Extracurriculars for Medical School Application

[Aspiring-Physician]

Can medically related extracurriculars that are done the summer after senior year of high school count towards medical school applications?

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[candbgirl]

Probably, especially if you carry one of them into college. Summers aren’t very long so you really wouldn’t rack up many hours in each extracurricular area. What are you planning to do?

 

[Aspiring-Physician]

Probably, especially if you carry one of them into college. Summers aren’t very long so you really wouldn’t rack up many hours in each extracurricular area. What are you planning to do?

Possible Research or Hospital volunteering

 

[LizzyM]

There is no law that you can't include activities before college, just that most people have more than enough items to fill the EC section without going deep into the time before college. There are always exceptions to the "rule".

Just don't make it a box check that you do research the summer after HS and never do it again and expect that you've checked the box. If you are getting a running start on something you'll continue to do in subsequent summers or during some (or all) academic years, then go for it and document it on your application.

And to the person who thinks that summers are short -- most people get at least 10 weeks between HS graduation and the start of college. A f/t activity can account for 400 hours which is not unsubstantial.

 

[Aspiring-Physician]

There is no law that you can't include activities before college, just that most people have more than enough items to fill the EC section without going deep into the time before HS. There are always exceptions to the "rule".

Would it look less impactful then?

 

[LizzyM]

If you are asking this and you have not yet graduated HS, you are far down the road from making your application to medical school which will be not sooner than May/June 2025. Revisit this question then taking a look at all you've done in your life and choosing the 15 items that best describe your work/activities including clinical activities (paid or volunteer), non-clinical volunteering, paid work that was not clinical, shadowing, research, teaching/tutoring, leadership, poster presentations, publications, athletics, artistic endeavors, hobbies, and other activities. Whether the activities you participated in prior to September 2022 will be a decision you should make then based on whether those activities are things that you want to highlight on your application.

 

[Aspiring-Physician]

If you are asking this and you have not yet graduated HS, you are far down the road from making your application to medical school which will be not sooner than May/June 2025. Revisit this question then taking a look at all you've done in your life and choosing the 15 items that best describe your work/activities including clinical activities (paid or volunteer), non-clinical volunteering, paid work that was not clinical, shadowing, research, teaching/tutoring, leadership, poster presentations, publications, athletics, artistic endeavors, hobbies, and other activities. Whether the activities you participated in prior to September 2022 will be a decision you should make then based on whether those activities are things that you want to highlight on your application.

Ok thank you!

 

[LizzyM]

You need some more recent experience as an adult. Some of this should be shadowing and some should be employment or volunteer. Don't rush things and don't make this type of expensive and life-altering decision based on some experiences you had as a kid.

 

[LizzyM]

I do have ~50hrs of shadowing and ~120hrs of clinical volunteering recently but it just doesn’t seem like enough… I could be wrong though. Promise this wasn’t a rushed decision at all; I carefully considered it for over a year while getting those hours before committing. I just thought the extra from hs may help considering 120 hrs is rather low.

120 recent hours for a career changer is fine.

 

[;A;]

If you are asking this and you have not yet graduated HS, you are far down the road from making your application to medical school which will be not sooner than May/June 2025. Revisit this question then taking a look at all you've done in your life and choosing the 15 items that best describe your work/activities including clinical activities (paid or volunteer), non-clinical volunteering, paid work that was not clinical, shadowing, research, teaching/tutoring, leadership, poster presentations, publications, athletics, artistic endeavors, hobbies, and other activities. Whether the activities you participated in prior to September 2022 will be a decision you should make then based on whether those activities are things that you want to highlight on your application.

What about if it was continued throughout college (Personally, it was meal delivery in HS —> meal delivery in undergrad with dif org during school yr —> meal delivery w/ same org during summer)? Would you say that the hrs are worth mentioning/to the same value?

 

[LizzyM]

What about if it was continued throughout college (Personally, it was meal delivery in HS —> meal delivery in undergrad with dif org during school yr —> meal delivery w/ same org during summer)? Would you say that the hrs are worth mentioning/to the same value?

It is pretty good to have 4-8 years of community service that counts time in HS as well as time in college with a specific cause. It is much less a box checking exercise when one sees that you started as a HS student and continued into your 20s.