How many hours do you spend doing extracurricular activities during pharmacy school?

[missybitsy]

By extracurricular activities, I mean your involvement in student organizations, attending health fairs, doing research, volunteer work, etc. I'm going into my P2 year and I'm trying to decide how many organizations to get involved in and how many leadership roles to take. Thanks for the advice!

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[zelman]

My freshman year I did nothing outside of school except work retail (which I did as much as I could throughout school).
My sophomore year I became an RA and was shocked to find out how many organizations the other RAs were involved in (it was a lot). I joined residence hall council, too.
P1 I was a Head RA, in residence hall council, joined the school newspaper and Phi Lambda Sigma.
P2 I dropped residence hall council, but became my class' Student Government Rep and joined Rho Chi.
P3 I stopped being class rep and Head RA, but was elected Student Governemt Executive Secretary and got a second job at the VA.

Involvement can be overwhelming. I would have burned out and/or dropped out if I did all my P3 extracurriculars when I was a freshman. Just do everything gradually and see what works for you. Pick one thing and make a small commitment. When I started at the newspaper, I told them that I hated writing, but I owned a decent camera and would show up to photograph any event they emailed me about as long as I wasn't working. I ended up doing more, but I didn't over-commit to begin with. That snowballed into a hectic resume in the end, but was surprisingly manageable.

 

[pharm B]

I spent too many, and I think I would have burned out if I'd stayed at it any longer. I did it because residency directors (at multiple programs) indicated they preferred a 3.5 with leadership roles and participation in various organizations (shows they can handle an intense schedule) over a vanilla 4.0 who was a member of one of the big groups who did nothing above the expected minimum.

I knew a 4.0 who was a clinical genius with the friendliness of a wolverine and minimal participation in organizations/volunteer efforts. She didn't match into a residency. Weird...

 

[D1CE K]

I spent too many, and I think I would have burned out if I'd stayed at it any longer. I did it because residency directors (at multiple programs) indicated they preferred a 3.5 with leadership roles and participation in various organizations (shows they can handle an intense schedule) over a vanilla 4.0 who was a member of one of the big groups who did nothing above the expected minimum.

I knew a 4.0 who was a clinical genius with the friendliness of a wolverine and minimal participation in organizations/volunteer efforts. She didn't match into a residency. Weird...

#politics


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[Blively]

I was under the impression that pharmacy school is an extracurricular activity.