Stellar Resume Or Ec's

[Miss155]

Hi

I was wondering since right I am about to be a sophmore this fall, what kind of EC's should I do that would be stellar for my application. I really don't know what kind of EC's will make my application strong. Thanks.

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[Soccrtrela]

Do whatever you love to do in your spare time. And whatever you do, devote enough time to it to really learn something from each experience.

Also, many say volunteering is good, but more importantly, make sure you get some clinical experience (patient contact). If you're applying to med school, you just want to make sure you know what you're getting into and that this is right for you.

Good luck

 

[iamhere]

I agree with the previous poster. Do some clinical work so you get a feel for what medicine is all about. However, none of us can guess what an adcom wants since we have never sat on a committee...so do what you want to do and this will probably make you a better candidate/interesting to adcoms. Good luck and try to enjoy college!

 

[....]

Become president of the premed society.

Do a year of reaserch with one of your science teachers. If you really want to be stellar get published.

Spend a month shadowing a doctor.

Do a big thing like spend two or three weeks in some clinical volunteer setting. There is a camp for children with diseases like cancer/aids/epilepsy ect...and every week a group with a specific illness will come. You choose your week and you (with full time staff) are their cabin counselors. I spent two weeks there this summer and it was an amazing time. You really do learn alot about yourself if you pick a tough week like epilepsy.

Go back every year.

The good thing is that you will get wonderfull letters out of all of these activities. Shadowing ect.

 

[TTSD]

The best is to find a doctor who'll have no problem with throwing you head first into the wacky world of medicine.

So many stories you'll probably never be able to tell.. <sigh> LOL

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

As to what hightrump said above about being "president of the premed society"...why not do an activity that 387298379847 other premeds out there have not done? I think adcoms would appreciate it if premeds actually tried to venture out beyond the premed society at their campus and doing volunteer work at their local hospital. This is why premeds who did activities to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd get into top schools with lower MCATs and GPAs. For instance, one of the premeds on this forum got into a top 10 school with a 28 MCAT, but she was part of an orchestra during college and gave violin lessons on the side. How many other premeds can say they were part of an orchestra during college? This is also why non-traditional applicants do so well in the admissions process. Usually, these applicants have worked in careers that have nothing to do with medicine. There are engineers, computer programmers, product managers, etc who are admitted to medical school each year. I think the adcoms would really appreciate an applicant who would distinguish themselves from the sea of other qualified applicants out there in terms of ECs that have nothing to do with medicine. Just my $0.02.

 

[Ramoray]

Originally posted by Soccrtrela
Do whatever you love to do in your spare time. And whatever you do, devote enough time to it to really learn something from each experience.

God this continous crock of **** statement appears on sdn every 3rd post seemingly. That is such crap, if i had done waht i loved in my spare time i sure as hell probably wouldnt be heading to med school this year. Devote your time to things that look good but still be somewhat original. Spend your time doign something seemingly worthwile, not something purely for fun. Hell i would have loved to spend the weekends going up to the lake or tuning friends cars whilei a premed.. please typical premeds spare te line of doign waht you want, there are things you do to please and serve a purpose. suck it up as a premed and do one of those things.

 

[bella_dottoressa]

God this continous crock of **** statement appears on sdn every 3rd post seemingly. That is such crap, if i had done waht i loved in my spare time i sure as hell probably wouldnt be heading to med school this year. Devote your time to things that look good but still be somewhat original. Spend your time doign something seemingly worthwile, not something purely for fun. Hell i would have loved to spend the weekends going up to the lake or tuning friends cars whilei a premed.. please typical premeds spare te line of doign waht you want, there are things you do to please and serve a purpose. suck it up as a premed and do one of those things.

Nice to see you rilin' up the forums again. You crack me up. So true though.

 

[....]

"As to what hightrump said above about being "president of the premed society"...why not do an activity that 387298379847 other premeds out there have not done?"

Well.......i dont know what school you go to but my school has 30.000 some odd people in it and like.....2 pre-med societies (and one shouldnt count). That makes 2 presidents a year......We have about 4 differnt orchestras...so that makes about 20-30 violin players a year....

I also have played trumpet for 10 years and guitar for about half that.....and while im sure it will give adcoms a chance to ask me crap...I dont think it compares with leading a 130 member gorup of students.....how many ways can you suprise an ADCOM? not many.....just because something isn't wildly novel doesn't mean its common.

If i had done what i enjoy in college i would have had a PhD in chicken choking and napping....(slight exageration)

 

[Lars Ulrich]

Originally posted by hightrump
"

If i had done what i enjoy in college i would have had a PhD in chicken choking and napping....(slight exageration)

hahahahahahahahaha

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

To hightrump: "Well.......i dont know what school you go to but my school has 30.000 some odd people in it and like.....2 pre-med societies (and one shouldnt count). That makes 2 presidents a year......We have about 4 differnt orchestras...so that makes about 20-30 violin players a year...."


When I said that being in the "premed society" is way too common and is basically meaningless...I wasn't referring to the presidents of said organizations. I'm just saying that practically all premeds can say that they're in the premed society at their school...it doesn't differentiate you from anyone. Secondly, as to the presidents of your 2 premed societies...great for them. They're the president of an organization that does absolutely nothing. It's simply a list of people...who occasionally get together for a meeting. Do they actually DO anything to serve their communities or their universities? Isn't the purpose of the organization just to be an EC so people can write it down on their apps? At least if you're volunteering at a hospital (even though this is another stereotypical, cookie cutter "premed" activity that 2387947388432749 other premeds have), you'll be doing a service to your community. I'm just saying that people should try to break out of the mold and do things that many other premeds haven't done before. The more unique your application is, the better. Do you actually think any admissions comittee would think that an applicant who was in their campus premed society, did volunteering at their local hospital, and did research for a professor is "unique" in any way? These activities are dreadfully common and they reek of the "cookie-cutter premed student." In addition, your point about comparing the numbers in your premed socieities versus the numbers in your orchestras makes no sense. We know that everyone in the premed societies is indeed a premedical student...how many of the people in the 4 orchestras are premed? Your argument has a clear logical flaw. You actually think that the majority of the students in those orchestras are premed? In all probability, very few of those students in the orchestra are premed. The quantities in those two groups can't be compared...you're comparing two unlike things. Fourthly, you said "I don't know what you school you go to..." I hope you were kidding...the name of my school is in my SDN screen name...it shouldn't take a Rhodes Scholar to figure it out...

 

[jeffsleepy]

DON'T spend too much time doing what you love to do unless that is something that you're really good at and you can prove it. Do a few things medicine related and a few more that you think will make you look original

 

[carrigallen]

btw, what is a premed society? i could understand a prehealth club maybe, but society maybe sounds like something privileged or exclusive, like something silly from monty python. our school didn't have anything like it. frankly, i might look wearily at someone who put this in their cv.

 

[....]

"I said that being in the "premed society" is way too common and is basically meaningless"

I agree somewhat. The statement "I am in a premed club" I think is pretty well meaningless. But that doesnt mean being in one is. My club/society taught me a whole lot about what being a pre med is. I have had face time every year with the deans of every med school in my state though the club. I have been exposed to very valuable volunteer opporotunities too.

This whole "ultra unique" thing is over rated. right now half, that right, half of all people who apply to med school get in. And most of the rejected are regected because of stats. All you have to do is be more unique than about 15-20% of other qualified applicants. And lets not kid ourselves. A person with a 3.5 a 30 and unpublished researcha and was at least a VP is some club and shadowed a doctor and did hopsital volunteer work yadda yadda yadda...only looks like one in 390790470959 if you look at everything about him one issue at a time. But when you see everything taken as a whole, it looks alot nicer. You think there are 17K people like the one above or better appying EACH YEAR?
Simply not the case....then again as you pointed out..you are at berkley, maybe you just have alot of super guys at your school.

Its like the MCAT, if you look at your score report you can see your percentile on each section. But your total percentile is not the average of your individual percetiles. For instance an 11 12 12 has individual %'s of like 89 94 95.....but total percent of like 97%. the trick is realizing that while some people do some sections well, very few can do them all well...hence the total percentage is higher that the averages in this case.

As far as us being a "society", that just what AED calls itself, i didnt make it up. There is a GPA cutoff of 3.0 but that just to keep out the lost cases. There is alot to learn, and these groups really help freshman and sophomores.