MD & DO Feedback on EC's

[Radon XP]

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I know these threads are common but I just wanted some feedback so that I can address any deficiencies in the time I have left

350+ hours volunteering at a major hospital (3+ years)
150+ hours volunteering at a low-income clinic (1 year)
150+ hours volunteering at a homeless shelter (1 year)
50 hours of shadowing (including 1 DO )
1 Research position, 1 year, 300+ hours
officer in student pre med organization
active in theater club/writer
member of ethnic organization
2 jobs (one of them was 1 semester, 20 hours per week, and the other was a year-long tutoring job)
the usual academic honors (dean's list, etc)

Also planning to take a gap year and hoping to do a program like Americorps during that time

 

[familyaerospace]

Maybe a hobby outside of theater? Maybe your publications/presentations? Actual leadership positions and not just membership?

Mine are

1) Shadowing 400 hours
2) Medical volunteering 352 hours
3) Publications - full cites for three of them, half references for four more, link to online CV to get full cites for the others
4) and 5) all my presentations with full cites, needed two sections, link to online CV to get full cites
6) 20+ years of theater, I just did 999 hours and explained
7) Hobbies, my "normal" ones as I was advised one of my hobbies was scaring people so that was eliminated
8) 10 year job, I maxed the hours and explained
9) 3+ year part/full time research position, I think I maxed the hours
10) As many national/international leadership positions as I could fit then directed them to my online CV if they wanted to know the rest.
11) 2 year job as a consultant, I maxed the hours and explained
12) non-medical volunteering, about 2000 hours
13) non-clinical medical volunteer (hard to explain), 200 hours
14) non-medical volunteering with religious community (strong ties to state), 999 hours
15) graduate teaching assistant, can't remember the hours I used.

 

[EyesOfTheWorld]

You guys make my EC's look like child's play. 😱

 

[Spinach Dip]

Kids these days....

 

[zzxxzz]

You guys make my EC's look like child's play. 😱

OP's ECs look somewhat above average.

Poster #2's ECs are the EC equivalent of a 42+ on the MCAT.

I know these threads are common but I just wanted some feedback so that I can address any deficiencies in the time I have left

I wouldn't sweat it. You could always shadow more, but don't really need to.

 

[Radon XP]

Maybe a hobby outside of theater? Maybe your publications/presentations? Actual leadership positions and not just membership?

Mine are

1) Shadowing 400 hours
2) Medical volunteering 352 hours
3) Publications - full cites for three of them, half references for four more, link to online CV to get full cites for the others
4) and 5) all my presentations with full cites, needed two sections, link to online CV to get full cites
6) 20+ years of theater, I just did 999 hours and explained
7) Hobbies, my "normal" ones as I was advised one of my hobbies was scaring people so that was eliminated
8) 10 year job, I maxed the hours and explained
9) 3+ year part/full time research position, I think I maxed the hours
10) As many national/international leadership positions as I could fit then directed them to my online CV if they wanted to know the rest.
11) 2 year job as a consultant, I maxed the hours and explained
12) non-medical volunteering, about 2000 hours
13) non-clinical medical volunteer (hard to explain), 200 hours
14) non-medical volunteering with religious community (strong ties to state), 999 hours
15) graduate teaching assistant, can't remember the hours I used.

Please tell me you're not a junior in college :/

I agree with you that I need another hobby to put down. I really enjoy reading and debate, but I'm not sure how to put that down in my activities section.

 

[familyaerospace]

Please tell me you're not a junior in college :/

No, I am not currently a college junior, but I had a lot of that prior to being a junior in college. There were people in my class at Emory that had way more stuff than I did along these lines. Would have had more but I was raising 4 kids. The reasoning is I was gunning for a PhD which didn't work out and I had wonderful mentors that started arranging things as they saw them.

Two of the publications were based out of papers I wrote as a sophomore in college. I also had another several very minor publications that I didn't list because looking back I am more embarrassed of them than anything. The other was an idea I had as a junior but didn't get going for a while.

I had 18 years of theater (not 20+) by junior year.

The hobbies I've had for years and years.

I was vice president of the company I mentioned as a junior in college (I had a previous business that was 5 years which I didn't list but was bought out by the company that I became VP of.)

I was a research assistant as a sophomore, but I never listed that position as I wanted to put the most recent stuff. I also had two other research positions that I did not mention in AMCAS, I just wanted to put down the one most recent position. Total by the time I was a college junior, I had about 5 years of research experience scattered all over the place, and had been a lab assistant twice. The lab position was not mentioned. Only one research position was mentioned.

I was an officer in an international group when I was in high school, but that wasn't listed in AMCAS because it was high school. I held two offices in an international organization as a college sophomore.

I was a writing consultant as a junior in college and had already been doing that for two years, although that is not the consulting position I was referring to in my AMCAS. That position was technology consulting.

I had thousands of non-medical volunteering hours always. My grandmother always stressed volunteering. I only could fit a few on AMCAS though so I did the one that I did the longest (several times a week for three years), another that means a lot to me and another because one of my schools says I should have included it but I didn't think to.

I only put down one teaching position, not the fact I have actually been teaching for eons. I was a college tutor (as in for other college students) for two full years by the time I was college junior. I tutored bio, writing, history, anthropology, computers, and business at four different colleges. I had previously been a tutor/teaching assistant for a number of years prior. In fact that is why I was a dual enrolled student in high school. The teacher who ran the TA program basically guilted me into it since it was looking that I was going to be a teacher of some form. The position I mentioned on AMCAS was a graduate level course.

You know how they say don't put anything you did during HS on your app? I had few things from college on my app. Unless AMCAS wants to give me 100 rather than 15.

Sad thing is I was told by one of the schools to add more non-medical community service. I am very much wondering if they are serious.

 

[prettyNURSEtoMD]

I don't want to swerve into anybody's post but I posted my ECs in the osteopathic forum and could post mine here for some feedback?

 

[PositronicBrain]

I don't want to swerve into anybody's post but I posted my ECs in the osteopathic forum and could post mine here for some feedback?

Nice signature! Also, it seems like there should be more cross over between MD and DO forums here as I'm looking at topics in both as well.
Personally, this is my EC list, and I still need to determine the categories so I'm just throwing my best guess for what they may fall under.
1) Medical, volunteer - Photographer for a surgical service trip to a developing nation.
2) Research, paid - 1 year part time in a developmental biology lab
3) Non-medical, volunteer - Leadership position in a student radio for 1 year while studying abroad.
4) Medical, volunteer - Part time, Ski patrol for 1 season
5) Medical, paid - Full time, CNA for several months.
6)Research, paid - Part/full time lab assistant/farm hand at an agriculture lab for 6 months.
7)Research, volunteer - Full time, 3 months in a biofuel lab
8) Non-medical, volunteer - 2 months full time English teacher in a developing nation
9) Hobby: Norwegian Folk Dancing for 1 year, 2-3 nights a week. Also served as language lessons!
10)Hobby: Mountaineering, 5 years of pretty intensive climbing and ski descents of peaks in the Rockies.
11) Non-medical, Teaching: TA for Freshman honors seminar course for a semester
12) Non-medical, paid: Work experience as a bartender and then as a professional mover. Covers 4 months after studying full time for my MCAT.
13) Non-medical, paid: 2 months full time, Bike messenger in NYC
14) Non-medical, paid: 6 months full time, Phone receptionist for a low-cost veterinary clinic in NYC
15) Medical, paid: Just started as a Medical Scribe so this will be what I hope to learn as a scribe.


Just as some additional info: GPA 3.5 MCAT 29

Not the application I always dreamed of. But after a few twists and turns it's what I've got.

 

[PositronicBrain]

How do you give the contact info etc. if you combine jobs together? I worked as a bartender and a professional mover and don't want to give them separate slots but would like to mention what I learned during those months of work.

 

[familyaerospace]

How do you give the contact info etc. if you combine jobs together? I worked as a bartender and a professional mover and don't want to give them separate slots but would like to mention what I learned during those months of work.

Put a main contact for one job for the required part.

Put another contact for the next in description.

Problem is that uses up valuable character real estate.

I am lucky that I held multiple jobs that were combined and one of my references for that slot can vouch for everything.

 

[PositronicBrain]

Any recommendations on an appropriate contact for un-organized activities? I have been mountaineering for years and am currently thinking of giving my climbing partner as a contact. I've also worked jobs that involve climbing and back packing, but I feel like I've written a good EC on the value of my individual pursuits. It was a pretty huge part of my life, I often got up extra early to go into the mountains before class. Is it ok to give such an informal contact? He's my climbing partner but he's also one of my best friends.

 

[familyaerospace]

Any recommendations on an appropriate contact for un-organized activities? I have been mountaineering for years and am currently thinking of giving my climbing partner as a contact. I've also worked jobs that involve climbing and back packing, but I feel like I've written a good EC on the value of my individual pursuits. It was a pretty huge part of my life, I often got up extra early to go into the mountains before class. Is it ok to give such an informal contact? He's my climbing partner but he's also one of my best friends.

Yes, if he can vouch for you and there is no other contact, yes.

One of the FAQs in AMCAS says in some situations you can even put yourself if there is no other person at all.

I had to list my mother as one of the contact people for my 20 years of performing arts. Since she was a stage mom for most of that, it makes her contact.

 

[Lamel]

OP your extra-curriculars are great, don't sweat it. Quality over quantity.

I remember in one of the LizzyM "Ask me anything" threads she said that it is rare to see <9 activities and >13. I think those were approximately the numbers.

 

[mrh125]

I have a question. All my shadowing activities were actually volunteering because I did far more than just shadowing and acted as a volunteer, is it bad that I marked them all as medical volunteering? Does it look bad to have all volunteering with different doctors and no shadowing? In the descriptions I mentioned how I did a little shadowing, but most of it was direct volunteering like doing charts, scribing, assisting with tests.

 

[familyaerospace]

Most schools care more about you having the clinical. Only a handful actually state you absolutely MUST MUST MUST have shadowing.

 

[gettheleadout]

OP's ECs look somewhat above average.

Poster #2's ECs are the EC equivalent of a 42+ on the MCAT.

Yet familyaerospace is on a fourth app cycle (no disrespect meant toward familyaerospace here, just making an observation).

 

[familyaerospace]

Yet familyaerospace is on a fourth app cycle (no disrespect meant toward familyaerospace here, just making an observation).

If I had a 42+ on the MCAT plus these ECs, I am betting I would have been told I am overqualified. What is bad is I already had the stuff, I wasn't doing thing to check off boxes. I even started shadowing before I knew it was required. SDN told me basically told me which ECs I should list.

I actually did have an adcomm say my ECs were frightening, especially combined with everything else on my application but in the same breath I was told to not change anything (at least for them).

I had another adcomm from RVU tell me to remove almost all of it but shadowing and medical volunteering.

As yet another adcomm told me, the ECs usually can't hurt you but can help you... to a point. Personally, I think I hit diminishing returns but at least I did it with very little extra effort. 😉

 

[Narmerguy]

Moving to WAMC.