) and along freeways (air pollution from vehicles).
If you have the time, resources, and inclination, consider trying to find an unmet health care need and try to solve it. It was my experience working with injection drug users and the homeless that encouraged me to partner with some PAs and an ER doc to set up mobile wound care clinics under auspices of syringe exchanges. We later ended up doing street-based general medicine. When I moved across state, I set up other health projects and health fairs.

Now, I still work with the homeless/IDU/LGBTQ community, but also do other projects such as work with cancer and stroke patients and run free clinics in Mexico.
 
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I would also add these groups:
  • Indigenous poor, such as Native Americans on reservations
  • Farmworkers
  • Runaway youth
  • Mentally ill
  • Injection drug users
  • Street sex workers/prostitutes
  • Day laborers (jwho may or may not be undocumented/immigrant)
  • Patients of serious or terminal illness, such as cancer, stroke, autoimmune and neurological diseases, or are in a hospice
  • The poor, both working and unemployed
Be aware that many people cross the lines among these groups, i.e. they belong to multiple categories, medically and socially underserved circumstances. So by helping one group, you can contribute to helping those from other groups. For example, my past ECs include: the homeless, injection drug workers and sex workers, some LBTQ. At the free clinic, most of our clients were homeless, had mental health and substance abuse issues, with high rates of HIV and heptatis C. I had a regular client at the free clinic who was an elderly, chronically-depressed, HIV+, homeless lesbian who was addicted to cocaine and heroin.

What about looking at a microcosm or subset of one of these populations to ask how these people's health and well-being are impacted by their living arrangement? For example:
  • People forced to live under duress due to unusual housing or substandard housing. There were homeless living in the steam tunnels beneath the campus of my college. There are also homeless living in the flood control tunnels beneath the Las Vegas Strip, or in subway tunnels in San Francisco and New York City ("mole people"). Where I live now, many homeless live along railroad lines (noisy) and along freeways (air pollution from vehicles).
If you have the time, resources, and inclination, consider trying to find an unmet health care need and try to solve it. It was my experience working with injection drug users and the homeless that encouraged me to partner with some PAs and an ER doc to set up mobile wound care clinics under auspices of syringe exchanges. We later ended up doing street-based general medicine. When I moved across state, I set up other health projects and health fairs.

Now, I still work with the homeless/IDU/LGBTQ community, but also do other projects such as work with cancer and stroke patients and run free clinics in Mexico.
Thank you for all the info and different perspectives!
 
I emphasize the idea of finding a health care need and remedying that need. It is highly rewarding. And there is such a great demand. You never know how things will turn out. In one case, I worked one night a week at a rescue mission/soup kitchen. We ran a clinic out of a single room when it was just 2 premeds, a nurse from the county health department, and myself the medical assistant/phlebotomist/community health worker (I was not premed at this time.) Unfortunately, I was already involved in the two mobile wound care projects and so I had to back out of the rescue mission project. But that single room clinic eventually became a full-fledged self-standing health project.
 
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