Extracurriculars?

[HelloGoodbye]

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Hey, I know this has been discussed before, but what is everyone doing for extracurriculars? So far I have done a few one time volunteerring opportunites, interviewed candidates for my school, and thats about it. I applied for a few 2-3 family med internships this summer, but could apply to longer programs, since I am getting married.

Currently, I am interested in Family med, neurology, or internal med --->with an endocrine fellowships, so nothing too competitive.

I just don't want to get to residency applications and have nothing to put on ERAS.

Any advice woudl be appreciated!

 

[IHeartNerds]

You don't really need that much. Have one or two things you do. If it's research, great, if it's running an interest group, great. If it's playing in a band every weekend, that works too. Your ERAS application should reflect who you are; who you are should not be created on the basis of your ERAS application.

 

[mvenus929]

I'm pretty involved with our medical alumni association... giving tours and explaining our new curriculum to all the alumni that come back for various events and helping to organize various events for the med students.

Beyond that, I do a bunch of random stuff. Did a Habitat build over our 'spring' break, hoping to do a rural clinic thing this summer, do a few random one-day volunteering events, and so forth. Played in an intramural (co-ed) football league.

No research under my belt, though I might try to do an international research rotation fourth year.

Not doing any of that for the application... doing it because I enjoy it. And it gives me a better reason to procrastinate than watching TV and playing on the internet.

 

[Lil Mick]

You might want to check with your student career office to see what other students from your school who have matched into those specialties of interest have done during school/summers... For me, I do research/present at conferences, am involved in my program, hold positions in two specialty interest groups, volunteer in my community, and help with admissions/pre-med advising. Some people do more than that in my class; some do less. Do what makes you happy and leaves you with a balanced life 🙂

 

[gocoastal]

Pick things that you enjoy and show commitment to them. If it's interviewing the incoming class, that's cool. If it's volunteering, pick one place and go consistently. It's hard to document a bunch of one-time activities on ERAS. If you like water skiing, do that instead. I got a lot of questions in my residency interviews about my extracurricular activities.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey, I know this has been discussed before, but what is everyone doing for extracurriculars? So far I have done a few one time volunteerring opportunites, interviewed candidates for my school, and thats about it. I applied for a few 2-3 family med internships this summer, but could apply to longer programs, since I am getting married.

Currently, I am interested in Family med, neurology, or internal med --->with an endocrine fellowships, so nothing too competitive.

I just don't want to get to residency applications and have nothing to put on ERAS.

Any advice woudl be appreciated!

Other than research, nobody at the residency level is really going to care about med school ECs. For neurology and IM subspecialties, research looks solid. No residency program is going to make much of your interviewing or volunteering experiences. You do those because you are interested and for the networking potential, but it's not going to add much weight to a CV. Being a member or organizer of an interest group won't add any CV value, but again if it helps you network with folks in the field, that can prove useful.

 

[ArcGurren]

Other than research, nobody at the residency level is really going to care about med school ECs. For neurology and IM subspecialties, research looks solid. No residency program is going to make much of your interviewing or volunteering experiences. You do those because you are interested and for the networking potential, but it's not going to add much weight to a CV. Being a member or organizer of an interest group won't add any CV value, but again if it helps you network with folks in the field, that can prove useful.

That's not entirely true. If you have some sort of experience in leadership or running a club it always looks good. Being on an admissions committee is always a plus, for example.

 

[Law2Doc]

That's not entirely true. If you have some sort of experience in leadership or running a club it always looks good. Being on an admissions committee is always a plus, for example.

It's such an insignificant "plus" you can pretty much write it off. Running a club is fantastic when applying to med school, but that, like being an student member of adcom, is pretty meaningless to most residency directors. Research is the only EC that can really make or break you at the residency level. If you've had personal feedback that PD folks were impressed that's great, but when push comes to shove it's not going to play much of a role in how they rank you.

 

[mvenus929]

It's such an insignificant "plus" you can pretty much write it off. Running a club is fantastic when applying to med school, but that, like being an student member of adcom, is pretty meaningless to most residency directors. Research is the only EC that can really make or break you at the residency level. If you've had personal feedback that PD folks were impressed that's great, but when push comes to shove it's not going to play much of a role in how they rank you.

What you're basically saying is that if you don't have research, you're screwed, which is in complete opposition to what I've heard from a number of people involved with various residency programs at my school.

We had someone involved in one particular residency program here give us a presentation on what we should do to be competitive for residency, and she flat out stated that research was nice, but only if you actually got something out of it. She'd rather have someone not do research and do something like work in the free clinic because they enjoyed it and got something out of it than do research just to put it on the application.

No doubt there are some residency programs (and specialties) where research is an unwritten requirement, but it doesn't seem like if you don't do research, you're screwed, from what I've heard.

 

[ProtossCarrier]

What you're basically saying is that if you don't have research, you're screwed, which is in complete opposition to what I've heard from a number of people involved with various residency programs at my school.

We had someone involved in one particular residency program here give us a presentation on what we should do to be competitive for residency, and she flat out stated that research was nice, but only if you actually got something out of it. She'd rather have someone not do research and do something like work in the free clinic because they enjoyed it and got something out of it than do research just to put it on the application.

No doubt there are some residency programs (and specialties) where research is an unwritten requirement, but it doesn't seem like if you don't do research, you're screwed, from what I've heard.

What L2d is saying is that research weight much, much more than any other activities you can do.

Hell, I am not doing a single thing besides research, because I value my free time.

 

[Charles_Carmichael]

What you're basically saying is that if you don't have research, you're screwed, which is in complete opposition to what I've heard from a number of people involved with various residency programs at my school.

We had someone involved in one particular residency program here give us a presentation on what we should do to be competitive for residency, and she flat out stated that research was nice, but only if you actually got something out of it. She'd rather have someone not do research and do something like work in the free clinic because they enjoyed it and got something out of it than do research just to put it on the application.

No doubt there are some residency programs (and specialties) where research is an unwritten requirement, but it doesn't seem like if you don't do research, you're screwed, from what I've heard.

Not sure what post you're reading but L2D never said that you're screwed if you don't have research...

 

[Mattchiavelli]

I know I got asked a few times while interviewing for neurology residencies why I wasn't in SIGN [neuro SIG] so if you interview for Neurology try to join that to avoid awkward questions [I was in IMSIG my first two years b/c it was the only SIG we had at our 2 year regional center]

anyway if OP is still looking the American Diabetes Association runs summer camps for kids w/ diabetes where you work as medical staff separate from the camp counselors and you just manage kids and their meds- only a 2 week commitment and I learned an incredible amount about insulin management.

 

[shadowfox87]

Like people have already said above, ECs are insignificant when applying for residencies. This is not high school or undergrad anymore where people do ECs just so they can beef up their CV. Residency directors know what is important and they will look for only those qualities.