If you were an Adcom member....

[phnerd1105]

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Members don't see this ad.

If any pre-med club did their job, then it's obvious to realize that being part of a pre-med club is not on the list of activities of a typical matriculant or that's valuable. What's valuable is learning what is a typical matriculant, what is expected of you as an applicant, what you should be doing and when you should be doing it, etc... If any pre-med club advertises this anything otherwise, then shame on them. Of any activity I've done so far, they've all said the same thing. "Don't think this is all you need to get into medical school ". Yes, laughing face included.

Then your activities are unique in that aspect compared to many. Granted, people know that that's not all they need to do. However, the point is that they join the pre-med club thinking that it's going to look amazing by just having it on their application. They end up making it a bigger deal than it really is. I agree though, if used correctly, it can really benefit one's app. Most people don't, however.

 

[CapnCrunch]

I was kidding above -- i do believe looking at the overall app is important. But this isnt an actually application. It's a redic scenario where the OP is competing with his 2 friends.

But for the most part i still think premed clubs are useless. The AMSA one at my school charged alot of money and did a 1/4 of what yours did. And honestly, I'd rather be in a community-involved club, rather then a "let's learn about medicine AND improve our application by doing "service/leadership" club". I guess my issue is that nothing pre-med clubs do for the community rings true to me... it just seems like a bunch of kids trying to get a better application. Now if you do indeed go volunteer at Ronald House 2x a month, that's something, but if you go sporadically with your "club" that just... feels forced.

Well, meeting some people through the interview process, to me it feels like there are a lot of those people who do the things they do because it looks good. Looking at it as an optimist, I feel that it's wrong, but looking at it as a realist, it feels like there isn't much else you can do. I almost find it akin to completing your major. You don't like all the requirements you have to do, but if you want your degree then you have to do it. I haven't met too many people who did all the things on their app because they wanted too (at least initially). A few times I felt that I was looking for activities to improve my app. But when I finished the activity, I didn't regret it from the experience I received and from what I was able to take away from it.

As for our club. Yes, we did RMH twice a month. It was usually different people every time though. As a club with 80-150 members at any given time, the RMH center obviously doesn't want 50+ walking around. So the copious amount of opportunities are to give everyone a chance for the activities that are attendance limited. Stinks that you didn't have the same experience I did, but as long as you did something you enjoy and was able to get a lot out of it, then great.

 

[Avoidthetiger]

I'm glad you enjoyed your experience. I never joined my club. As I stated above, the club wanted money and I was not willing to give them any. It is easy to get experiences outside of "pre-med" that will make you a wellrounded application when applying to medicine. I did joined them at RMH twice though. There was only 5 of us that went- and I wasn't even a member of said club.

 

[CapnCrunch]

I'm glad you enjoyed your experience. I never joined my club. As I stated above, the club wanted money and I was not willing to give them any. It is easy to get experiences outside of "pre-med" that will make you a wellrounded application when applying to medicine. I did joined them at RMH twice though. There was only 5 of us that went- and I wasn't even a member of said club.

Sneaky sneaky... Yea, I don't know why AMSA has a "fixed" rate to join... Personally, I like their system from a few years ago where you could choose how long you wanted to be a member for. Now it's the $75 for the whole undergrad time which is useless if you were in the middle of your junior year or if you were a senior, etc... You do get the $200 stackable discount off Kaplan though, haha. I definitely know a few people who joined nationally just for that sole purpose.

 

[gettheleadout]

None of the above. I have 1,000 stronger applicants and I can't even interview all of them.

LizzyM scores less than 70 don't gain much traction at top 20 schools.

Whoa-ho! Talk about bringing out the big guns!

Lizzy wins the thread. 😀