How important is Community Service for Residency?

[Forever_Blessed]

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I am a first year medical student interested in EM. I recently had a meeting with the clerkship director for EM at my school. I was getting some general advice about EM and on things I should be doing as a first year med student (besides focusing on getting good grades) that would lead me to become a strong applicant.

The director, who is also an EM physician stated the importance of community service. Not just one or two hours at the free clinic or at the boys and girls club, but a commitment to community service and maybe even a project.

He said of course clinical grades, STEP, and research are key factors, but with all things being equal, what can set an applicant apart from the next person is community service or showing some other passion outside of medicine.

My question is, how important is community service? If it is truly that important, how should I get involved and what kind of projects can I look into besides the local clinic.
This meeting really left me pondering about my passions outside of medicine.



Thanks!


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[EMDOC17]

If you like community service then do it. Do not sacrifice grades, especially 3rd and 4th year, to do community service. It really is low on the spectrum. It is now really big to get into medical school but not so much residency. Interviewing and sitting on our residency recruitment community service is almost an afterthought unless it was really really interesting. Maybe it should have more emphasis but medical school is busy. I don't know any other job that requires as many hours as medical school and then you need to do community service on top of that? Do good in your classes and USMLE. If you have time do community service (if you like it) but it likely won't have much of an impact on your residency match.

 

[BoardingDoc]

I am a first year medical student interested in EM. I recently had a meeting with the clerkship director for EM at my school. I was getting some general advice about EM and on things I should be doing as a first year med student (besides focusing on getting good grades) that would lead me to become a strong applicant.

The director, who is also an EM physician stated the importance of community service. Not just one or two hours at the free clinic or at the boys and girls club, but a commitment to community service and maybe even a project.

He said of course clinical grades, STEP, and research are key factors, but with all things being equal, what can set an applicant apart from the next person is community service or showing some other passion outside of medicine.

My question is, how important is community service? If it is truly that important, how should I get involved and what kind of projects can I look into besides the local clinic.
This meeting really left me pondering about my passions outside of medicine.



Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Most of my friends in EM didn't do much if any community service. I did some before medical school and zero during medical school. Matched just fine. I agree with EMDOC17. If you want to do community service, do it. If you don't, don't. It certainly isn't a prerequisite for becoming a resident or matching at a good program.

 

[emergentmd]

I did exactly zero hours on community service. Avg student, avg steps, avg med school. Got into my first choice, one of the best known trauma centers in the country and well known.

Im glad I got in b/f everyone found that EM is a great field.

 

[red10]

Community service is great if its something you enjoy and thus you do a lot of it or if you're helping organize a big project through one of your interest groups. If you do just a few random hours of stuff just to fluff the resume, you're not fooling anyone. If you have no community service but you were super involved in other things, its not a big deal.

 

[Forever_Blessed]

Thanks so much for the input!


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