How Do My ECs look?

[CryingOnTheInside]

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Hello everyone! I have been a lurker on here for a while and have decided to create an account to ask this question. Not sure how competitive or cookie-cutter my ECs are and I want some feedback on them. I am currently have 4 semesters left in college and my major is Psychology. Any help/suggestions are appreciated!


Past/Current

• Shadowed in a behavioral unit (psychiatrist, nurse, CNAs, etc.)- 16 hours
• Nursing home volunteer (2 months)- 50 hours (will continue when I go back from school)
• Swim coach volunteer for swim clinics, spread over several different months- 200 hours total
• Currently volunteer in a homeless soup kitchen (1 hour a week)- 10 total (hoping to hit 50 by the time I graduate)
• Medical Mission Trip- 80 hours. I know there is a lot of stigma with this, but I am probably going to include it since this really drove me (and a few other reasons) to pursue medicine.
• Was employed for 1.5 years as a lifeguard back in community college- 1300 hours
• Swim Instructor for young children (paid)- 150 hours total
• Swim coach for the swim team back where I used to live- 300 hours
• Currently doing research at my UG in the psychology department- 8 hours a week
• Part of Premed club, Psychology club, intramural swimming, and a movie club (more hobby-like, I know).

Future (hopefully):

• Going to shadow a DO Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist over spring break- probably 20 hours.
• Lining up more shadowing in primary care over the summer.
• Applied to a free health clinic as a volunteer and I am hoping to do 4 hours a week until I leave UG.
• Going to do an internship of some sort over the summer/maybe research.
• Offered a TA position in Neuroscience in the fall.
• Will do some volunteering over the summer break.

I am afraid that a lot of this stuff is not continued/in the past. What do you folks think? Any areas that look particularly weak?

 

[Catalystik]

Hello everyone! I have been a lurker on here for a while and have decided to create an account to ask this question. Not sure how competitive or cookie-cutter my ECs are and I want some feedback on them. I am currently have 4 semesters left in college and my major is Psychology. Any help/suggestions are appreciated!


Past/Current

• Shadowed in a behavioral unit (psychiatrist, nurse, CNAs, etc.)- 16 hours
• Nursing home volunteer (2 months)- 50 hours (will continue when I go back from school)
• Swim coach volunteer for swim clinics, spread over several different months- 200 hours total
• Currently volunteer in a homeless soup kitchen (1 hour a week)- 10 total (hoping to hit 50 by the time I graduate)
• Medical Mission Trip- 80 hours. I know there is a lot of stigma with this, but I am probably going to include it since this really drove me (and a few other reasons) to pursue medicine.
• Was employed for 1.5 years as a lifeguard back in community college- 1300 hours
• Swim Instructor for young children (paid)- 150 hours total
• Swim coach for the swim team back where I used to live- 300 hours
• Currently doing research at my UG in the psychology department- 8 hours a week
• Part of Premed club, Psychology club, intramural swimming, and a movie club (more hobby-like, I know).

Future (hopefully):

• Going to shadow a DO Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation specialist over spring break- probably 20 hours.
• Lining up more shadowing in primary care over the summer.
• Applied to a free health clinic as a volunteer and I am hoping to do 4 hours a week until I leave UG.
• Going to do an internship of some sort over the summer/maybe research.
• Offered a TA position in Neuroscience in the fall.
• Will do some volunteering over the summer break.

I am afraid that a lot of this stuff is not continued/in the past. What do you folks think? Any areas that look particularly weak?

If you complete everything you describe you'd be in good shape. Do you also plan/ have a peer leadership activity?

Also, what was your role at the nursing home?

 

[CryingOnTheInside]

If you complete everything you describe you'd be in good shape. Do you also plan/ have a peer leadership activity?

Also, what was your role at the nursing home?

I am currently aiming for a leadership role in my premed club. For the nursing home, I performed activities with the residents, helped patients with Alzheimer's go from place to place (would this count as patient escort?), and helped watch residents who were fall-risk.

 

[Catalystik]

I am currently aiming for a leadership role in my premed club.
For the nursing home,
1) I performed activities with the residents,
2) helped patients with Alzheimer's go from place to place (would this count as patient escort?), and
3) helped watch residents who were fall-risk.

2) Yes, if this was an inpatient unit and not a daycare facility.

 

[Mr. Babe]

It seems like you only have the 50 hours of nursing home clinical work. You should probably get more clinical experience to be honest. Your other experiences are nice, but they don't give you exposure to medicine. Sounds like you are interested in DO with interest in shadowing DO and primary care. You should consider posting this stuff on the DO side of SDN as well. Definitely get more shadowing hours though and start gaining important relationships for LOR's. If you can get all of that then you'll be golden!

 

[CryingOnTheInside]

2) Yes, if this was an inpatient unit and not a daycare facility.

Okay, thank you!

It seems like you only have the 50 hours of nursing home clinical work. You should probably get more clinical experience to be honest. Your other experiences are nice, but they don't give you exposure to medicine. Sounds like you are interested in DO with interest in shadowing DO and primary care. You should consider posting this stuff on the DO side of SDN as well. Definitely get more shadowing hours though and start gaining important relationships for LOR's. If you can get all of that then you'll be golden!

To be honest, I am more interested in psychiatry than anything. I applied to a free health clinic and I hope to start next month. I am thinking that if I can get around 4 hours a week, I could reach 300 hours before I would graduate (on top of other volunteer work done over the summers). I will definitely look at the DO schools in my state when that time comes. Thank you for responding!

 

[DetroitDoc1993]

You are headed towards the right track. You can still be a psychiatrist as a DO but both MD and DO like to see a lot of volunteer hours, 50 here and there just will not look as good as 200 hours for one year in a free clinic in my opinion. But What I know is that medical schools love non-clinical volunteering like community service type activities plus even more so they like to see a lot of patient car experience, preferably something more long term that you have committed to longer than a few months. You can get great patient care experience from volunteering at a free clinic so that is very good you applied for that or getting an MA job or something like that because as far as I know I do not think they consider patient transport as patient care. Seems like your on the right track I would just emphasize shadowing less and increase your volunteer hours especially patient care hours, working as a hospice volunteer is another great way to do that. TA position would definitely look good too so that can't hurt.