Lack of ECs?

[PreMedPoohBear]

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Did anyone here not get accepted because of their extracurricular activities? I went to a community college the firsts two years of college, and I'm about to be a junior at a senior university. So far, I've done really well in all my classes, and I believe I will keep up the good work at my new school (hopefully). I also believe with the right amount of studying, I will do well on the MCAT. My only problem is that I've just recently started to become really serious about medical school. The reason I started to become interested in medicine is because my father has renal failure, and I've spent so much time with him in the hospital. This sparked my interest, but I've been batteling with my decision until recently and now I want to be more serious about it. My problem is that I have no clinical experience or research done. I've done plenty of on campus activities that involved leadership though. I plan to spend the rest of my time in school volunteering, shadowing, doing research, and continuing doing leadership activities on campus. Do you all think this will be enough? I plan to apply for entrance into the Fall 2006 program, but I'm willing to wait until Fall 2007 and spend time working on things to prove my interest in medicine. Do you all think this lack of experience justifies waiting an extra year even though all my other stats are and hopefully will be fine? I'm asking now so I can plan ahead. Thanks everyone.

 

[ball372]

Hi. I think you should go ahead and apply for fall 2006 like you planned. However, if I were you, I would begin IMMEDIATELY with some significant clinical volunteering experience ( I got some great experience at a free clinic where they let me get alot of hands on experience - you may want to look into that.) I would also look into doing some research. Ask around your physiology, cell molecular bio, microbiology departments and see if you can get some part-time work during the upcoming year so that you can put it on next year's AMCAS app. It may be hard to get paid to do research, but you can also always volunteer.

I would definately do alot of significant clinical volunteering and maybe even some research. All the adcom people I talked to ALWAYS asked about the first, some even asked about the second. I really think that ultimately these things helped nudge me in. good luck!