Removing an EC from application for thematic consistency

[Bored_Conscious]

Fitness is a pretty major passion of mine and it comes through on my application:
- Research: Exercise Physiology Lab
- Volunteer: Special Olympics Coach, Communications Intern with Special Olympics, and a non-profit organization related to athletics (Vice-President of this Organization)

These activities I started near the end of my sophomore year and I continue them until now with around 300 hours total. However, my freshman year of college I joined a broad volunteering organization and I ended up with a leadership position. Didn't really do much in that position as I was kind of thrown in there because one of the board members left and they needed a quick replacement. I left that organization long ago. I didn't feel passionate about it and felt like I was forcing myself to participate. I have around a 100 hours from that organization but don't really feel like I gained anything from it.

Should I remove that organization when I apply?

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[Catalystik]

Fitness is a pretty major passion of mine and it comes through on my application:
- Research: Exercise Physiology Lab
- Volunteer: Special Olympics Coach, Communications Intern with Special Olympics, and a non-profit organization related to athletics (Vice-President of this Organization)

These activities I started near the end of my sophomore year and I continue them until now with around 300 hours total. However, my freshman year of college I joined a broad volunteering organization and I ended up with a leadership position. Didn't really do much in that position as I was kind of thrown in there because one of the board members left and they needed a quick replacement. I left that organization long ago. I didn't feel passionate about it and felt like I was forcing myself to participate. I have around a 100 hours from that organization but don't really feel like I gained anything from it.

Should I remove that organization when I apply?

AMCAS gives you 15 spaces to list those activities that best support your candidacy for med schools. If the description of an experience doesn’t add benefit to your application, it’s your choice to retain or remove it from the application.

If your leadership role resulted primarily in attending meetings and you never took on responsibilities, managed other people, delegated tasks, or came up with new initiatives then saw them carried them through to completion, I’d agree that it may not be worth including under a Leadership tag.

But if you personally participated in the volunteer endeavors sponsored by the organization, those hours might be worth including in a Community Service/Volunteer space. If the hours were low, you could group them with other miscellaneous, short term volunteering to give them more impact.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

AMCAS gives you 15 spaces to list those activities that best support your candidacy for med schools. If the description of an experience doesn’t add benefit to your application, it’s your choice to retain or remove it from the application.

If your leadership role resulted primarily in attending meetings and you never took on responsibilities, managed other people, delegated tasks, or came up with new initiatives then saw them carried them through to completion, I’d agree that it may not be worth including under a Leadership tag.

But if you personally participated in the volunteer endeavors sponsored by the organization, those hours might be worth including in a Community Service/Volunteer space. If the hours were low, you could group them with other miscellaneous, short term volunteering to give them more impact.

I will list it as a Community Service/Volunteer activity while discussing some of the leadership aspects that were involved. Guess my main concern was that this activity looks rather "random" amongst my other activities.

 

[spottedcory]

I kept my activities on unless I ran out of space, and I found ways to talk about activities that I didn't care about. For things that didn't add to my theme, I focused more on personal growth. Honestly all my activities were "random" and it wasn't until after some reflection that I found a common thread running through things that I thought were completely unrelated. Even after secondaries/primary I'd randomly find new ways to talk about things in interviews.

 

[Catalystik]

I will list it as a Community Service/Volunteer activity while discussing some of the leadership aspects that were involved. Guess my main concern was that this activity looks rather "random" amongst my other activities.

For things that didn't add to my theme, I focused more on personal growth.

OP, besides what you learned/how you grew, you could also describe the activity as one that inspired your focus on volunteerism that was more meaningful to you (without commenting on the negatives) or some other statement of impact or inspiration.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

OP, besides what you learned/how you grew, you could also describe the activity as one that inspired your focus on volunteerism that was more meaningful to you (without commenting on the negatives) or some other statement of impact or inspiration.

That's a good idea. I will do both!

 

[Bored_Conscious]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

I think having a theme or focus that spans across the majority of your activities can be helpful. In the writing of your personal statement and secondary essays, that theme will likely come out and help the reader get a sense of what inspires and drives you. Without some sort of focus or theme, your activities can look disjointed and not thoughtfully selected. You could have a couple of themes too. IMO, it provides a way to anchor your story.