Extracurriculars/volunteer experiences for IM residency app

Started by docren004
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docren004

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How important are extracurriculars/volunteer experiences on a residency app, particularly for a DO student applying to IM after Step 1 becomes P/F? Is it important to have several things, or is it enough to have one or two things you've done for a long time? Would being a board member for a small nonprofit be a good one? Do you need to report your hours doing the activity?
 
Again, your med school performance will largely outweigh anything else on your app including extracurriculars. It's good to have a few activities there just to have something, but it won't really move the needle unless you do something super legit. So I think it would be ok to focus on a couple activities that you feel are a good use of your time. You do end up adding hours in ERAS, but I would not at all worry about this - I highly doubt anyone looks closely at this.