Looking to improve my EC's

[polojoe12]

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I just quit my job to better focus on school, but im sure i will have a bit of extra time I could spare to volunteer or work weekends. Does anyone know of any helthcare activities that I could do to improve my app as well as do something meaningful?

 

[big_smiles]

Call a local hospital/hospitals and look into the opportunities available there. There is also volunteer opportunities with non-profit organizations, community clinics, and on-campus. Make some phone calls. Any experiences will do you well. But do not only do something to put it on your app. Do something you will truly get something out of. Good luck.

 

[Labslave]

I just quit my job to better focus on school, but im sure i will have a bit of extra time I could spare to volunteer or work weekends. Does anyone know of any helthcare activities that I could do to improve my app as well as do something meaningful?

1) Find something you're passionate about and stick with it for a decent amount of time (at least 1 year). The longer the better. The more creative and dedicated you are in the project/activity the better.

2) Don't just think about clinical exposure. Try to cover the bases: community service, research, and clinical exposure. All of these three almost always pop up in interviews and secondary applications.

3) Have fun with what you're doing. If you don't, they'll know when you talk about it during your interviews!

With regards to the clinical vonunteer work, shadowing physicians, working in the ER, and becoming an EMT (this is especially cool/impressive) are just some of the options among many. Best of luck with everything!

 

[herrf]

do you have any previous healthcare ec's/ research? if so, perhaps engage in some activities non health related. Not only does it mentally balance you. but i actually get asked about non health related activities just as much as my research/volunteer experiences. For example, During my interview, i talked for a good 20 minutes about glass blowing

 

[MarzMD]

Please do something that you really want to do, not just something that you think will get you into medical school.

 

[polojoe12]

Please do something that you really want to do, not just something that you think will get you into medical school.

gee, thanks for this helpful bit of info 👎

On a side note, I am an EMT, however I've never taken the test. I guess I'll be working on that. How would I get involved in research? I have no background in this kinda thing, what would I do? My friends dad is director of research at Florida Hospitol, so if I were able to do something I could help there, however I dont know what he does.

 

[polojoe12]

do you have any previous healthcare ec's/ research? if so, perhaps engage in some activities non health related. Not only does it mentally balance you. but i actually get asked about non health related activities just as much as my research/volunteer experiences. For example, During my interview, i talked for a good 20 minutes about glass blowing

I dont have anything exciting like glass blowing, I have just been working the past couple years since HS. My buddy is pres, or vp or something simular in our schools SGA, would this be a help to me if i got involved? I never attended a meeting because i figure its boring.

 

[big_smiles]

However, he's right. Extracurriculars gotta be something that you enjoy and are willing to balance a tight schedule over. There isn't a wrong or right volunteer or research activity, it is what you decide and what interests you. Any community work is valuable, if you consider it to be valuable. If you don't consider the activity to be worthwhile and are doing it only to build up the AMCAS, that's kinda sad.

I've been a teaching assistant, volunteered in a hospital, shadowed physicians, done research, been involved in 2 academic clubs, and am a peer mentor. Not all medically related - -but I enjoy it.

Start looking what is available to you location-wise, and that interests you enough to put a fair deal of time into it.
Good luck!

 

[polojoe12]

However, he's right. Extracurriculars gotta be something that you enjoy and are willing to balance a tight schedule over. There isn't a wrong or right volunteer or research activity, it is what you decide and what interests you. Any community work is valuable, if you consider it to be valuable. If you don't consider the activity to be worthwhile and are doing it only to build up the AMCAS, that's kinda sad.

I've been a teaching assistant, volunteered in a hospital, shadowed physicians, done research, been involved in 2 academic clubs, and am a peer mentor. Not all medically related - -but I enjoy it.

Start looking what is available to you location-wise, and that interests you enough to put a fair deal of time into it.
Good luck!

I know he right, he just came off a bit rude. Maybe im just being too sensative.

the thing is that I dont know what Im interested in doing, however I know I need to do something or I wont get into med school at all. Thats why I asked for advice, so I might find something I would be interested in doing.

 

[AcesHigh]

Do interviewers really care about non-health related EC's? I mean, I have competed in many rally racing and autocross events over the years and still presently and have always been in the top five overall all of these times. I didn't think they'd care about things like snowboarding, playing soccer, etc. all of which I do. I wasn't planning on putting any of these in my app because it was non-academic, I thought that even putting playing guitar was a big stretch.

Was just going to throw my clinical experience in there only.

 

[DCHHopeful2012]

the thing is that I dont know what Im interested in doing, however I know I need to do something or I wont get into med school at all. Thats why I asked for advice, so I might find something I would be interested in doing.

Hey Joe. I'm kind of in your situation too. Throughout high school I had very few extracurriculars, and I was ecstatic when I got into my top-choice college. Now I find myself in that situation again. I'm a sophomore in undergrad, but I realized that I only have one more year before I apply--not two like I originally thought (pretty sure I want to matriculate immediately after graduation). My EC's are better than they were in high school but I still feel like I haven't done enough. It's a hard feeling to shake off.

Originally I asked myself what could I do to impress admissions committees. But I think the others are right when they say just do something you like. College is a time when you can join clubs that *might* sound interesting to you. Just take a plunge and join a few clubs and see if you like them. If you don't like it, just stop going and you haven't lost anything. You only have experiences to gain. There's no way to know what you like to do if you don't broaden your horizons. For example, I had never played water polo in my life prior to last semester and it was actually kind of fun, so I'm going to stick with it hopefully and it will broaden my application, although that wasn't the main reason I joined.

Some examples: intramural sports, tutoring, TA'ing, volunteer work (medically related or not), even some sort of special interest that is not connected to the school. All of these can help your application.

You didn't ask about this but I suppose a related problem is that the ECs I've been doing haven't been too fulfilling. Maybe I should try to get a leadership role in a club and then make it more fulfilling for me. That's also a good thing to show admissions committees! So if you find yourself in a similar situation see if you can't change it.

Anyway, not sure if this helps you at all, but at least you know you're not alone.

P.S. You asked about research possibilities. I don't know what type of school you go to or what your major is, but I'm a biochem major at a small college and the chem department hosted a session where the professors shared their research interests. So that made it easy for me to approach a professor regarding their research, which I'm going to do this summer. You could also ask someone outside the school like your friend's dad.

 

[DCHHopeful2012]

Do interviewers really care about non-health related EC's? I mean, I have competed in many rally racing and autocross events over the years and still presently and have always been in the top five overall all of these times. I didn't think they'd care about things like snowboarding, playing soccer, etc. all of which I do. I wasn't planning on putting any of these in my app because it was non-academic, I thought that even putting playing guitar was a big stretch.

Was just going to throw my clinical experience in there only.

Well I haven't applied or interviewed yet but my understanding is that schools really DO care about what you do outside of medicine. Schools want students who pursue other interests. You just seem more human that way and you get skills that can help you in med school.

 

[polojoe12]

Hey Joe. I'm kind of in your situation too. Throughout high school I had very few extracurriculars, and I was ecstatic when I got into my top-choice college. Now I find myself in that situation again. I'm a sophomore in undergrad, but I realized that I only have one more year before I apply--not two like I originally thought (pretty sure I want to matriculate immediately after graduation). My EC's are better than they were in high school but I still feel like I haven't done enough. It's a hard feeling to shake off.

Originally I asked myself what could I do to impress admissions committees. But I think the others are right when they say just do something you like. College is a time when you can join clubs that *might* sound interesting to you. Just take a plunge and join a few clubs and see if you like them. If you don't like it, just stop going and you haven't lost anything. You only have experiences to gain. There's no way to know what you like to do if you don't broaden your horizons. For example, I had never played water polo in my life prior to last semester and it was actually kind of fun, so I'm going to stick with it hopefully and it will broaden my application, although that wasn't the main reason I joined.

Some examples: intramural sports, tutoring, TA'ing, volunteer work (medically related or not), even some sort of special interest that is not connected to the school. All of these can help your application.

You didn't ask about this but I suppose a related problem is that the ECs I've been doing haven't been too fulfilling. Maybe I should try to get a leadership role in a club and then make it more fulfilling for me. That's also a good thing to show admissions committees! So if you find yourself in a similar situation see if you can't change it.

Anyway, not sure if this helps you at all, but at least you know you're not alone.

P.S. You asked about research possibilities. I don't know what type of school you go to or what your major is, but I'm a biochem major at a small college and the chem department hosted a session where the professors shared their research interests. So that made it easy for me to approach a professor regarding their research, which I'm going to do this summer. You could also ask someone outside the school like your friend's dad.

HA! I think we have even more in common, I love water polo. I played all throughout HS. I could join the county team again, however my schedule dosent really mesh, plus im out of shape now. I can think of some more excuses, just give me a minute.

 

[herrf]

Do interviewers really care about non-health related EC's? I mean, I have competed in many rally racing and autocross events over the years and still presently and have always been in the top five overall all of these times. I didn't think they'd care about things like snowboarding, playing soccer, etc. all of which I do. I wasn't planning on putting any of these in my app because it was non-academic, I thought that even putting playing guitar was a big stretch.

Was just going to throw my clinical experience in there only.

It might depend where you apply to school. Fortunately or unfortunately, neither my grades, nor my MCATS are anything spectacular. So the schools I applied to have personalities that reflect emphasis on different areas. This is not to say they are bad schools (e.g. I applied to places like Temple, NYMC) and they emphasize balanced personalities. thus, non health related EC's make you standout. If five applicants all have comparable mcat's, grades and health EC's what else is there to differentiate them? The fact that you do motocross shows that you are involved in other things besides hospitals. A lot goes into that sport and you should capitalize on your knowledge of it. You may even get interviewed my a motocross enthusiast.

 

[45408]

Aces, I wouldn't tell them all of your hobbies, but if you've competed at a significant level, then yeah, I'd include those events.