Question about EC

[Geo16]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello folks.
Forgive me if they are annoying questions, but I have three questions to ask.

1) Is EC just a tie breaker or is it as important as GPA/MCAT?
(For example, someone with excellent EC and somewhat good gpa/mcat is favored over
someone with high gpa/mcat with small number of EC)

2) Going to start my EC starting from 3rd year. Is this bad?

3) Does the quality of EC matter? Is Geo-club(geology or geography) fine for Med school?

 

[DingoPingo]

1) yes
2) yes
3) yes

 

[Geo16]

1)
2)
3)

Time to answer my own questions.
Be right back 😉

 

[DingoPingo]

Time to answer my own questions.
Be right back 😉

Wait I answered them.

 

[Swish16]

Hello folks.
Forgive me if they are annoying questions, but I have three questions to ask.

1) Is EC just a tie breaker or is it as important as GPA/MCAT?
(For example, someone with excellent EC and somewhat good gpa/mcat is favored over
someone with high gpa/mcat with small number of EC)

2) Going to start my EC starting from 3rd year. Is this bad?

3) Does the quality of EC matter? Is Geo-club(geology or geography) fine for Med school?

Think about the application as a house. The ECs are the interior, GPA is the neighborhood, the MCAT is how big the house is. They reflect your interests and how you manage your time. Starting ECs now is too late but I'm sure you've done some activities over the past 3-4 years you can put on an application. You should take a gap year and try to complete some exp in a research lab, volunteering in a clinical setting and shadow a few doctors.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[DingoPingo]

Think about the application as a house. The ECs are the interior, GPA is the neighborhood, the MCAT is how big the house is. They reflect your interests and how you manage your time. Starting ECs now is too late but I'm sure you've done some activities over the past 3-4 years you can put on an application. You should take a gap year and try to complete some exp in a research lab, volunteering in a clinical setting and shadow a few doctors.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

Elaborate on this analogy. Right now it makes no sense, at least to me.

 

[Geo16]

Think about the application as a house. The ECs are the interior, GPA is the neighborhood, the MCAT is how big the house is. They reflect your interests and how you manage your time. Starting ECs now is too late but I'm sure you've done some activities over the past 3-4 years you can put on an application. You should take a gap year and try to complete some exp in a research lab, volunteering in a clinical setting and shadow a few doctors.

Sorry about the confusion, but I am in 2nd year of college.
I was thinking about whether or not if I should start now or start from my 3rd year. Definitely will start this year.
🙂

Hopefully, I will volunteer at a hospital this year and continue that on.

 

[confidentandgood]

Elaborate on this analogy. Right now it makes no sense, at least to me.

If I'm reading it correctly, the numbers get your foot in the door. Like a nice neighborhood you'd drive by, GPA catches the eye of adcoms — but the MCAT makes you stand out like an impressively large house (because let's face it, there are a lot of nice neighborhoods out there). Once you've settled on a house based on appearance, you don't rush into a purchase without surveying the inside. Like the house's interior, the EC's (though I would add LoR's, personal statement, and interview to this) are the icing on the cake. Without these, a 4.0/520+ candidate will look like nothing more than an academic robot.

On an unrelated note, this is the most excessive and unnecessary analysis I've ever done on an Internet forum.