How can I improve my ECs for this upcoming cycle?

[starxlit3]

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Canadian here. Never applied to american med schools before so not too sure what to expect. Decent GPA and average MCAT. Will probably apply to most of the "canadian-friendly" US med schools. I'm just wondering on how I should improve my ECs to be more competitive for US med schools as I realize that Canadians are disadvantaged in the selection process.

Here are my main ECs so far:

- Research assistant at pharmacology lab for 1 yr
- Research assistant at biochem lab for a summer (undergrad research internship)
- sylvan learning center teacher throughout undergrad (i'm in my last year of undergrad now)
- private piano lesson instructor since gr11 high school
- some misc things for piano like competition and performances
- hospital volunteering in high school for two years + hospital volunteer since summer of first year undergrad
- nursing home volunteer for two years (help feed residents and help porter)
- teaching assistant for labs for a year (teach AND grade)
- house of friendship emergency food hamper volunteer for one year (pack hampers)
- shadow/mentor for international students for a year
- program coordinator for a service for international students offered by my university
- currently doing fourth year honours thesis project in biology
- private tutor for several years (since high school)
- orientation leader
- volunteered at pharmacy for 4 months.. (hated it - so not going into pharmacy)

This summer I will get shadowing a pediatrician (what i'm thinking about going into), and doing research as part of a summer research program at mount sinai hospital (in toronto... not affiliated with the med school in US).

I've heard that the prestige of your undergrad in canada matters for the US... I'm doing my undergrad at the university of waterloo...not sure if many people know it...

How can I improve my ECs to be competitive for a mid-tier/mid-upper-tier US med school? Any advice would be appreciated 🙂

 

[CyberMaxx]

Hey starxlit3,

It looks to me like you have a good number of ECs listed here. I'm assuming you're applying this summer, so my only recommendation is that you do about 50 hours of shadowing before you submit your AMCAS application. I see that you said your already shadowing this summer, but you do not say when. As long as you cover shadowing, I would say that your ECs look solid. Besides, other than shadowing there is very little that you can do in two or three months that will look substantial on your application.

Best of Luck 🙂