Quantity/Quality in AMCAS sections

[guitarguy23]

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Is it better to have a higher amount of EC's (i.e. all 15 spots filled or close to it) or to have a greater quality of EC's posted in that section?

How many LORs is a good amount? If I know I can get 3 strong ones is it better to just use those 3 or is it a good idea to supplement them with 2 others as well?

Thanks guys this site is amazing and saves my "application-life" every day 🙂

 

[TheLoveMD]

im sure that adcoms are used to people padding their resumes with one day events and things that are absurd at best. id go with things you feel strongly about, have plenty experience in, and can talk about realisticly and thoroughly in ur interviews. you wouldnt want to say you work out and are into nutrition and the interviewer asks u about it and your like, "yea i do curls...every other tuesday of every other month...in my mother's basement...watching the olympics?!?"

negative

go with waht ya know

 

[ziggydoc]

You dont need to fill the whole 15 spots, I didn't and I know many others that don't. The point is listing things that you have a commitment to, have responsibilities in them, and that you enjoy/passionate about. Adding a few ECs that are interesting and unique is good, but you don't want to fluff your AMCAS. For example, on top of the usual stuff, I put down that I play guitar, and had an great convo with one of my interviewers about music. So, know your stuff if you list it on your app.

quality over quantity

 

[harvman11]

I didn't fill up my EC list, but you should be able to put down around 10 things at least that have a good amount of substance to them. They don't all have to be related to medicine, etc. For example, I really enjoy playing video games, and have won a couple of tournaments, so I put that down. At every interview I've been to, one of my interviewers has asked me about it and I think it's made me more of a person, not just a bunch of numbers on paper.

As for the LOR, if you have 3 great, outstanding letters, that's all you need (as long as they fulfill the requirements). adding mediocre letters will hurt your application if they do anything. Don't get letters from people who won't really be able to talk much about you, make the letters you have count.