An MD, who's also been on interview committees, that I've shadowed strongly encourages me to travel abroad to visit many foreign hospitals. The reason he emphasizes is that this would distinguish me as a unique applicant, but I have a feeling there is more to the prevalence of traveling abroad that MD applicants are doing for med school. He also seemed to suggest that I don't even need to travel abroad for healthcare- or volunteer-related work, but rather simply travel abroad for the sake of traveling. So is there more to why med school interview committees value traveling abroad so much (other than simply that it "makes you a unique applicant")? Thanks.
Importance of Travel Abroad
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Complete bs. Sorry, but travelling abroad does not make you unique. If you actually got something out of it, maybe. But travelling to improve an app is just silly.
traveling abroad is important, if and only if you engage in the experience and try to learn from it. If you travel to a foreign country and only stay in your hotel room watching their country's tv shows, obviously traveling for its sake has done nothing for you and you've squandered the experience.
travel abroad, but be an active learner. The lessons received will make you unique.
travel abroad, but be an active learner. The lessons received will make you unique.
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Agreed. Traveling and visiting hospitals or doing a medical mission/volunteer work for ~2 weeks would not set you apart from other applicants.
However, setting out for 6 months to a year would make you stand out from other Americans in general I think. Anecdotally, it seems that it is fairly rare for young adults in the US to spend significant amounts of time abroad, especially compared to our German/British/Australian cohorts. Only two of my friends have spent more than three months outside the US solely for the purpose of traveling. Conversely, foreign students I have met seem to be surprised when their friends do not plan an overseas experience after high school. Being away from your home country, meeting and working with people from other cultures, and dealing with the occaisional "oh ****" moment can only be beneficial for your personal development (my opinion).
I would really encourage you to plan a 6+ month trip, not to increase your appeal to adcoms, but to get some really valuable experiences that you don't have access to in the states. Of course those sorts of trips can be expensive and even if you can find the cash you might not be able to afford the opportunity cost.
TL;DR: Typical, short term traveling will probably not boost your appeal to adcoms, but traveling for longer periods with the goal of experiencing new cultures will undoubtedly be beneficial for your development (which may show through as maturity in your interviews).
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Traveling abroad is very, very common among top tier applicants. I'd say at least 50% of those I interview have lived abroad for a semester or been a volunteer abroad. It will NOT set you apart.
It can be a plus or a minus depending on what you make of it and what you bring to the table (particularly language skills and a knowledge of culture -- I think it is hard to understand foreign medical facilities unless you understand the culture -- and understanding how people view health, illness and treatment may help you understand the culture.)
On the other hand, you can travel domestically and learn about parts of this country you've never see, serve needy people, enjoy sites of cultural significance and natural beauty, etc so it isn't necessary to go abroad to have that experience.
Sometimes, travel is just a way of showing that you have money.
It can be a plus or a minus depending on what you make of it and what you bring to the table (particularly language skills and a knowledge of culture -- I think it is hard to understand foreign medical facilities unless you understand the culture -- and understanding how people view health, illness and treatment may help you understand the culture.)
On the other hand, you can travel domestically and learn about parts of this country you've never see, serve needy people, enjoy sites of cultural significance and natural beauty, etc so it isn't necessary to go abroad to have that experience.
Sometimes, travel is just a way of showing that you have money.
Speaking of foreign culture and alternative views on health/illness/treatment, what benefit/detriment would mentioning my family lineage of physicians first in Chinese medicine and then in Western medicine be for me? What I have in mind is discussing what I have learned from juxtaposing these two perspective, and discuss some basic principles, such as preventative medicine and medicine that treats more than just superficial symptoms, that I like and would like to see more of in Western medicine. The most serious problems I anticipate in this is that 1) alternative medicine is probably scorned by MD interview committees and thus would kill my chances at any mention of it, and 2) even if I just mention aspects of Chinese medicine that I like (and not going on and on about everything about it), the next question (with prejudice) that I'll be faced with is "So why don't you go to a school for Chinese medicine then?"
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If I ever get the opportunity to be an adcom I will toss away people who put 2 weeks medical mission/vacations in their app. IMO this is the most empty EC people do just to boost their resume. There is plenty of underserved communities here, why try to be a mother Teresa premed (borrowed from airplanestodoc) when deep down you most likely don't care about those communities abroad.
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Travel abroad because you want to. Adcoms don't care that much. Might be interesting to talk about at interviews, but it's not going to make or break an application.
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I really hope abroad travel doesn't become a 'silent requirement' in the future for any school. It's very expensive to do... this process is already brutal enough for non-URM people who come from families without a ton of money, no need to marginalize people even more with absurdly expensive ECs.
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Woohoo! Good one! 👍
I used to work for an airline, and was able to fly around the world for close to free. Technically I should have been at Harvard Medical School had this been true. 😛
I know lots of people who studied abroad or spent time traveling. The keyword is "lots." It won't set you apart. Not even a medical mission trip will either.
I highly doubt traveling would ever be any sort of requirement, considering that mission trips, where you at least do something supposedly medical school admissionsly productive, isn't going to help you out either.
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Well that sucks for me. I am not allowed to translate in the US because I haven't taken a translator test because I didn't have the money to pay for it. I can't translate in a local hospital without the certificate because I am a liability.
However, I got a scholarship to go abroad for a week and translate. I even got college credit for it because it was done through the Spanish department. Me getting college credit and doing something I really wanted to do, completely free for me, would get me thrown out.
I think there are different reasons for going abroad to do stuff and that should be taken into consideration. Both times I have gone abroad have been to make me fluent in Spanish. Both have been classified as study abroad on my transcript.
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It sounds like it is meaningful for you, and in that case, you should go ahead and do it.
I think the moral of the story is that it's dangerous to bank on something as a Golden Ticket into medical school, or to view something as a necessity where either of the things can cause a negative impact to your application.
For instance, pre-meds still probably think that mission trips are a sure-fire way to get into medical school. By pursuing this activity with that mindset, they are burning a whole lot of money, but more importantly, are pushing aside activities that would actually be beneficial, or sacrificing important study time.
Also, imagine if a doctor that you're shadowing, and view as a role model, tells you that it's uber important to become an EMT, because he and his friends did that to get into medical school. You might spend a lot of time scrambling to do this, where you might end up sacrificing more application helping ECs or your grades as a result.
Sorry, I'm a little scatter-brained here, so I don't know if I'm answering your question. But I guess another way to approach it is if it's meaningful to you, then go ahead and do it. Unfortunately, pre-meds do a lot of things that are special to them, which makes them feel very special, which makes them feel like their application is special; but in the end, ADCOMs might not see it as anything special. So it's best not to bet on something as a Golden Ticket, and I'm not saying that you are by any means.
You only have so much time to do things, and a check-list of things that have been getting pre-meds into medical schools for years. It's best for people to allocate their time to where it matters, so they can have a competitive mix of stats and ECs, which is disguised as "doing things you're passionate about" on SDN.
If I didn't answer your question at all, I apologize. I've been studying neuro all day and it's been frying my brain ironically.
EDIT: Oh jeeze, you weren't asking a question in the first place! Oy!
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It sounds like it is meaningful for you, and in that case, you should go ahead and do it.
I think the moral of the story is that it's dangerous to bank on something as a Golden Ticket into medical school, or to view something as a necessity where either of the things can cause a negative impact to your application.
For instance, pre-meds still probably think that mission trips are a sure-fire way to get into medical school. By pursuing this activity with that mindset, they are burning a whole lot of money, but more importantly, are pushing aside activities that would actually be beneficial, or sacrificing important study time.
Also, imagine if a doctor that you're shadowing, and view as a role model, tells you that it's uber important to become an EMT, because he and his friends did that to get into medical school. You might spend a lot of time scrambling to do this, where you might end up sacrificing more application helping ECs or your grades as a result.
Sorry, I'm a little scatter-brained here, so I don't know if I'm answering your question. But I guess another way to approach it is if it's meaningful to you, then go ahead and do it. Unfortunately, pre-meds do a lot of things that are special to them, which makes them feel very special, which makes them feel like their application is special; but in the end, ADCOMs might not see it as anything special. So it's best not to bet on something as a Golden Ticket, and I'm not saying that you are by any means.
You only have so much time to do things, and a check-list of things that have been getting pre-meds into medical schools for years. It's best for people to allocate their time to where it matters, so they can have a competitive mix of stats and ECs, which is disguised as "doing things you're passionate about" on SDN.
If I didn't answer your question at all, I apologize. I've been studying neuro all day and it's been frying my brain ironically.
EDIT: Oh jeeze, you weren't asking a question in the first place! Oy!
I totally agree with you. Your application should be telling a story about you and if something like study abroad fits in with that story, then do it.
There is no magic EC (other than saving the entire world) that will get you into medical school and people need to stop thinking that one EC will do it for them. Just like one bad grade won't get your app thrown out, one EC isn't going to make them accept your app.
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Haha, I was mostly talking about the people that go out their way to do an international medical mission sort of thing just for the sake of resume boosting.
I'm sure that most people who embark on these experiences do it with good intentions even if their actual impact is slim.
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In many countries, the $5,000+ you paid for the chance to spend a couple of weeks painting dilapidated buildings, posing with poor children, or teaching them American sports could fund the annual salary of several local unemployed workers with families to feed. In those instances I think it's best to write write a check and return when you have something useful to offer. Americans flying to Africa or Central America to perform any task that could be done by a local person makes no sense.
Studying abroad for a semester or more is another story. If you don't speak or read the local language of a place you visit you totally miss or misinterpret 99% of what is going on around you. In my opinion, striving to crack open that 99% should be the goal of any college trip abroad.
Studying abroad for a semester or more is another story. If you don't speak or read the local language of a place you visit you totally miss or misinterpret 99% of what is going on around you. In my opinion, striving to crack open that 99% should be the goal of any college trip abroad.
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A slew of my fellow interviewees had done medical stuff abroad. I was not one of them, and I had 6 choices in the end. The fact that I had never even been outside of the US never came up during interviews.
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Don't forget posing with stethoscopes or action shots of you checking blood sugars! That way, your friends can know that you are on a trip of a lifetime to save children!
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Writing a check won't help YOU with the admissions process though. It doesn't count as an EC.
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Don't do anything "just to improve an app" except for GPA and MCAT. Chances are if it's not something you enjoy doing, you shouldn't go into medicine at all. If you WANT to travel abroad, go for it. Otherwise don't. It won't help you at all, unless you're interested in doing some sort of overseas work as a physician.
