How far back can I count my ECs?

[7toMD]

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I've been volunteering with different organizations for about 3 years now, and by the time I end up applying, it will have been for about 5. I'm a non-trad (27), so these aren't high school hours, they've been done while working and going to school. I've accumulated about 500 hours with one organization, and about 300 with another. Can I include all these, or is there a "anything past X years doesn't matter" I should know about?

 

[Planes2Doc]

I've been volunteering with different organizations for about 3 years now, and by the time I end up applying, it will have been for about 5. I'm a non-trad (27), so these aren't high school hours, they've been done while working and going to school. I've accumulated about 500 hours with one organization, and about 300 with another. Can I include all these, or is there a "anything past X years doesn't matter" I should know about?

I think high school is the only thing people wouldn't include unless they did it through college too. As a non-trad, include anything and everything to show your uniqueness!

 

[BABSstudent]

I think that if you have continued all the activities up until the time you apply, feel free to include them. If you quit one of them seven years ago (so say at like 20 years old), you could still include it if you need more activities, but I probably wouldn't since it is from such a long time ago.

When I decided what to include in my application, I asked myself one question: "Will the contact people even remember me?" If it was a no, I thought about choosing something else. Of course I asked every person if I could list them as a contact, but this narrowed it down before I asked people if I could list them.

 

[Catalystik]

I've been volunteering with different organizations for about 3 years now, and by the time I end up applying, it will have been for about 5. I'm a non-trad (27), so these aren't high school hours, they've been done while working and going to school. I've accumulated about 500 hours with one organization, and about 300 with another. Can I include all these, or is there a "anything past X years doesn't matter" I should know about?

Yes, you should include both, as that degree of longevity is valued.

 

[kami333]

My undergrad was 8-12 years ago and I was running out of space so I made an "Volunteering during undergraduate" and "Extracurricular activities during undergraduate" entry and lumped them in there.

 

[mimelim]

How long ago a given activity is the wrong variable to consider. The far more important variable is how relavent a given activity is. Relavence is obviously a function of when the activity was, but a whole host of other variables as well. I had an activity that I started in middle school, went into high school and was essentially done prior to college. It was the focal points of one of my residency interviews at the program that I am at. I put it in my application because it 1) mattered to me, 2) was something that made me more attractive to programs.

The best is to stop thinking about the quantitative measurements of ECs. They are largely irrelavent. Nobody got rejected from medical school for doing 250 instead of 300 hours of whatever. ECs aren't to show off how hard working you are or your academic prowess, there are grades and the MCAT for that. What matters is what you produce and what you learn when you don't have the structure of class around you.

 

[7toMD]

This is all great insight.

I fully intend to continue to participate in these programs up until application day, and likely beyond. The relationships that I have with the organizations are very strong, and I know that they would be willing to go to bat for me for anything. (Not that it would help in this particular scenario.)

Now, I need to get some more medically relevant hours.

 

[Praefectus]

I think high school is the only thing people wouldn't include unless they did it through college too. As a non-trad, include anything and everything to show your uniqueness!

👍 You should change your sig to "Don't call me Shirley!"