How many EC's is competitive?

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Wiesal

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I know this may be an annoying question, but I want to have a productive first semester.

I will begin my first semester with:
  • 14 credit hours
  • A part time job as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic (about 8 hours a week)
  • Volunteering at a pediatric hospital (providing entertainment to kids)
Is this considered a normal workload? I don't want to be too tough on myself during my first semester, but I don't want appear underwhelming to adcoms.

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I'd probably hold off on the job until you're sure you can handle courses. College isn't like high school, you actually have to study to get As. And I think freshman year you should be joining things that you're genuinely interested in not just stuff that's gonna look good on your resume. But the volunteering sounds cool I'd stick with that.
 
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Don't get me wrong, I agree with the narrative of college being a different ball game than high school and you need to get your feet wet a little bit before you starting adding on commitments, but the schedule you mentioned is more than doable. Considering that you will probably only be volunteering like 3-6 hours a week and most of your classes will probably be Gened's, 14 credit hours plus 10ish hours of EC's is going to be a breeze. I'm really not trying to be "that guy", but just to give you an idea of my first semester as a junior, I took 16 hours of orgo 2, biochem, calc, and structure and development, scribed 32-40 hours a week and volunteered every Friday. Where there is a will, there is a way. Part of the difficulty of being a premed is schedule and time management. Adcoms want to see you can handle a lot at one time and know how to handle stress. I wish you luck OP.
 
I know this may be an annoying question, but I want to have a productive first semester.

I will begin my first semester with:
  • 14 credit hours
  • A part time job as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic (about 8 hours a week)
  • Volunteering at a pediatric hospital (providing entertainment to kids)
Is this considered a normal workload? I don't want to be too tough on myself during my first semester, but I don't want appear underwhelming to adcoms.
you should first worry about learning how you study and learn best. Get a good GPA to start yourself out and then worry about getting volunteering and things of that nature starting the summer after your freshman year
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll be sure to take it easy and have a smooth transition into college.
I'd probably hold off on the job until you're sure you can handle courses. College isn't like high school, you actually have to study to get As. And I think freshman year you should be joining things that you're genuinely interested in not just stuff that's gonna look good on your resume. But the volunteering sounds cool I'd stick with that.
I'd actually be interested in volunteering for the American Lung Association. I'll probably wait until my second semester/sophomore year when I'm used to college work as everyone suggested.
 
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Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll be sure to take it easy and have a smooth transition into college.

I'd actually be interested in volunteering for the American Lung Association. I'll probably wait until my second semester/sophomore year when I'm used to college work as everyone suggested.

Good call. You have 3+ years to accumulate voly hours and ECs. Use your first semester to adjust and explore college.
 
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Make sure you can handle your courses before you add on anything else. GPA is the hardest, slowest, and most expensive thing to repair, and therefore the worst thing to mess up. EC addition is relatively simple in comparison later on.
 
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I know this may be an annoying question, but I want to have a productive first semester.

I will begin my first semester with:
  • 14 credit hours
  • A part time job as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic (about 8 hours a week)
  • Volunteering at a pediatric hospital (providing entertainment to kids)
Is this considered a normal workload? I don't want to be too tough on myself during my first semester, but I don't want appear underwhelming to adcoms.

I volunteered the summer entering my freshman year of college. I accumulated around 50 hours? Then that semester, I focused on grades. Spring semester I volunteered one day a week. Then last summer, I volunteered 5 days a week? I have around ~250 hours. I then applied for more organizations that I am passionate about. You need to take things slow. Don't forget leadership at your school.
 
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Exactly 7.4 ECs. Standard deviation of zero.

On a more serious note, you should pursue what you're passionate about and the details will work themselves out. Just make sure you're allotting yourself time for academics because those should come first. Ramping it up slowing in ECs is better than having to cut back because your grades are bad.
 
Don't get me wrong, I agree with the narrative of college being a different ball game than high school and you need to get your feet wet a little bit before you starting adding on commitments, but the schedule you mentioned is more than doable. Considering that you will probably only be volunteering like 3-6 hours a week and most of your classes will probably be Gened's, 14 credit hours plus 10ish hours of EC's is going to be a breeze. I'm really not trying to be "that guy", but just to give you an idea of my first semester as a junior, I took 16 hours of orgo 2, biochem, calc, and structure and development, scribed 32-40 hours a week and volunteered every Friday. Where there is a will, there is a way. Part of the difficulty of being a premed is schedule and time management. Adcoms want to see you can handle a lot at one time and know how to handle stress. I wish you luck OP.
Sure but that was junior year. By then you've figured out how to study and how much time you need to allocate to each class to do well. Freshman year I thought I had to read every page of every chapter we covered in intro bio, chem etc.
 
Obviously both is ideal, but at some point having too many ECs will cause people to question how much time you could devote to them.
Fair point. I'd almost say that both are required though... I know people who were explicitly told "you didn't have enough hours for ____ activity."
 
Fair point. I'd almost say that both are required though... I know people who were explicitly told "you didn't have enough hours for ____ activity."

:confused::eek: What were the activities, how many hours did they have and what exactly did they expect?
 
Fair point. I'd almost say that both are required though... I know people who were explicitly told "you didn't have enough hours for ____ activity."

Ah. We have a misunderstanding. I didn't mean quantity of hours, I meant quantity of ECs. Obviously a huge quantity of hours in a small number of ECs would indicate quality experiences (hopefully).
 
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I actually strongly disagree with people who are saying to drop the job. Eight hours a week is extremely doable and having a firm commitment like that helps you manage your time better in general. Most people I went to college with who worked while in school thought it helped with their time management and said they got better grades while working than semesters where they didn't (me included). In addition, working as a medical assistant can more quickly help you figure out if you're truly interested in a medical career or not, whereas entertaining kids in a hospital won't really give you that insight. The extra money will also be nice. I definitely think you should keep the job and if anything should drop the volunteering. You can join so many volunteer oriented clubs on campus that will help you meet people and get involved in causes you are passionate about.
 
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That's fine.
I know this may be an annoying question, but I want to have a productive first semester.

I will begin my first semester with:
  • 14 credit hours
  • A part time job as a medical assistant at a dermatology clinic (about 8 hours a week)
  • Volunteering at a pediatric hospital (providing entertainment to kids)
Is this considered a normal workload? I don't want to be too tough on myself during my first semester, but I don't want appear underwhelming to adcoms.
 
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