Extracurriculars during med school

[mtDNA]

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Hello. I am just beginning M1 in a couple of days, and I noticed that many med students choose to be involved in student organizations doing community service and other stuff like that. Honestly, I did not enjoy doing tons of this stuff during premed, I did it because I knew I had to in order to get into med school. Here is my question: if I want to match into a competitve specialty, do I need to be involved in these organizations? or do residency programs not care much about them? Previously, my understanding was that step 1 scores, clinical grades, LORs, and research were the important factors for a successful match, but now I am wondering if ECs are a necessary piece of the puzzle for competitive specialties. Let me know what you guys think.

 

[footcramp]

not as important. should have something though. something is always better than nothing. keep sane. don't sell out. good luck.

 

[Nerdoscience]

It depends on the specialty and the program. Some programs just won't rank people that don't seem to have a life outside of studying. They want people who have interesting hobbies, care about society, AND have a strong interest in and tanlent for medicine. Other programs don't seem to give a crap about anything but your numbers. I'd say it wouldn't hurt to join an organization that is meaningful to you, but don't join every single organization out there.

 

[psipsina]

Hello. I am just beginning M1 in a couple of days, and I noticed that many med students choose to be involved in student organizations doing community service and other stuff like that. Honestly, I did not enjoy doing tons of this stuff during premed, I did it because I knew I had to in order to get into med school. Here is my question: if I want to match into a competitve specialty, do I need to be involved in these organizations? or do residency programs not care much about them? Previously, my understanding was that step 1 scores, clinical grades, LORs, and research were the important factors for a successful match, but now I am wondering if ECs are a necessary piece of the puzzle for competitive specialties. Let me know what you guys think.

Look into the interest groups if you aren't as interested in the community service type stuff, like the surgery interest group you have guest lecturers with free lunch, suture clinics and chances to observe surgeries . . . I'm sure you can find something that floats your boat . . . alot of the interest groups are designed to help you find a specialty that fits your personality best, so it can only help you to try a few out.

 

[njbmd]

Hello. I am just beginning M1 in a couple of days, and I noticed that many med students choose to be involved in student organizations doing community service and other stuff like that. Honestly, I did not enjoy doing tons of this stuff during premed, I did it because I knew I had to in order to get into med school. Here is my question: if I want to match into a competitve specialty, do I need to be involved in these organizations? or do residency programs not care much about them? Previously, my understanding was that step 1 scores, clinical grades, LORs, and research were the important factors for a successful match, but now I am wondering if ECs are a necessary piece of the puzzle for competitive specialties. Let me know what you guys think.

Hi there,
There are plenty of medical students that do not get involved in extracurriculars. Having a solid academic performance and good Board scores will do plenty for your residency application. As "psipsina" said, "Get involved in an interest group" if you have the time but the best thing that you can have on your residency application is a great academic record. The accolades will come with that.

njbmd 🙂