Is family an EC? (lol)

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Hi,

To all you parents out there, with full time jobs....what do you do for extracurricular activities? Besides volunteering at a clinic/shadowing. Do you find time for anything else? Do the adcoms view having a family as some sort of EC? lol

nope.

Members don't see this ad.
 

I tend to agree that having a family is not an EC, but it does take up a great (all of?) one's time. I am deeply concerned about my lack of EC's. I am... was a cub scout leader for a while. I have four kids, I taught them all to read. My oldest (11 yo) has Asperger's syndrome. I have managed his education, naviagted child study, and spent untold hours working with him. Teaching him to read was a multiple year, intensive project...made teaching his normal younger siblings look like a piece of cake. But full time parenting means that volunteering costs money: you have to pay for a babysitter. And aside from casts, finding a babysitter who is both willing and able to manage an AS child is extremely difficult. This is the first year all my kids were supposed to be in school, but my AS child has been on home study for the last 4.5 months. He finally enters an excellent AS prgram on Monday. My MCAT is 38S, and I have a 3.8 GPA, but as far as health care and extracurriculars go, I have some up close and personal experience managing a child with a developmental disorder, some cub scout leadership, and stuff from more than 15 years ago.

I really want to do an MSTP program, but am leaning towards an MS and calling it a day. By the time I can pull together the needed clinical and research experience to apply I will be very old before even starting residency.
 
Okay, I totally understand what everyone is saying ... the best thing is to write about being a parent in my PS.

However, that leaves me with the thought...if I really do take swimming lessons with my child (which I intend on doing - and it has nothing to do with medical school, I just want to do it) isn't it technically still an EC activity? Maybe I shouldn't mention that I do it with my child in order to sound more professional? But couldn't I still list "swimming lessons"?

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your responses!

~Julie



i don't mean to be negative here, but i think that putting down "Swimming lessons with my child" as and EC is extremely silly. If you are a full time mom than I would put that down as if it were my job under employment- just like i would if i worked in a lab or in an office. but i get a little tired of all the people with kids coming up with a million excuses why they have no ECs or volunteering and should be able to put their kids down like they are optional clubs or something. if you have time to be posting on SDN my thought is that you can spend a few hours a week getting involved with a LEGIT EC and then will have something to put in that section of AMCAS. if i read another post of someone that was "too disadvantaged" or got pregnant right out of high school and didn't have the opportunity to volunteer i think i'm going to go crazy. we are ALL busy people- having kids is really not a justification for not getting involved in your community and having zero ECs.
 
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