Importance of EC'S

[DreaminBig]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi guys I'm pretty new to this forum so bear with me. I looked at the related threads but they were either too old or didnt answer my question.

What I was wondering is what exactly is considered a good amount of extracirculars.? Looking at MDapps made me think i really need to stepup the Ec's

How would you rate this:
1 year O-chem tutor
200+ hours of hospital volunteering duing 2005-6
Doing research on memory and learning
Shadowing 2 DO's 1 a FP another one is a Pediatrician.
Trying to be a Clinical care extender sometime by Dec 08
Also try EMT by 08 end?

I'm not a troll, btw. Please don't say that, I'm just looking for an honest opinion, as a really do not how know my EC's stand.

Any tips or advice? Do I need more? Is this sufficient?

 

[RySerr21]

Hi guys I'm pretty new to this forum so bear with me. I looked at the related threads but they were either too old or didnt answer my question.

What I was wondering is what exactly is considered a good amount of extracirculars.? Looking at MDapps made me think i really need to stepup the Ec's

How would you rate this:
1 year O-chem tutor
200+ hours of hospital volunteering duing 2005-6
Doing research on memory and learning
Shadowing 2 DO's 1 a FP another one is a Pediatrician.
Trying to be a Clinical care extender sometime by Dec 08
Also try EMT by 08 end?

I'm not a troll, btw. Please don't say that, I'm just looking for an honest opinion, as a really do not how know my EC's stand.

Any tips or advice? Do I need more? Is this sufficient?

Haha. I see lurkin on SDN has made you a bit paranoid, and righfully so. Don't worry about MDapps or what most people have here on SDN. Its a very small population of, for the most part, over achieving pre meds. If you go by SDN pre allo standards, anything below a 34 should apply caribb (not quite as drastic, but you get my drift.)

When are you applying?? Your DO shadowing is very good and shows you are intersted in the osteopathic profession. Are you gonna be able to get a LOR from one or both of those docs?? That would be ideal. The hospital volunteering is good as well. Try to think of things you've learned from the experince, maybe something you witnessed or something you gained. It doesnt matter if you volunteered for 1000 hours, if you arent able to talk about it in the interview then it is useless, because THEY WILL ask you about it. A lot of the questions during the interview are clarification questions where they want you to expand on an experience on your app. I've had questions like "So what is the most intersting thing you've seen at shadowing X." and "Have you ever seen a conflict in the ER and how was it resolved? what would you have done in that situation?" and "tell me what you learned volunteering at place X? What exactly did you do?" You dont need lots of hours to answer those quesitons, you just need to have a meaningful experience. The tutoring gig you can go use very nicely in your favor. I was am a tutor as well and I love it, and its a great thing to talk about in interviews.

The EMT gig and the clinical care extender (not sure what that is) will give you good clincal expsoure as well.

You have enough exposure to let adcoms know that youve explored different fields of medicine and have done some research about the career you are comitting to. Could you use more hours? Sure, it won't hurt. But dont sweat it. Just keep volunteering if you can at a place you can learn at, thats all that matters. Good luck.

 

[iluvmed&ba6eekh]

The clinical care extender program is a volunteer internship they have at some hospitals throughout southern california. i was in it for a few years, and it was a great source of interesting clinical experiences. keep in mind, you only get out of it as much as you put in. you have the usual simple tasks, like stocking supplies, taking vitals, and feeding patients, but you get to rotate throughout different departments, which adds quite a bit of diversity to your clinical experiences. if you want to get some leadership experience, they have a leadership team you can join. there are some little rules and restrictions here and there that could be annoying, but overall, i thought it was a good program, and i would really recommend it to those who are interested.