How do my ECs look?

[Janitor]

*August 18th update* - If anyone is wondering about the categories, that's the way they are on the application at my 1st choice school

First my ECs, then a few questions...

I posted my ECs a while back, but this list is far more comprehensive and up-to-date. Hoping this is at least close a good EC score.

Leadership

Human Anatomy Lab TA - 95 hours - current
Inline hockey (team captain) - 432 hours - current
President of High School Crimestoppers committee - 40 hours


Capacity to Work with Others

Wheels in Motion volunteer (wheelchair race) - 11 hours
Mustard Seed Street Church volunteer - 104 hours
Alzheimer's program volunteer - 45 hours - current


Service Ethic

Mustard Seed Drive-by Breakfast volunteer - 34 hours - current
Blood bank volunteer - 49 hours - current
Hospital ED volunteer - 38 hours - current


Diversity of Experiences

Gymnastics - 208 hours - current
Ice hockey (team) - 104 hours
Blood donation - 4
Motivations for Physical Activity volunteer - 110 hours
Piano - 463 hours - current
Police Camp (Valedictorian) - 195 hours
Solo Travel (Southern USA/Caribbean, 3 months) - 1275 hours
Chiropractor Shadowing - 5 hours
French Language - 360 hours
Spanish Language - 300 hours
Japanese Language - 510 hours


High Performance in an Area of Human Endeavour

Kung-Fu - 2420 hours
Athletic Training - 1560 hours


Life Experience:

-In my other thread ("Now this is an epic tale...") there's a chunk of decent life experiences and maturity-conferring cirumstances. Also, I was born in Jamaica, not a very stable country. I lived there for close to 10 years, then relocated to Canada due to extreme violence. I have lived on my own in the Caribbean too, as I mentioned in the other post. I've also traveled out of the country on my own.

As for my questions...

1) Mobius, in one of your replies to this post before, you mentioned that a Level I leadership activity would be leadership in WoW? Really? I'm wrestling with that one, because I did found a guild that I guided the whole way to become one of the premier PvP/Raid guilds Horde-side As geeky as that is...

2) I founded that Crimestoppers group in High School and served as the President in Grade 12. Is that irrelevant? Ie: should only University stuff be on here?

3) I know this is a lot of stuff. I'm curious to know about how it stacks up against the average...

Once again, thanks for all the help!

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[ktpinnock]

hmm the only thing I could say is that you need more shadowing activity..although you stated one is going to be started anymore. And, as a fellow Jamaican i don't think you should list Patois as a second language...nor have i seen anyone list it as so. But you do have a whole bunch of ecs there...good work.

 

[Janitor]

Hey great, thanks for the feedback! Haha yeah I've never heard of anyone listing Patois either...though I'm sure we can agree that it's definitely not English...or any other language for that matter.

I'll get on the shadowing. Any other help? Mobius?

 

[Mobius1985]

I think your ECs are coming along nicely. You have a nice variety of clinical experience. Your teaching experience and sport's dedication will serve you well also. Besides shadowing a specialist, try to shadow a primary care doc at some poiint, too. Considering your interests, shadowing an orthopedist might be fun for you also. Eight to forty hours for each is sufficient. Doing some research is a good idea. I don't see a leadership experience, so you might try to get something in for that. I would not list donating 3 pints of blood when some people have donated many gallons. And I would not list shadowing a PT. If that is your backup plan, then save it for the appropriate application.

 

[Janitor]

Thanks Mobs! I see what you mean about the 3 pints of blood. Good point. About the leadership thing though, what are some examples? I'm captain of my hockey team...if that counts? And in Kung fu I was able to teach classes...not sure if that's what you mean though. What do you mean?

 

[Stratego]

Being captain of a team is Leadership. Teaching Kung Fu goes under the Teaching/Mentoring category.

 

[Mobius1985]

About the leadership thing though, what are some examples? I'm captain of my hockey team...if that counts? And in Kung fu I was able to teach classes...not sure if that's what you mean though. What do you mean?

Leadership: From a conversation with an adcomm member I learned that (at his school) one gets points for the intensity of the leadership experiences listed. Here are some examples of activities I've learned of on SDN and how I'd rank them (opinions, as always, may vary). Multiple experiences increase the score. It's OK to shine in another area if leadership isn't your forte.

Level I: 1) President of a club for a year. Led meetings. 2) Start small, common-interest club eg card playing, sport, WOW players. 3) Lead boyscouts in completing badge requirements. 4) Initiate food drive among your friends and collect donations for a food pantry. 5) Member of student senate. 6) Team captain.

Level II: 1) Club officer multiple years, eventually president. 2) Start new club attracting 20+ members to do community service, or arranging speakers, or to successfully campaign for a change on campus. 3) Shift supervisor or trainer of new employees.

Level III: 1) Board member for health-related organization or charitable foundation for several years who helps organize/participate in health fairs, involved in presentations to get funding for projects, brings opinions to the meetings and campaigns to effect change. 2) President of three clubs some of which do community service or raise money for projects. 3) Organize 3-4 charity concerts with large attendance coordinating multiple committees.

Level IV: 1) Chief Editor of school paper, writing editorials to sway opinion. Direct policy. 2) President of student senate. 3) NCO or officer in the armed forces who trained/led a team/unit in combat.

Level V: 1) Founded a charitable group, raised thousands of dollars for many projects, multiple year involvement, group continues after your departure. Branch groups started in other locations under your leadership. 2) Start a free clinic, recruit doctors, nurses, and student workers to volunteer their time. Raise the money for supplies/pharmaceuticals or get them donated. Help hundreds to thousands of patients in the time you're involved. 3) Start a successful company with 5+ employees and make a profit.

 

[Janitor]

Wow, your post is a great resource Mobius! Thank you for the clarification. I will see if I fit into any more of those...

 

[Janitor]

Updated my OP, with a bunch of new questions. Please re-read!

 

[Stratego]

2) High school activities should not be listed on a med school application unless they continued into the college years.

 

[saveourpens]

Honestly, some of your stuff I wouldn't even bother writing in your apps.

Diversity of experiences? Hockey, gymnastics, and piano, foreign languages? These are all good stuff but you actually keep track of how many hours you do these things?

Solo travel - 1275 hours....if I was an admin and saw that I just wouldn't take your application seriously.

So just get rid of some of the extra things and it looks great!

 

[Mobius1985]

Mobius, in one of your replies to this post before, you mentioned that a Level I leadership activity would be leadership in WoW? Really? I'm wrestling with that one, because I did found a guild that I guided the whole way to become one of the premier PvP/Raid guilds Horde-side As geeky as that is...

I said that leadership could be exhibited by starting a special interest group or club. That it would pertain to WOW isn't the important thing. It could be an ultimate frisbee group, or a keep your campus clean group. Your desciption of the activity needs to reflect that you displayed peer leadership. For example: you posted flyers to attract interest. You manned a booth on Club Day to sign people up. You arranged for space to meet. You applied for funding from the appropriate college council. You arranged for food. You advertised the meeting and sent a reminder. You attracted 20 people. You met monthly, eventually electing officers, and you are President. You met monthly. By the end of the year you had 50 members. The club continued the next year, etc.

Well, this is just an example. You get the idea. It isn't the time on-line that would make this activity "Leadership," at least as I interpret the point-of-view of an adcomm.

 

[Janitor]

Honestly, some of your stuff I wouldn't even bother writing in your apps.

Diversity of experiences? Hockey, gymnastics, and piano, foreign languages? These are all good stuff but you actually keep track of how many hours you do these things?

Solo travel - 1275 hours....if I was an admin and saw that I just wouldn't take your application seriously.

So just get rid of some of the extra things and it looks great!

As I understand it, the adcomms want to see well-roundedness in an applicant, and that you don't just go to science class, then go home and do homework and go to sleep, then rinse and repeat.

As for the "diversity of experiences" subheading - as I mentioned earlier, it's one of the categories my first-choice school has in the EC section of the application. I can't change that. EC's are just that - major things that take up your time outside of academia. Hockey is a pretty big deal up here in Canada And I am in a league during school, meaning it takes time away from homework. Same goes for gymnastics and piano. Anyone can get straight A+'s semester in semester out if they have nothing else to do - I'm under the impression that the adcomms like to see that you can get great grades and still have a heavy schedule.

Regarding keeping track of the hours, it's not too tough. Languages are a passion of mine, and I counted the hours spent learning in classes. Same with piano, when I was in piano class. Not too tough to work out. You also have to put down verifiers in your app for the school to contact to verify the number of hours you've recorded (usually teachers/coaches) - you can't just put whatever you want.

And for solo travel - it expressly says in the app I'm doing that you should record major travel experiences, as they increase your breadth of knowledge and are generally maturity conferring. It asks for a number of hours (which I think is a bit hokey), but I was gone for 3 months - so I tallied up 3 months worth of hours, then subtracted 8 hours per day for sleep, and 1.5 hours per day for meals, so that I was only reporting hours I spent absorbing culture, so to speak. Maybe I'm being unreasonable.

Either way, thanks for the feedback. You too Mobs, I'll take that into consideration.

 

[tjquinn]

I guess you could report the 1275 hours "absorbing culture"... To be honest, I think it is a stretch. Realistically, I think you should report the hours you spent volunteering, or helping out in whatever country you went to (probably not 16 hours a day, every day for three months).

Tjquinn

 

[Janitor]

I guess you could report the 1275 hours "absorbing culture"... To be honest, I think it is a stretch. Realistically, I think you should report the hours you spent volunteering, or helping out in whatever country you went to (probably not 16 hours a day, every day for three months).

Tjquinn

That sounds reasonable, thanks for the tip!

 

[Stratego]

Not being Canadian, I have never seen experiences presented in the format you've provided, but I'll mention that you are referring to these things as EC (extracurricular). If you took something in a class, and it's on your transcript, there is no need to list it separately, as it is curricular, not extracurricular. Listing languages and possibly piano seems unnecessary.