Starting and playing in a band -- acceptable EC?

[SOAPsucks222]

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I started a band with 2 other guys last November, I play drums. It is a serious time commitment as we all practice A LOT, and will be playing public shows. We used to practice 10-20 hours per week. Would this be something that can be counted as an EC for an application? or no?

 

[Catalystik]

I started a band with 2 other guys last November, I play drums. It is a serious time commitment as we all practice A LOT, and will be playing public shows. We used to practice 10-20 hours per week. Would this be something that can be counted as an EC for an application? or no?

Yes, you can list it as an EC.

For AMCAS: If you mainly play for yourselves, it would be a Hobby (and doesn't need a Contact listed who can verify the activity and time allotted). If you share your music with a wider audience, like public shows, it would be an Artistic Endeavor.

 

[iandraggia]

Absolutely! I made my experiences as a musician on YouTube one of my 3 most meaningful activities and it has been mentioned in many of my interviews!


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[TSteezy]

I was in a touring rock band for 2 years, and went on to be a session vocalist for a recording studio during undergrad. Havn't really done anything serious w/ music in years, but I ended up listing it as an artistic endeavor on my app! I think it really boils down to how meaningful the experience has been to you. I will add - I got asked about this entry a few times on the interview trail, and it was always a nice break to be able to talk about music rather than my biggest weakness.

 

[Saifa]

I was in a touring rock band for 2 years, and went on to be a session vocalist for a recording studio during undergrad. Havn't really done anything serious w/ music in years, but I ended up listing it as an artistic endeavor on my app! I think it really boils down to how meaningful the experience has been to you. I will add - I got asked about this entry a few times on the interview trail, and it was always a nice break to be able to talk about music rather than my biggest weakness.

Do you need to identify your band?

I don't want them to see my inferior instrumental abilities.

 

[Goro]

Absolutely wonderful EC.

I started a band with 2 other guys last November, I play drums. It is a serious time commitment as we all practice A LOT, and will be playing public shows. We used to practice 10-20 hours per week. Would this be something that can be counted as an EC for an application? or no?

 

[protego]

Same response as everyone else but.. Yes!! Personally, I found most of my interviews this cycle people wanted to talk about everything on my app that wasn't related to medicine much much more than any of my "pre-med" activities. If you think about it, everyone has volunteering experience, research experience... I can imagine that gets mildly old as an interviewer.

 

[Saifa]

I was a drummer in a touring band a few years back, and I played in many other groups in high school and college. Listed it as an artistic endeavor on my app and this was single handedly the most talked about EC on my application. Some interviews this was pretty much all I had to discuss which was super fun. Although I didn't list the names of the bands, if you search "my name, my city, drums" on google a bunch of pages pop up from my Facebook groups and music sharing platforms. I had some pretty raunchy pictures on these pages so I had the admins delete or hide all the ones that were controversial.

So cool, this is exciting to hear.

 

[COMED2468]

I put my band on my app. I think that it showed I had a little bit of a human side.

However, I would be careful that you don't look like a full-time musician with a part-time hobby in medicine. Especially if you lack other important ECs, I think it could come off in poor taste if you "didn't have time" to do other professional development (volunteering, shadowing, research, etc.) for med school while putting so much time into a band.

And I completely agree with everyone else that has posted on this thread. Adcoms want to see that you have a pulse accompanying your application. I was surprised at my interviews how few robots I encountered. Most students had an interesting background and loved to have fun. I'm sure they had the stats and EC's to back up their personalities, but it really shifted my perspective of what medical schools look for in their applicants.