Less is More

[altamont850]

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Today I had a fairly long conversation with a prominent physician in my community and during this conversation, I began speaking about all the extracurricular activities I'll be taken part in in the Fall semester. Shortly after I'd listed my activities(around 6), I was informed that it is far more advantageous to participate in a maximum of 2 activities outside academics in which you're truly passionate. I was also informed that it is more prudent to focus on marks and not too many activities which can often be detrimental to G.P.A.

Here is one course of action:
Focus on academics, research and hospital volunteering and devote myself completely to these three tasks.

What do you guys think? Would it be wiser to do:
Research, hospital volunteering, youth center volunteering, chemistry club activities, tutoring math/science to primary school students, youth center volunteering and health department volunteering(HIV testing and counseling) or would my first course of action be more appropriate?

 

[pfaction]

# of activities may be <<< length of commitment of activities.

You can do 20 activities in 6 months, or three for your entire college activity. I think those three will be looked at much better.

 

[phltz]

Here is one course of action:
Focus on academics, research and hospital volunteering and devote myself completely to these three tasks.

What do you guys think? Would it be wiser to do:
Research, hospital volunteering, youth center volunteering, chemistry club activities, tutoring math/science to primary school students, youth center volunteering and health department volunteering(HIV testing and counseling) or would my first course of action be more appropriate?

Are you legitimately passionate about these things? Do you come back from the youth center re-energized and newly motivated to tackle your other obligations? Do you find yourself excitedly learning new things about chemistry in preparation for chemistry club activities? If so, sure, stick with it. If, however, you're just doing all this to pad out your resume, than no, it's not worth it. As others have said, you'll be better off focusing on doing fewer things better and longer than having a million things kina half-assedly limping along.

 

[jesse120]

As a general rule of thumb, less is more. But, with the exception of chem club (since I don't know what your involvement is), I like all of those activities. First and foremost, protect your GPA. If you feel you're falling behind in any of your classes, drop your least priority EC. Don't wait until after you get a C to do this. You don't necessarily have to give up your volunteering activities, but you can volunteer once a month instead of once a week for instance.

If research is important to you, then really focus on it. Write a thesis and get a publication out of it. If you don't enjoy it and you're just doing it because it looks good, don't do it. I've seen too many people do research and hate it. Why waste your time?

Just some of my thoughts

 

[Aerus]

There is no number rule. Do as much as you can without hurting your GPA, but make sure all you do is out of passion and love, not intents to pad your resume.

If you feel like you can handle all that and love doing all of them, by all means go for it.

 

[altamont850]

As a general rule of thumb, less is more. But, with the exception of chem club (since I don't know what your involvement is), I like all of those activities. First and foremost, protect your GPA. If you feel you're falling behind in any of your classes, drop your least priority EC. Don't wait until after you get a C to do this. You don't necessarily have to give up your volunteering activities, but you can volunteer once a month instead of once a week for instance.

If research is important to you, then really focus on it. Write a thesis and get a publication out of it. If you don't enjoy it and you're just doing it because it looks good, don't do it. I've seen too many people do research and hate it. Why waste your time?

Just some of my thoughts

I truly feel I can handle the academic aspect of all these activities but I do not want to burnout halfway through the semester and have to scramble to remain consistent. How do you guys continuously work all week (usually 4-5 days a week) with the knowledge that a large portion of your weekend will be occupied working (i.e. studying)? I think part of my problem is that I didn't complete high school with my peers (finished early with GED) and I've yet to learn how to effectively manage my time.How do you start each week when it feels like you have SO MUCH on your plate? I know it sounds like I'm whining, but I truly enjoy all of my EC's but I only have so much energy.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

The right number of activities depends on the following questions:

Will this activity effect my academic performance?
Will this activity give me something that I can actually speak intelligently on during an interview?
Will this activity provide with an opportunity to get a great letter of recommendation?

If the activity doesn't meet most (if not all) of the above, then don't do it.

 

[Perrotfish]

Today I had a fairly long conversation with a prominent physician in my community and during this conversation, I began speaking about all the extracurricular activities I'll be taken part in in the Fall semester. Shortly after I'd listed my activities(around 6), I was informed that it is far more advantageous to participate in a maximum of 2 activities outside academics in which you're truly passionate. I was also informed that it is more prudent to focus on marks and not too many activities which can often be detrimental to G.P.A.

Here is one course of action:
Focus on academics, research and hospital volunteering and devote myself completely to these three tasks.

What do you guys think? Would it be wiser to do:
Research, hospital volunteering, youth center volunteering, chemistry club activities, tutoring math/science to primary school students, youth center volunteering and health department volunteering(HIV testing and counseling) or would my first course of action be more appropriate?

You're looking for rules where there are none. ADCOMs are just people. Specifically very bored people sitting a room reading similar files over and over. Maybe the 'student representive' on the committe was in a fraternity, so maybe he'll look seriously at someone with greek letters on their activity. Maybe that assistant dean of admissions went to Berkley, so for her you'd be looking for cultural competency points. Maybe the over-competitive guy from the medicine department did a lot of activities in college, so the more you do the happier he is. However the cynical EM guy thinks everyone is full of ****, so the key for him is only to have a few activities but to look like you actually like them and you therefore are relatively less full of ****.

The point is that you're not going to figure out the right answer here, which is good, because it frees you up to do what you actually want to do. If you don't want to do 3 different kinds of volunteering then don't do it. If you prefer the variety of doing half a dozen things in a half assed kind of way then do that instead.