Extracurriculars

[ulikedaggers]

How important is it to be in leadership positions of clubs during preclinicals?

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[orangeblossom]

Less important than grades/class rank, Step 1, and research.

 

[chronicidal]

Less important than Step 1. About as important as preclinical grades. For the average program in the average specialty, as important as research. For the competitive program in the competitive specialty, less important than research. Leadership "qualities" are very important across the board. Having a leadership position is related but not exactly the same idea.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Less important than the weather forecast on the day of your residency interview...

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Less important than the weather forecast on the day of your residency interview...

This seems to be the consensus from those further up in the training pipeline, which begs the question, "Why in the world are so many med students chomping at the bits to be involved in these 'groups?'" Are they just inherently people that like to get involved? Social reasons? Under the illusion that it'll benefit their residency app?

 

[Wordead]

This seems to be the consensus from those further up in the training pipeline, which begs the question, "Why in the world are so many med students chomping at the bits to be involved in these 'groups?'" Are they just inherently people that like to get involved? Social reasons? Under the illusion that it'll benefit their residency app?

Because during the preclinical years you really don't have anything better to do aside from research and studying, so why not.

 

[Laryngophed]

Lawl at sex in med school and extracurriculars being the top two threads today.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Because during the preclinical years you really don't have anything better to do aside from research and studying, so why not.

Yea, I mean I guess... I just feel like there are 100 other things I'd rather do with my time.

 

[Wordead]

Yea, I mean I guess... I just feel like there are 100 other things I'd rather do with my time.

"Leadership" positions should not take very much time. Like maybe 5-10 hrs/max a semester.

 

[olecranon4]

This seems to be the consensus from those further up in the training pipeline, which begs the question, "Why in the world are so many med students chomping at the bits to be involved in these 'groups?'" Are they just inherently people that like to get involved? Social reasons? Under the illusion that it'll benefit their residency app?

Gee, I don't know, maybe so they can learn cool things or to make a difference in their community?

 

[punkedoutriffs]

Gee, I don't know, maybe so they can learn cool things or to make a difference in their community?

What cool things? And lol @ making a real difference.

 

[olecranon4]

What cool things? And lol @ making a real difference.

You'll never know. You have 100 better things to do with your time.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Welp, I guess that's that. Closing the book on trying to be in a leadership position that's just going to eat up free time.

 

[Apoplexy__]

Because during the preclinical years you really don't have anything better to do aside from research and studying, so why not.

God, I hope that's not what AdComs think. I'd rather do almost anything other than a half-hearted chitzy club event with my extracurricular time.

Welp, I guess that's that. Closing the book on trying to be in a leadership position that's just going to eat up free time.

Agreed. My pre-clinical advisor pesters her advisees to quit their volunteering/club activities lawl.

 

[Wordead]

God, I hope that's not what AdComs think. I'd rather do almost anything other than a half-hearted chitzy club event with my extracurricular time.



Agreed. My pre-clinical advisor pesters her advisees to quit their volunteering/club activities lawl.

Everyone says leadership, extracurrics are meaningless. But who can definitively say that they're not going to help you? So meh, I did them. I had plenty of free time first couple years, I met some people, i got free food, it was only a few hours out of my life.

 

[KnuxNole]

This seems to be the consensus from those further up in the training pipeline, which begs the question, "Why in the world are so many med students chomping at the bits to be involved in these 'groups?'" Are they just inherently people that like to get involved? Social reasons? Under the illusion that it'll benefit their residency app?

I barely know that many people that actually care about groups. I know I had no leadership things to ever speak of...and I "stretched" it for med school apps. I don't see myself as a leader, but used "tutoring" as leadership haha. In the big picture, I doubt they really cared and were more interested in the activity vs. me being a "leader". Residency apps didn't care about mumbo jumbo stuff which was a major plus

On the other hand, clubs for FREE food are always good. You don't have to actually stay and listen, but grab stuff and bolt.

 

[punkedoutriffs]

On the other hand, clubs for FREE food are always good. You don't have to actually stay and listen, but grab stuff and bolt.

Yea about that "free food." It's not really free, though it's made out to be. You actually pay for that food w/ a portion of your tuition. That's how clubs fund their activities. I don't know if this applies across the board but at least that's how it works at my school. Which really pisses me off, cuz that means I basically paid upfront for something that I'm not necessarily going to partake in. And I'm not really inclined to partake in it anyway b/c honestly, most of the food they have is crap food (high calorie, high carbs, pizza, chips, soda, other junk).

 

[KnuxNole]

True....I guess I got my money's worth then. After all, pizza and orange soda is something you can never turn down

 

[ulikedaggers]

God, I hope that's not what AdComs think. I'd rather do almost anything other than a half-hearted chitzy club event with my extracurricular time.



Agreed. My pre-clinical advisor pesters her advisees to quit their volunteering/club activities lawl.

Mine is just the opposite. She says that you should get involved outside of school to show you're well rounded.

 

[circulus vitios]

http://www.nrmp.org/match-data/main-residency-match-data/
"Results of the 2012 NRMP Program Director Survey," pages 3-6.

tl;dr: 61% of the surveyed program directors consider volunteering/ECs as a factor when looking at residency applications. Volunteering/ECs are given a mean importance rating of 3.0 out of 5.0. Note that ECs do not include research, as research is given a separate category.

 

[Apoplexy__]

Mine is just the opposite. She says that you should get involved outside of school to show you're well rounded.

Yeah. My advisor is probably unique in that way. I mean, I would probably recommend a club or two just to have something if you literally have absolutely nothing on your CV, but that's about it. And if you're insecure about it, you could always look up the plentiful statistics on NRMP.

But I think the people who are student government president or rotations coordinators are ill in the head. I have no idea what would possess a person to spend so much time doing something so unfun for such a miniscule reward.

 

[Wordead]

Yeah. My advisor is probably unique in that way. I mean, I would probably recommend a club or two just to have something if you literally have absolutely nothing on your CV, but that's about it. And if you're insecure about it, you could always look up the plentiful statistics on NRMP.

But I think the people who are student government president or rotations coordinators are ill in the head. I have no idea what would possess a person to spend so much time doing something so unfun for such a miniscule reward.

Student government takes a lot of time and is also useless so I would not recommend that.

Be the head of whatever specialty interest group you're interested in. Meet the docs in your specialty, expose yourself, plan out little workshops. Much better.

 

[deleted500612]

I find it kind of ironic that medical school admissions put such a massive emphasis on extracurricular activity and volunteering as if it's supposed to attest to someone's character. The overwhelming majority of med students only got involved in these activities because it bolsters their application, not because they genuinely cared. Once you get accepted you realize that nobody of importance gives two sh|ts about how much volunteering you've done or how many hours you spent organizing events at the local chess club.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

http://www.nrmp.org/match-data/main-residency-match-data/
"Results of the 2012 NRMP Program Director Survey," pages 3-6.

tl;dr: 61% of the surveyed program directors consider volunteering/ECs as a factor when looking at residency applications. Volunteering/ECs are given a mean importance rating of 3.0 out of 5.0. Note that ECs do not include research, as research is given a separate category.

A lot of the results in that survey make the face validity of it pretty questionable.

 

[ulikedaggers]

Student government takes a lot of time and is also useless so I would not recommend that.

Be the head of whatever specialty interest group you're interested in. Meet the docs in your specialty, expose yourself, plan out little workshops. Much better.

I agree. My level of interest in any given position is determine by how high the significance to time-consumed ratio is.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Yea about that "free food." It's not really free, though it's made out to be. You actually pay for that food w/ a portion of your tuition. That's how clubs fund their activities. I don't know if this applies across the board but at least that's how it works at my school. Which really pisses me off, cuz that means I basically paid upfront for something that I'm not necessarily going to partake in. And I'm not really inclined to partake in it anyway b/c honestly, most of the food they have is crap food (high calorie, high carbs, pizza, chips, soda, other junk).

Well, consider it free food because regardless of whether you go to the meeting or not, the money will be taken out of your tuition. Therefore, you are spending no more to eat there.

It's one thing if you're not into the foot b/c it's unhealthy (I'm personally loling @ eating healthy in medical school), and you can complain about it all you want, but it's not going to change. It's like me complaining that I shouldn't have had to pay the orientation fee prior to MS1 since I wasn't 21 at the time and couldn't partake in all of the open bars they had during orientation week (literally like 4 open bars over the course of a week or something). Unfortunately, life isn't fair.