Seeking advice for extracurriculars

[lizadav02]

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I am currently a sophomore at UMass Amherst, majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I am also in the honors college, so that means I will have to write a thesis in my senior year. I currently have a 4.0 GPA after this last semester and have been on the deans list every semester so far. As far as clubs, I am not heavily involved as I struggle to find ones that I am interested in participating in at my school. Currently, I am involved in a research study on campus focused on correlating breast cancer with fruit and vegetable consumption. I have been working on this study this semester, but starting working with the lab PI last semester, Spring of my freshman year. So far, I have been involved in processing samples and communicating with participants, whether it be recruiting them or reaching out about their next visit. I am going to try to get a more lab-focused role, however, since I am more interested in working with samples rather than the paperwork portion of the role. Otherwise, I work as a Starbucks barista on my breaks. So far, I have no shadowing experience and only about 50 volunteer hours at the nearby hospital-a role I don't think I will be putting on my application as it turns out I was just helping with paperwork and cleaning stretchers.

I am looking for some advice as to what my next step should be. I am worried that I am dedicating too much time to school and not enough on other things, like volunteering or shadowing. I know I should find a volunteer role that I can have a long-term, meaningful presence in. I would love some recommendations for this. I am also aware that I should have something non-premed related to put on my resume to show my interests. Additionally, in terms of clinical experience, the pre-med advisers at my school seemed to only recommend becoming a CNA or EMT. Are these things worth the money and time commitment?

I am concerned that my time being spent during the semester on only studying for my classes is not well spent. However, I am worried I might stretch myself too thin if I take on additional roles during the semester. Are the summer and winter breaks a good time to get my experiences in?

I am also not opposed to taking a gap year to gain more experience. I would love some advice on where to start at my current position and what I should be dedicating my time to and when.

Thank you!!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

First, what advice have you gotten from your prehealth advisors/office? You say you are concerned about your "experience", so can you describe what experience you have? I would definitely say for metrics purposes 150-200 hours cumulative by the time you apply is the expectation across the schools for clinical and community service (150-200 each), so how far away are you from that? To that end, experiences during breaks helps, but you would be best served with a longitudinal, sustained experience.

EDIT: Okay, if the advice is to get some significant experience like scribing, etc., then you will be fine if you do that in a gap year. Most of us advisors want to make sure you focus on getting as high a GPA and MCAT score possible but don't apply until you get the hours of experience in. That's a perfectly acceptable strategy to pursue.

 

[lizadav02]

First, what advice have you gotten from your prehealth advisors/office? You say you are concerned about your "experience", so can you describe what experience you have? I would definitely say for metrics purposes 150-200 hours cumulative by the time you apply is the expectation across the schools for clinical and community service (150-200 each), so how far away are you from that? To that end, experiences during breaks helps, but you would be best served with a longitudinal, sustained experience.

EDIT: Okay, if the advice is to get some significant experience like scribing, etc., then you will be fine if you do that in a gap year. Most of us advisors want to make sure you focus on getting as high a GPA and MCAT score possible but don't apply until you get the hours of experience in. That's a perfectly acceptable strategy to pursue.

I genuinely have almost no volunteer or clinical experience yet. Im just not sure where to start and what would be worth spending my time doing. The advisors at my school really just recommend doing EMT/CNA, but im not sure if those things are right for me.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I genuinely have almost no volunteer or clinical experience yet. Im just not sure where to start and what would be worth spending my time doing. The advisors at my school really just recommend doing EMT/CNA, but im not sure if those things are right for me.

Let's start from the beginning then: you haven't shadowed anyone yet, though you have had some hospital volunteering (you said it didn't have a lot of patient-facing opportunities). I think that's really where to start if you don't have enough time or money to put down for training as an EMT or CNA. Hopefully you've read some of the SDN articles from professionals as well as maybe had informational interviews with other practicing healthcare providers so you know not only that you want to go into medicine but also why as opposed to other healthcare roles which you would have to work with.

Suffice it to say, at this point, you can't spend too much time in school as long as you can do well in your classes and get a very high GPA for your undergraduate coursework. Hospitals and medical schools aren't going to close down any time soon. Your office does list some general resources to look through if you are seeking some opportunities volunteering in community service or in a clinical environment.

What has resonated with me is your question on whether those specific opportunities they suggested (EMT/CNA) were "right for you", but I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If it's a question of just having enough time aside from what you already do during breaks, I can understand that problem. I guess it would be good to clarify what characteristics would you want that were right for you: is it time commitment, cost for training, risk imbalance for coursework/research, etc.?

 

[lizadav02]

Let's start from the beginning then: you haven't shadowed anyone yet, though you have had some hospital volunteering (you said it didn't have a lot of patient-facing opportunities). I think that's really where to start if you don't have enough time or money to put down for training as an EMT or CNA. Hopefully you've read some of the SDN articles from professionals as well as maybe had informational interviews with other practicing healthcare providers so you know not only that you want to go into medicine but also why as opposed to other healthcare roles which you would have to work with.

Suffice it to say, at this point, you can't spend too much time in school as long as you can do well in your classes and get a very high GPA for your undergraduate coursework. Hospitals and medical schools aren't going to close down any time soon. Your office does list some general resources to look through if you are seeking some opportunities volunteering in community service or in a clinical environment.

What has resonated with me is your question on whether those specific opportunities they suggested (EMT/CNA) were "right for you", but I'm not exactly sure what you mean. If it's a question of just having enough time aside from what you already do during breaks, I can understand that problem. I guess it would be good to clarify what characteristics would you want that were right for you: is it time commitment, cost for training, risk imbalance for coursework/research, etc.?

I guess I kind of stray away from EMT since i've heard from multiple physicians that they got the certification but rarely used it since the shifts were too long and it was hard to balance school with it. I am looking into CNA however, do you recommend that for clinical experience?