My EC's

[Southern_Weather]

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Dear SDN,
I am a sophmore at MGCCC and I would like to know how competitive my EC's are. I just graduated from a CNA program and I plan on taking a year or so off to gain an estimated 2000 hrs of clinical experience. I am also currently doing an internship through the science department which allows me to watch surgeries for three hours a week which will get me around 40 hrs at the end of the semester. This intership also puts me into the Rotaract club but I am not sure as to how many hours I will get with them. I am in the Phi Theta Kappa honor society ( though it is at a community college, it should still count 😳 ) I do plan on shadowing a few physicians. I am thinking that my CNA experience will be my strongest advocate. Is there anything else that could help?

 

[Catalystik]

Dear SDN,
I am a sophmore at MGCCC and I would like to know how competitive my EC's are. I just graduated from a CNA program and I plan on taking a year or so off to gain an estimated 2000 hrs of clinical experience. I am also currently doing an internship through the science department which allows me to watch surgeries for three hours a week which will get me around 40 hrs at the end of the semester. This intership also puts me into the Rotaract club but I am not sure as to how many hours I will get with them. I am in the Phi Theta Kappa honor society ( though it is at a community college, it should still count 😳 ) I do plan on shadowing a few physicians. I am thinking that my CNA experience will be my strongest advocate. Is there anything else that could help?

Research, teaching, and leadership are other catgories available on the AMCAS application. Your clinical experience will be very strong, if you apply the year after you start it. Keep a record of the projects you engage in through Rotaract, as well as a contact who can attest to your involvement.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I know a ton of people who CNA'd and most of them speak glowingly about it. I know it gave many of them something to talk about during interviews. Keep it up! 👍

 

[dreamweaver1988]

Dear SDN,
I am a sophmore at MGCCC and I would like to know how competitive my EC's are. I just graduated from a CNA program and I plan on taking a year or so off to gain an estimated 2000 hrs of clinical experience. I am also currently doing an internship through the science department which allows me to watch surgeries for three hours a week which will get me around 40 hrs at the end of the semester. This intership also puts me into the Rotaract club but I am not sure as to how many hours I will get with them. I am in the Phi Theta Kappa honor society ( though it is at a community college, it should still count 😳 ) I do plan on shadowing a few physicians. I am thinking that my CNA experience will be my strongest advocate. Is there anything else that could help?

I'm a bit less optimistic about "taking a year or so off" just to be a CNA. Yes, it's clinical, and yes, you'll get paid, but really? A whole year away from school? 2000 hours of clinical experience? Plus nursing =/= doctor, so it will be much less valuable experience than shadowing. Just my opinion.

 

[dougfunnie]

I'm a bit less optimistic about "taking a year or so off" just to be a CNA. Yes, it's clinical, and yes, you'll get paid, but really? A whole year away from school? 2000 hours of clinical experience? Plus nursing =/= doctor, so it will be much less valuable experience than shadowing. Just my opinion.

This is a new perspective on clinical experience that I've never heard before. I've never heard someone say that clinical experience is not worthwhile. Shadowing =/= clinical experience. Shadowing is good because the time is spent focusing only on seeing what a doctor does. However, it's in a separate category because it's a passive activity. Clinical experience is the only way to get first-hand interaction with patients (because you aren't supposed to be helping patients as a shadow visitor). Most adcoms seem to want to see both shadowing and clinical experience for these reasons. One without the other really isn't enough to show you understand what you're getting yourself into. CNA is a great pre-med activity/job and a great way to get clinical experience, as is being a scribe, EMT, or hospital volunteer. Going above and beyond in this category is never a bad idea.

Also, OP, I realize you're either a longtime lurker (like me) or a noob. If the latter is the case, catalystik's advice should always hold the most weight. Very generous, longtime SDN mentor.

 

[dreamweaver1988]

This is a new perspective on clinical experience that I've never heard before. I've never heard someone say that clinical experience is not worthwhile. Shadowing =/= clinical experience. Shadowing is good because the time is spent focusing only on seeing what a doctor does. However, it's in a separate category because it's a passive activity. Clinical experience is the only way to get first-hand interaction with patients (because you aren't supposed to be helping patients as a shadow visitor). Most adcoms seem to want to see both shadowing and clinical experience for these reasons. One without the other really isn't enough to show you understand what you're getting yourself into. CNA is a great pre-med activity/job and a great way to get clinical experience, as is being a scribe, EMT, or hospital volunteer. Going above and beyond in this category is never a bad idea.

Also, OP, I realize you're either a longtime lurker (like me) or a noob. If the latter is the case, catalystik's advice should always hold the most weight. Very generous, longtime SDN mentor.

There have been posters who said something like"I took a year off from school and worked as a pharm tech" or "I shadowed a doctor for a year" or "I have 20,000 hours as a CNA/EMT." And experienced SDNers consistently say that you have to be crazy to do that, unless of course you're a non-trad and you've worked years as a CNA/EMT/whatever. Also, I would argue that what would be more impressive is being a full-time student and working two eight-hour CNA shifts over the weekend (for example), all while getting good grades, shadowing, maybe doing some research, etc. In other words, a balance of activities, not just going overboard in one.

P.S. I'm a CNA, and I can't stand the thought of working full-time for a year. That's a lot of *hit to clean up.

 

[dougfunnie]

Yeah I wouldn't want to be a CNA full-time either. Not my cup of tea. I was more interested in where you heard shadowing>clinical experience. Also forgot that "above and beyond" means something totally over the top to a lot of SDNers. And definitely didn't mean to come off as argumentative.

Some of have to take that gap year though, and professional cleaner-upper sounds better than clinical research assistant a.k.a. secretary at least to me haha

 

[dreamweaver1988]

Yeah I wouldn't want to be a CNA full-time either. Not my cup of tea. I was more interested in where you heard shadowing>clinical experience. Also forgot that "above and beyond" means something totally over the top to a lot of SDNers. And definitely didn't mean to come off as argumentative.

Some of have to take that gap year though, and professional cleaner-upper sounds better than clinical research assistant a.k.a. secretary at least to me haha

To quote the great Senator Jon Kyl, that was "not intended to be a factual statement." I would say you need both ~50 hrs shadowing and maybe ~150 or so of clinical. If you feel like going overboard with one, obviously it would be the clinical, esp. if you can get paid.

 

[camshark]

I think you should add some other activities also. I work 30-32hrs/wk as a nurse aide on surgical for past 1.5yrs plus shadow 1x/wk 4 hrs, tutor biology and chemistry, am organizing a blood drive and raise 2 kids and a wife (ha not raise her I guess) on top of 18 credits this semester. I think showing you can handle a lot and do well with all of it shows adcoms you will be able to handle medical school. I think medical school will be a relief after being busy from 8am-1130pm everyday! Good luck!

 

[tiedyeddog]

I think medical school will be a relief after being busy from 8am-1130pm everyday! Good luck!

Yeah, most weeks it probably will be. You'll be well prepared to work hard during exam weeks/third year, keep it up!

 

[kestralray]

To quote the great Senator Jon Kyl, that was "not intended to be a factual statement." I would say you need both ~50 hrs shadowing and maybe ~150 or so of clinical. If you feel like going overboard with one, obviously it would be the clinical, esp. if you can get paid.

Slightly off topic questions, but I've always been a little confused about this. I think 50hrs may be a fairly low number compared to stats I've seen quoted around SDN--though I'm not sure, I haven't really been keeping track. However... isn't it quite a lot? 50 seems pretty reasonable to on the high end, but I've seen people post over 100 hours of shadowing.

Shadowing is just spending time shadowing a doctor right? In my experience, it's not like volunteering, where you go every week for a set number of hours. Instead, you schedule to shadow a doc once (maybe twice) to get an idea of what they do. Then you switch to another doctor. But honestly, I think shadowing is fun, but I'm not sure I can think of more than 10 specialties I'm interested in... so how does one rack up huge numbers of shadowing hours? Maybe I'm doing the math wrong...?

Maybe it's just cuz i'm out of school and have a job... but it seems like fitting in shadowing more than once every few weeks (cuz they have to be during work-days/hours) is impractical.

 

[dreamweaver1988]

Slightly off topic questions, but I've always been a little confused about this. I think 50hrs may be a fairly low number compared to stats I've seen quoted around SDN--though I'm not sure, I haven't really been keeping track. However... isn't it quite a lot? 50 seems pretty reasonable to on the high end, but I've seen people post over 100 hours of shadowing.

Shadowing is just spending time shadowing a doctor right? In my experience, it's not like volunteering, where you go every week for a set number of hours. Instead, you schedule to shadow a doc once (maybe twice) to get an idea of what they do. Then you switch to another doctor. But honestly, I think shadowing is fun, but I'm not sure I can think of more than 10 specialties I'm interested in... so how does one rack up huge numbers of shadowing hours? Maybe I'm doing the math wrong...?

Maybe it's just cuz i'm out of school and have a job... but it seems like fitting in shadowing more than once every few weeks (cuz they have to be during work-days/hours) is impractical.

I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. But yeah it doe seem like everyone on SDN has a 3.9, 37 MCAT, and 400 hours of shadowing. I've heard Catalystik say somewhere around 50 hours is the average, but I don't know for sure.

 

[MossyFiber]

] I am thinking that my CNA experience will be my strongest advocate. Is there anything else that could help?

Just curious, where's your "I'm not a typical premed robot and am actually a unique person" EC?

 

[kestralray]

Just curious, where's your "I'm not a typical premed robot and am actually a unique person" EC?

Sorry, I don't mean to pick on your reply in particular, but this is something I've been seeing a lot of recently (picking on people because their EC's aren't "unique" enough).

First of all, don't get me wrong, I think EC's are important. Being able to convey your personality in an EC you have a passion for is something that will make up low stats, and might be key for getting into top 10 schools. However, I think there's a general mythos surrounding ECs here on SDN that say you have to have some mind blowingly unique EC in order to get into a (top) med school.

Umm.. and to succumb to the temptation to be a little nasty, I think some people are so focused on EC's because they have low stats, because in the end, GPA and MCAT are really THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. And sure, you guys all know this, but I feel like everyone thinks "sure, they're important" and then forgets about them.

I was talking recently to someone who is an adcom. I honestly have rather poor EC's, but I have a lot of research experience. He said that that was fine, I just have to know and be able to articulate my research, and try to get my name on a publication. It's not about how unique vs cookie cutter your EC's are, it's about what you make of them and how you present them to the adcoms. I personally found Blue Panda's MDapps page had some very useful advice regarding this.

lastly, just because someone's EC's sound cookie cutter, there can be a myriad of different experiences, even in hospital volunteering (maybe even for shadowing.....though this may be going to far. 😛). Like I said, it's about what you get out of it and how you're able to articulate that.

um. tl;dr: EC's are necessary, but you don't need some OMG I AM UNIQUE ECs to get you into med school. Just do something you like (and do it well) for a long time and speak about it passionately. [this is, of course, in addition to needing clinical exposure]

disclaimer: I am simply a pre-med. I don't really know what all adcom's consider, but this is the advice I got from one adcom.