Strong, good, weak EC's

[Fakesmile]

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The words like "good" and "weak" are subjective.
What are some specific examples of EC's that are considered awesome, average, weak, etc. in the point of view of top med school adcoms?

 

[Dulcina]

The words like "good" and "weak" are subjective.
What are some specific examples of EC's that are considered awesome, average, weak, etc. in the point of view of top med school adcoms?

2-3 yrs of research with pubs = good
2-3 yrs of clinical experience = good
2-3 yrs of service work, even if its unrelated to medicine = good

under 1 yr of clinical = weak

 

[TexasPhysician]

medical mission trip = good
running a 5k for an EC = poor

shadowing a physician who gives you a LOR = good
volunteering in a hospital by transporting flowers to patients = poor

 

[AdmiralChz]

2-3 yrs of research with pubs = good
2-3 yrs of clinical experience = good
2-3 yrs of service work, even if its unrelated to medicine = good

under 1 yr of clinical = weak

Agreed. Basically any prolonged activity where you have shown clear growth in responsibility and/or involvement will be strong. Getting a strong LOR from your supervisor/director/etc. also reinforces the EC.

Oh and kudos to the medical mission trips!!

 

[Lukkie]

Research

Strong: 2-4 year project culminating in an abstract/poster presentation at a national conference related to that subject
Good: 1-2 year project/assistance that might/might not lead to a publication, but you had significant involvement in many/all aspects of the project.
Weak: Making buffers and cleaning pipettes for a PI that doesn't know your name

 

[JeetKuneDo]

Research

Strong: 2-4 year project culminating in an abstract/poster presentation at a national conference related to that subject
Good: 1-2 year project/assistance that might/might not lead to a publication, but you had significant involvement in many/all aspects of the project.
Weak: Making buffers and cleaning pipettes for a PI that doesn't know your name

Touche.

 

[magikdoc]

Awesome: Varsity Athlete
Good: Intramural player
Bad: Watching a football game on TV

Awesome: 2-3 year research; any publications (manuscript/abstracts); attendance of conferences
Good: 0-1 year research; knowledge and perspective of basic/clinical research
Bad: Only being able to talk about being a research slave.

Awesome: 3+ years clinical experience; many vivid/memorable experiences interacting with patients/physicians; award for best service
Good: 1-2 years clinical; some patient/nurse encounters
Bad: 0-1 years; only thing you interact with is the ice/water machine...

 

[Corvus Riley]

I have a related question about this. What about a lot of clinical experience within a short period of time in one location (say at home during the summer) and a bit less in another (at school, during school)?

 

[magikdoc]

I have a related question about this. What about a lot of clinical experience within a short period of time in one location (say at home during the summer) and a bit less in another (at school, during school)?

On the AMCAS, when they ask you about clinical experiences, they do require you submit the time frame in question, but they also want to know the AVG hours/week. So I don't think the dates really matter, but the total number of hours you worked do.

Try putting yourself in the shoes of an ADCOM, and you were reviewing thousands of applications. Most good applicants are already coming in with 1-2 years of clinical experience at minimum. If you really want to stand out, you really have to stop thinking about it as a time commitment, and really more as an opportunity to interact with patients. You better have a damn good story to tell when the ADCOM asks you about it during interviews.

Sorry, to answer your question, I don't think they care, either will work.

 

[serikk85]

OP, be careful with the answers you get here. While all the posters give good advice, they describe mostly a suped up version of the garden variety pre-med. I've been lucky enough to visit some top-tier schools, and have spoken with a lot of interviewees along the way. I've noticed that those who do well among these schools found something that mattered to them (it could be anything, does not have to be medically related at all) and dove into it. They not only participated in something, they made it their own and changed the way that "something" is done. So be wary of following into the cookie cutter pre-med trap. I only have 50 hours of shadowing for my clinical experience. That's it. Yet I have been fortunate enough to do have some success at some of these places I think you're after. Hope this helps.

Good luck!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Remember, it's always quality over quantity, because that's what comes out in an interview. The guy who spent 50 hours doing something that really mattered to them and can speak at length about the importance of the activity to him, and bring up several specific examples of meaningful stories, is always going to be better off than the guy with 400 hours of grunt-work who didn't get anything out of it and can't really tell an interviewer anything about their experience.

Find something you're not just doing because you feel like you have to; find something you legitimately LOVE, and just do it to your heart's content.

 

[Corvus Riley]

Remember, it's always quality over quantity, because that's what comes out in an interview. The guy who spent 50 hours doing something that really mattered to them and can speak at length about the importance of the activity to him, and bring up several specific examples of meaningful stories, is always going to be better off than the guy with 400 hours of grunt-work who didn't get anything out of it and can't really tell an interviewer anything about their experience.

Find something you're not just doing because you feel like you have to; find something you legitimately LOVE, and just do it to your heart's content.

But isn't amount of time spent in ECs taken into consideration when interview invites are sent out?

 

[GoSpursGo]

But isn't amount of time spent in ECs taken into consideration when interview invites are sent out?

Sure. But I've always personally felt that it was stats and essays that will determine if you get an interview; if your ECs were meaningful, it should come out in your PS and secondary essays, regardless of the number of hours that show up. It also certainly varies from school to school. Some will really want to see that you've put in a ton of clinical hours or they won't consider you. But the moral of the story is that even if your 500 hours of clinical experience or research gets you an interview, it won't mean anything if you can't speak intelligently on those experiences once you get there.

 

[Corvus Riley]

Sure. But I've always personally felt that it was stats and essays that will determine if you get an interview; if your ECs were meaningful, it should come out in your PS and secondary essays, regardless of the number of hours that show up. It also certainly varies from school to school. Some will really want to see that you've put in a ton of clinical hours or they won't consider you. But the moral of the story is that even if your 500 hours of clinical experience or research gets you an interview, it won't mean anything if you can't speak intelligently on those experiences once you get there.

Gotcha. So, it would be best to have a balance of a decent amount of time, however much this may be, and it be relevant to your interests.

 

[Bacchus]

Every place I interviewed at always brought up my Mississippi relief work. I also did 2 other Habitat projects as a result. Additionally, I followed up on the Mississippi trip 4 months later. The interviewers were impressed with how "emotional" I got when detailing my experiences in Mississippi. Lets face it, arriving where the eye of the hurricane landed, in the dark of night, and then waking up in the morning to see everything decimated is pretty powerful. I think also they were impressed that I didn't just go once, but I planned a followup trip to do more work and check on the residents I helped.

It comes down to the ability to talk about a particular experience. Even if they saw the Mississippi trip as "good" or "weak" I made it "great" by the time I left the room.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Gotcha. So, it would be best to have a balance of a decent amount of time, however much this may be, and it be relevant to your interests.

What I'm saying is, be PASSIONATE about something. Make sure you're in it because you WANT to be in it, not to just get hours. Obviously, the ideal situation is that you have a ton of hours in something meaningful, but I'd say having a moderate amount of hours in something you truly find meaningful makes you a better applicant than someone with a ton of hours doing something they didn't care about.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Every place I interviewed at always brought up my Mississippi relief work. I also did 2 other Habitat projects as a result. Additionally, I followed up on the Mississippi trip 4 months later. The interviewers were impressed with how "emotional" I got when detailing my experiences in Mississippi. Lets face it, arriving where the eye of the hurricane landed, in the dark of night, and then waking up in the morning to see everything decimated is pretty powerful. I think also they were impressed that I didn't just go once, but I planned a followup trip to do more work and check on the residents I helped.

It comes down to the ability to talk about a particular experience. Even if they saw the Mississippi trip as "good" or "weak" I made it "great" by the time I left the room.

That's pretty much what I'm trying to say. The number of hours, while not totally irrelevant, isn't as important as the stories you can tell about your experiences.

 

[Bacchus]

That's pretty much what I'm trying to say. The number of hours, while not totally irrelevant, isn't as important as the stories you can tell about your experiences.

It works wonders. I also had an OMM story that I used at all my DO interviews. It worked wonders as well.

These large numbers of hours are useless, its all about quality. I didn't do research, had about 125 hours of clinical (formal program) and about 60 hours of shadowing. My major volunteering was through my alternative spring breaks. Over the course of 3 years I spent 4 weeks at about 45 hours a week. Now, don't shadow for a day and say it changed your views profoundly. That's BS... but I agree the amount does not matter after a certain point.