Rank these Ec's from most meaningful to least meaningful:

[omare61]

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These aren't necessary my Ec's. These are just common ones. This would be a good reference to pre-meds.

1: Volunteering in a free clinic and having patient interaction
2. 2 published papers in a medical journal (2nd author)
3. EMT certification with hours
4. Shadowing
5. Long community Health screens-Blood pressure/sugar, cholesterol and consulting patients about their health based on those stats (Direct Patient interaction)
6. Laboratory assistant for a professor (published paper; not the first/second author; not a big contribution to the paper).
7. Multiple physician (5+) letters of recommendation from your work in the clinic, health screens and shadowing
8. Cleaning a part of the river as a part of environmental maintenance.
9. TA/tutor for an introductory class.
10. Devoted athlete at the university.


Assume equal hours were committed to all activities. Rank them in order or most meaningful to medical schools to least meaningful. In other words, rank in order of best to worst. (if you don't feel like copying and pasting, just use the respective numbers and put them in order)

 

[Sidereum]

It's really about what was more meaningful to the applicant him/herself. If you have a passion for research, obviously the publications would be a big deal; whereas if you're calling is to help the undeserved and sick, the volunteering might be more important. While it is important to understand that med schools want to see certain things on an application, it is even MORE important to devote one's time in undergrad to pursuing activities that they themselves enjoy, and believe are important. This will allow them to come out of the experience with a plethora of truly meaningful ECs, and the feeling that they accomplished something during their college years, instead of filling in the blanks with activities that they can barely trudge through.

In short, you and every other pre-med should do what they love, and if you do pursue something that you are passionate about (be it research, volunteering, athletics, writing, music, or whatever) that will be obvious to adcoms. Obviously you want to have SOME of the "necessary" ECs, like shadowing/clinical experience/volunteering, but beyond that, it is really up to the applicant.

Caveat: I am also only a pre-med, and Planes2Doc could probably say it a lot better than I did, but it's more important to be able to discuss one thing with passion and in detail than it is to have a laundry list of random activities that you couldn't care less about.

 

[thekay]

you've got to be kidding me

 

[circulus vitios]

Shouldn't they all be meaningful? I mean that's what people keep telling me. Why else would people waste a hundred hours of their time ladling soup for hobos or stocking shelves in an ER?

 

[Geebeejay]

These aren't necessary my Ec's. These are just common ones. This would be a good reference to pre-meds.

1: Volunteering in a free clinic and having patient interaction
2. 2 published papers in a medical journal (2nd author)
3. EMT certification with hours
4. Shadowing
5. Long community Health screens-Blood pressure/sugar, cholesterol and consulting patients about their health based on those stats (Direct Patient interaction)
6. Laboratory assistant for a professor (published paper; not the first/second author; not a big contribution to the paper).
7. Multiple physician (5+) letters of recommendation from your work in the clinic, health screens and shadowing
8. Cleaning a part of the river as a part of environmental maintenance.
9. TA/tutor for an introductory class.
10. Devoted athlete at the university.


Assume equal hours were committed to all activities. Rank them in order or most meaningful to medical schools to least meaningful. In other words, rank in order of best to worst. (if you don't feel like copying and pasting, just use the respective numbers and put them in order)

Only you can rank these....there is no best or worst, what is taken away is up to the individual who experienced them....

 

[plumhill]

These aren't necessary my Ec's. These are just common ones. This would be a good reference to pre-meds.

1: Volunteering in a free clinic and having patient interaction
2. 2 published papers in a medical journal (2nd author)
3. EMT certification with hours
4. Shadowing
5. Long community Health screens-Blood pressure/sugar, cholesterol and consulting patients about their health based on those stats (Direct Patient interaction)
6. Laboratory assistant for a professor (published paper; not the first/second author; not a big contribution to the paper).
7. Multiple physician (5+) letters of recommendation from your work in the clinic, health screens and shadowing
8. Cleaning a part of the river as a part of environmental maintenance.
9. TA/tutor for an introductory class.
10. Devoted athlete at the university.


Assume equal hours were committed to all activities. Rank them in order or most meaningful to medical schools to least meaningful. In other words, rank in order of best to worst. (if you don't feel like copying and pasting, just use the respective numbers and put them in order)

You're totally missing the point of what a meaningful activity means. These activities can be highly or not particularly meaningful to different people. Adcoms care about what is meaningful TO YOU, not necessarily what they consider to be "the best premed activity."

For instance, I'm not athletic, and athletics has had little to no impact on my life since junior high school. My application will mention many of the above activities, but not athletics. Big deal. On the other hand, my younger brother had to have four major surgeries to his shoulders and knees because of his immense athletic involvement. These surgeries led to many interactions with physicians in sports medicine as well as orthopedic surgeons. He went on to a D1 school on an athletic scholarship, and now wants to "pay it forward" by becoming a sports medicine doc or an orthopedic surgeon, and has been shadowing the physicians that work with his school's athletic program. Chances are, my brother is going to list athletic involvement as a meaningful activity.

Now, I have my own set of meaningful activities, and my brother has his. They're totally different, but they're equally meaningful TO US in our own way, and (hopefully) adcoms will view both activities positively. But most adcoms aren't going to prefer one of your activities over another just because sports > research or research > volunteering.

 

[sinombre]

Oh boy...

I think you're misunderstanding what the word "meaningful" means in the "most meaningful experience" section of the AMCAS. This is not something that can be universally quantified.

 

[Planes2Doc]

I don't know what to say. It's the pre-meds that have brought this onto themselves over many years. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the OP or any applicant, it's just the way things are.

On any SDN thread regarding ECs, people say: "Do what's meaningful to you." or "Do what you enjoy."
It should actually read: "Do what's meaningful to the ADCOMs." or "Do what the ADCOMs enjoy."

In reality, I don't need to ask someone if I enjoy spending time with friends, working out, watching TV, or doing other things that people generally enjoy. I also know what's more important to me in my life, such as I would rather have a fun night out with friends than stay home and watch TV. But suddenly, when it comes to ECs and doing a bunch of crap for the sake of medical school admissions, people try to figure out what would look best for the ADCOMs.

If someone genuinely enjoys something, there would never be a need to bring it up and ask things like this. But when threads like this come up, it's a dead giveaway that the OP is going through the expected motions.

And OP, I'm not trying to sound mean or make you feel bad. I'm not one of those holier-than-thou SDN pre-meds that treats a lack of volunteering like it's murder. Because frankly, if it weren't for medical school admissions, I never would have done those things. It's just what happened due to the EC arms race. So all we can do it try our best, and try not to be naive about this whole thing.

 

[Sidereum]

I don't know what to say. It's the pre-meds that have brought this onto themselves over many years. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the OP or any applicant, it's just the way things are.

On any SDN thread regarding ECs, people say: "Do what's meaningful to you." or "Do what you enjoy."
It should actually read: "Do what's meaningful to the ADCOMs." or "Do what the ADCOMs enjoy."

In reality, I don't need to ask someone if I enjoy spending time with friends, working out, watching TV, or doing other things that people generally enjoy. I also know what's more important to me in my life, such as I would rather have a fun night out with friends than stay home and watch TV. But suddenly, when it comes to ECs and doing a bunch of crap for the sake of medical school admissions, people try to figure out what would look best for the ADCOMs.

If someone genuinely enjoys something, there would never be a need to bring it up and ask things like this. But when threads like this come up, it's a dead giveaway that the OP is going through the expected motions.

And OP, I'm not trying to sound mean or make you feel bad. I'm not one of those holier-than-thou SDN pre-meds that treats a lack of volunteering like it's murder. Because frankly, if it weren't for medical school admissions, I never would have done those things. It's just what happened due to the EC arms race. So all we can do it try our best, and try not to be naive about this whole thing.

If that's the case, I would say that they all look really good, although shadowing>clinical volunteering>research in terms of how necessary they are. The rest is just icing on the cake. However, I would NOT spend time on athletic for the sole purpose of medical school admissions; you have to really want to do it for your own benefit, although it might make you look like a more well-rounded applicant, and could be impressive.

Anyway, if it came down to things like that, it makes more sense to choose among that list of things you enjoy, because from what I can tell, ADCOMS would look favorably on all of them, and it's best not to make your life hell, where possible.

 

[MedPR]

These aren't necessary my Ec's. These are just common ones. This would be a good reference to pre-meds.

1: Volunteering in a free clinic and having patient interaction
2. 2 published papers in a medical journal (2nd author)
3. EMT certification with hours
4. Shadowing
5. Long community Health screens-Blood pressure/sugar, cholesterol and consulting patients about their health based on those stats (Direct Patient interaction)
6. Laboratory assistant for a professor (published paper; not the first/second author; not a big contribution to the paper).
7. Multiple physician (5+) letters of recommendation from your work in the clinic, health screens and shadowing
8. Cleaning a part of the river as a part of environmental maintenance.
9. TA/tutor for an introductory class.
10. Devoted athlete at the university.


Assume equal hours were committed to all activities. Rank them in order or most meaningful to medical schools to least meaningful. In other words, rank in order of best to worst. (if you don't feel like copying and pasting, just use the respective numbers and put them in order)

None of them are meaningful because I didn't participate. Most meaningful is how you spin it.

 

[Frazier]

None of them are meaningful because I didn't participate. Most meaningful is how you spin it.

👍 👍 👍 👍 👍 👍

 

[pre med 2014]

these aren't necessary my ec's. These are just common ones. This would be a good reference to pre-meds.

1: Volunteering in a free clinic and having patient interaction
2. 2 published papers in a medical journal (2nd author)
3. Emt certification with hours
4. Shadowing
5. Long community health screens-blood pressure/sugar, cholesterol and consulting patients about their health based on those stats (direct patient interaction)
6. Laboratory assistant for a professor (published paper; not the first/second author; not a big contribution to the paper).
7. Multiple physician (5+) letters of recommendation from your work in the clinic, health screens and shadowing
8. Cleaning a part of the river as a part of environmental maintenance.
9. Ta/tutor for an introductory class.
10. Devoted athlete at the university.


Assume equal hours were committed to all activities. Rank them in order or most meaningful to medical schools to least meaningful. In other words, rank in order of best to worst. (if you don't feel like copying and pasting, just use the respective numbers and put them in order)

10
5
6
3
4
1
9
7
2
8

 

[Sidereum]

10
5
6
3
4
1
9
7
2
8

That's weird; personally, I'd go:

2
8
7
1
4
3
6
5
essentially the exact opposite.

(Also, if not serious)

 

[IslandStyle808]

I don't know what to say. It's the pre-meds that have brought this onto themselves over many years. I wouldn't be so quick to blame the OP or any applicant, it's just the way things are.

On any SDN thread regarding ECs, people say: "Do what's meaningful to you." or "Do what you enjoy."
It should actually read: "Do what's meaningful to the ADCOMs." or "Do what the ADCOMs enjoy."

In reality, I don't need to ask someone if I enjoy spending time with friends, working out, watching TV, or doing other things that people generally enjoy. I also know what's more important to me in my life, such as I would rather have a fun night out with friends than stay home and watch TV. But suddenly, when it comes to ECs and doing a bunch of crap for the sake of medical school admissions, people try to figure out what would look best for the ADCOMs.

If someone genuinely enjoys something, there would never be a need to bring it up and ask things like this. But when threads like this come up, it's a dead giveaway that the OP is going through the expected motions.

And OP, I'm not trying to sound mean or make you feel bad. I'm not one of those holier-than-thou SDN pre-meds that treats a lack of volunteering like it's murder. Because frankly, if it weren't for medical school admissions, I never would have done those things. It's just what happened due to the EC arms race. So all we can do it try our best, and try not to be naive about this whole thing.

Thank you, someone said it!