How bad does it look to stop a extracurricular?

[NP545]

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How bad would it look to stop an extracurricular before applying? There's a few things on my agenda that lasted a couple months but around 50 hours total each. However, they stopped and I am no longer continuing them. Does this look bad to admission committees?

 

[Planes2Doc]

Well do you have a longer commitment that you've been doing for a while? Lots of people have multiple activities, some which are far smaller commitments than others. This shouldn't look bad as long as you have something that you've been doing since early in your undergrad and have accumulated over 150+ hours. If this is all the volunteering or other stuff that you have, then you might be in trouble. If possible, quit these activities just after submitting AMCAS, since you could label them as being "current." But I'm assuming that's not possible. Good luck!

 

[Pacna]

How bad would it look to stop an extracurricular before applying? There's a few things on my agenda that lasted a couple months but around 50 hours total each. However, they stopped and I am no longer continuing them. Does this look bad to admission committees?

Not if you have 2-3 solid ones which you did for a long time. Everybody tries out clubs/etc in college and quits after going a couple of times.

Come to think of it, lectures go a similar way.

 

[NP545]

W If this is all the volunteering or other stuff that you have, then you might be in trouble.

Wait, what do you mean? Is a long commitment to volunteering bad? ...

 

[Planes2Doc]

Wait, what do you mean? Is a long commitment to volunteering bad? ...

See above post by @Rik1111 . ADCOMs like long commitments. What they don't like is short commitments where you hop from activity to activity with very few hours. The latter is only bad if you don't already have a long commitment with another activity. If you do, it's not a big del, because as was mentioned, it's typical for pre-meds to do a variety of things and then quit. How else will you fill up those 15 slots for activities on AMCAS?

 

[Aerus]

Yes, med schools expect all applicants to continue any activity they start until they graduate. So you better be careful and choose your clubs wisely! Once you join a club, you may not quit!!

/sarcasm

You're fine, OP.

 

[504196]

I also had this similar question. I have been doing volunteer neuroscience research for 6 months about 8 hours a week? I do not volunteer often enough to get a consistent role in lab and I kind of bounce around between PIs although I do consistently run PCRs to screen for genes.

Anyways, my question is would it be bad to stop this? I also am thinking about picking up another part time job instead of doing the research since the application process is expensive. I'm just worried since I know that most medical schools value research. But I did also have 1.5 years of research experience at college prior to doing the neuroscience research.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.