Extracurriculars/volunteer experiences for IM residency app

[docren004]

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?

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[Adjet]

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.