One year to improve EC's

[tetra8]

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If you had one year to boost your EC's on a full course load, what would you do? Assuming that you had insignificant EC's to begin with and you had to do everything you could to make yourself at least slightly competitive for medical school while maintaining a good gpa. Looking for serious answers. Thanks.

 

[flatearth22]

Define "insignificant EC's"

I would just expand on these "insignificant EC's" and make them "significant" through leadership, more involvement, etc.

 

[NKChemEng]

One year including this summer? Or one year starting in September?

 

[tetra8]

one year starting in september, so including the summer after.

flatearth22: for the sake of simplicity, lets just assume you have no EC's to begin with.

 

[KTownGT]

Tutor outside of school and start a new hobby or two? Join a fraternity and hold a pledge leadership role?

 

[LizzyM]

It can not be done without looking fake.

Plan on a few gap years. Then:

Join the military or the Peace Corps, or

Get a job on a research team in a lab, take up a hobby done in a group such as a team sport or a musical group, volunteer to help the needy at least once a month, or

Get a full time job in a clinical setting plus take up a hobby done in a group such as a team sport or a musical group, volunteer to help the needy at least once a month, or

Volunteer full time with Americorps, Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Teach for America or similar group, learn a practical skill (e.g. knitting) and a completely impractical skill (e.g. playing the harmonica).

 

[circulus vitios]

It can not be done without looking fake.

Plan on a few gap years. Then:

Join the military or the Peace Corps, or

So this actually helps applicants? How so, and do admissions members look for any specific things in military service (ie, specific branch, specific job, specific training?)

My backup plan for not getting into medical school right away is joining the military for four years to pay off student loans. It would be great if it helped my application, too.

 

[LizzyM]

So this actually helps applicants? How so, and do admissions members look for any specific things in military service (ie, specific branch, specific job, specific training?)

My backup plan for not getting into medical school right away is joining the military for four years to pay off student loans. It would be great if it helped my application, too.

Any military service is going to provide a practical course in humility, discipline, and leadership. You will learn to work together as a team member with people who are vastly different in both their backgrounds and in their plans for the future.

There is much more in the way of knowledge, skills and ability that you will cultivate in the service that would make you an attractive med student applicant.

 

[NKChemEng]

One year is definitely not enough for anything, and a gap year would be useful. However, I sincerely doubt that you have done NOTHING besides school. If any of those activities you already do can be continued and are valuable to you in some way, make them more meaningful.

 

[Eric01]

A few gap years? I think that's ridiculous. One year of solid volunteering is plenty enough, most people only apply with a few hundred hours of volunteering anyways.

EDIT: out of curiosity, does volunteering after you send in your application throughout the next year count as well?

 

[paul411]

A few gap years? I think that's ridiculous. One year of solid volunteering is plenty enough, most people only apply with a few hundred hours of volunteering anyways.

EDIT: out of curiosity, does volunteering after you send in your application throughout the next year count as well?

But adcoms don't only look at the "total hours" per activity. They look at the timeline of activities to see some coherence and commitment in the ECs. So "one year of solid volunteering" might appear fake.

 

[phnerd1105]

What do your EC's look like so far?

Also note that you ARE taking a full course load, and you shouldn't let it affect your grades at all. Otherwise, it will appear as if you couldn't handle many commitments

 

[Eric01]

Still MCAT and GPA are always more important than EC, you still have a good chance of getting in with a year of volunteering, provided you get quality experiences from them.

 

[phnerd1105]

Still MCAT and GPA are always more important than EC, you still have a good chance of getting in with a year of volunteering, provided you get quality experiences from them.

They're important, but EC's still play a large chunk. I know a few friends who had great MCAT scores and GPAs and were either waitlisted or rejected from everywhere due to lack of clinical experience.

 

[Whatyousay]

They're important, but EC's still play a large chunk. I know a few friends who had great MCAT scores and GPAs and were either waitlisted or rejected from everywhere due to lack of clinical experience.

I wish I had friends.

But to the OP: hospital volunteering is probably your best bet. Clinical exposure + community service. It still probably wouldn't be sufficient, but it's killing two birds with one stone.

 

[Eric01]

They're important, but EC's still play a large chunk. I know a few friends who had great MCAT scores and GPAs and were either waitlisted or rejected from everywhere due to lack of clinical experience.

Well yes, if you have no EC, then you're simply not competitive. But if you get around a year of diverse amounts of volunteering in, you're not going to get much more experience just playing the time game.

My interpretation of EC's value is to contribute to society and gain experience.

Yes, you might still be lacking in the first category if you just do one year, but I mean come on that shouldn't keep you out of medical school if you have a good GPA and MCAT.

 

[flatearth22]

Well yes, if you have no EC, then you're simply not competitive. But if you get around a year of diverse amounts of volunteering in, you're not going to get much more experience just playing the time game.

My interpretation of EC's value is to contribute to society and gain experience.

Yes, you might still be lacking in the first category if you just do one year, but I mean come on that shouldn't keep you out of medical school if you have a good GPA and MCAT.

We need more people like you on Admissions Committees.

 

[EgotiStick]

Rx for good ECs:
1) pick something up that you'll do consistently but with not a huge commitment: e.g. hospital volunteering and/or shadowing a few hours a week. at my UG, you could sign up for 3 hr shifts once a week in a variety of services.

2) Take on something eles thats more like a pet project (e.g. will only do on a handful of days but will require greater effort). Great examples would be volunteering as a camp counselor at camps for kids with diseases, going on a medical mission somewhere, volunteering at child free-immunization drives, etc.

Ideally, ECs are things you've sustained for a long time and things you can link passion/experience with medicine. Both are great to talk about in interviews, but things like camp counseling or medical missions are much stronger on essays (typically).

 

[flatearth22]

Rx for good ECs:
1) pick something up that you'll do consistently but with not a huge commitment: e.g. hospital volunteering and/or shadowing a few hours a week. at my UG, you could sign up for 3 hr shifts once a week in a variety of services.

2) Take on something eles thats more like a pet project (e.g. will only do on a handful of days but will require greater effort). Great examples would be volunteering as a camp counselor at camps for kids with diseases, going on a medical mission somewhere, volunteering at child free-immunization drives, etc.

Ideally, ECs are things you've sustained for a long time and things you can link passion/experience with medicine. Both are great to talk about in interviews, but things like camp counseling or medical missions are much stronger on essays (typically).

aka medical vacations.

I've read a few PS's of my peers and almost all of them who went on medical missions started theirs off with something like:

"The hot dust swept into my face as I got off the plane in Nairobi."

It gets old....fast.

 

[EgotiStick]

We need more people like you on Admissions Committees.

People in admissions want well-rounded people that are dedicated to medicine. ECs are a good way to show this, but not the only way.

I'd laugh in your face if you honestly got rejected because you didn't have enough volunteering hours. Not you specifically, but premeds in general.

 

[phnerd1105]

I agree, you shoudl just get in as much as you can. But make sure it shows how passionate you are and it is genuinely something you're interested in. Don't do it for the sake of doing it.

 

[Eric01]

I'm in the same position as the OP, I'm taking a gap year to work on my EC

I just started volunteering at mental hospital

about to begin volunteering at a regular hospital

Plan on beginning volunteering for Hospice in September.

I'll be taking these activities through next application cycle and beyond, so I should have roughly 1.5 years of them by the time I go in for my interview.

If I don't get in because of this after working so hard for my GPA and MCAT... then Carribbean looks a lot more attractive.

 

[flatearth22]

People in admissions want well-rounded people that are dedicated to medicine. ECs are a good way to show this, but not the only way.

I'd laugh in your face if you honestly got rejected because you didn't have enough volunteering hours. Not you specifically, but premeds in general.

Just a matter of preference but I'm looking at it from the patient's perspective. I'd rather have my doctor be someone who got a 3.9/35 and spent their free time getting drunk and playing Xbox over someone who had a 3.5/30 and spent their free time doing EC's solely to impress Adcoms.

 

[EgotiStick]

Just a matter of preference but I'm looking at it from the patient's perspective. I'd rather have my doctor be someone who got a 3.9/35 and spent their free time getting drunk and playing Xbox over someone who had a 3.5/30 and spent their free time doing EC's solely to impress Adcoms.

SOO are you agreeing with me? The argument isn't between the importance of grades/mcat and ECs; its what to do to bump up your ECs.

 

[V5RED]

Just a matter of preference but I'm looking at it from the patient's perspective. I'd rather have my doctor be someone who got a 3.9/35 and spent their free time getting drunk and playing Xbox over someone who had a 3.5/30 and spent their free time doing EC's solely to impress Adcoms.

Try looking at it from a school's perspective. Would you want a bunch of kids dropping out partway through medical school because once they finally got their lazy asses into a hospital they realized they hated working there?

You would also have the issue of lots of students coming in who had never worked a day in their lives. That will not be a pretty picture once they actually have to do real work as opposed to just studying.

 

[NightGod]

Just a matter of preference but I'm looking at it from the patient's perspective. I'd rather have my doctor be someone who got a 3.9/35 and spent their free time getting drunk and playing Xbox over someone who had a 3.5/30 and spent their free time doing EC's solely to impress Adcoms.

Yeah, but if you were part of an AdCom which would you accept? The guy who got 3.65/33 and did three or four years of volunteer work (10 hr/month at a soup kitchen and 15 hr/month at a hospital/free clinic) and had 15 hours shadowing doctors in 4 different specialties or the guy who got a 3.7/34 and spent his free time his first three years getting drunk and playing Xbox and then crammed in 100 hours of volunteering at the local hospital during his glide year?

Because here's the thing: patients don't serve on admissions committees and the reality is they are looking for people who are not only intelligent, but they also want people who can demonstrate that they not only know at least the basics of what the life of a doctor is like, but also are showing a long term dedication to serving their fellow man. Yes, doctors make good money, but it is also primarily considered a lifetime of service and sacrifice by those who are active in the field.

 

[nice2012]

SOO are you agreeing with me? The argument isn't between the importance of grades/mcat and ECs; its what to do to bump up your ECs.

Yup, that's the point.