What are your activities/experiences thus far? How long did they last and how many hours per week?

[SterlingMaloryArcher]

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How many have you juggled at one time?

Feel free to share what makes some of them (if any) "Most Meaningful Experiences" 🙂

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

I hope you're not just fishing for EC's to take and put on your own app...we worked hard for ours, go find your own lol
Just kidding, here is a simple breakdown of what I have done, kind of all at the same time really. There are some areas I still need to work on but I am taking a gap year so I will have time.

Child life volunteer at hospital (1 year, 100 hrs)
clinical volunteering at hospital (2.5 years, 400+ hrs)
fundraising/raising awareness for breast cancer through 3 day 60 mile walk in San Diego (2 years, 460 hrs between training and event)
Research Lab (1.25 years)
Part-time on campus job (4 years)
tutoring (extension from current job, 1 year)
Art (forever)
On-campus clubs (won't be including those, since they were a waste of my time)

What makes them meaningful is something I will save for my app 😉

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Various volunteering entries that total about 600 hours (e.g., meals on wheels, homeless hospitality team through church)
Research experiences that total around 150 hours (a clinical systematic review that netted a poster, an independent project I designed and carried out, etc)
A leadership position in a service-oriented Navy association for about 300 hours
Various leadership roles in Navy teams (VBSS team lead, ATTT training team lead, departmental medical training team, etc)
Tutoring (about 100 hours)
Artistic endeavor--professional musician and writer for 2 years (couple hundred non-fiction pubs and some fiction, plus a few albums that I played on)
Clinical employment--was an OR tech (about 8000 hours)
Military employment--6 years...not sure how many hours that is so will have to calculate it out, but a lot considering how many hours we work (this also adds to my clinical experience, as I had clinical roles in the military as well)
Shadowing a vascular surgeon for ~100 hours (worked with him, so got a lot of opportunities)
Hobbies: furniture building, writing fiction
Volunteering as an EMT

 

[Dr.Sticks]

I have hundreds of hours of clinical experience but I am only including a 120 right now
I am redeveloping how I will apply
I will only include experiences I found meaningful
Looking for another clinical opportunity

Goal is to apply with at least 500 clinical and non clinical hours in things I find meaningful and I feel I learned something from.
Kind of wasted my time doing this one thing that is probably several hundreds hours
Not including it though

 

[SterlingMaloryArcher]

I have hundreds of hours of clinical experience but I am only including a 120 right now
I am redeveloping how I will apply
I will only include experiences I found meaningful
Looking for another clinical opportunity

Goal is to apply with at least 500 clinical and non clinical hours in things I find meaningful and I feel I learned something from.
Kind of wasted my time doing this one thing that is probably several hundreds hours
Not including it though

How interesting is it something you're just not able to write/talk about well?

 

[Dr.Sticks]

How interesting is it something you're just not able to write/talk about well?

It was overall a bad experience
If I can't answer
"So what did you learn or what did you experience from X"
It isn't going on my future application

 

[Ad2b]

Roughly 9,490 hours volunteering. AMA 😉

• Meals on Wheels (40 years)
• American Red Cross (blood donor services, disaster services - 9 years)
• Homeless shelters (32 years)
• Food drives (15 years)
• Inner city children's pilot program sustainable throughout school year (1 year)
• AIDS activist (when it wasn't cool to do so - look how far we've come to support HIV individuals - 2 years)
• Water wells in Peru - 1 month (Rotarian - 3 years)
• Animal rescue/rehab/rehome (countless 100s of dogs/horses and 1... cow; no I don't eat beef anymore; either transport/overnight-week-month, rehab; even got FedEx to loan a group a jet to land in WV to pick up dogs in a high kill shelter - true story, can back it up 😀; 15 years)
• Cleft palate surgery group board member (3 years)
• Ronald McDonald House (dinner prep/serve/clean up, games with siblings; 2 years)
• PATH certified trainer for kids and adults with physical or mental challenges (horse upkeep, leader of horses, children's coordinator, board member - 2 years)

and none of my hours above include:

10s of hours reviewing/editing personal statements for 2 different cycles (think maybe 40 - 50 people??)
10s of hours just "helping" - friends with parents who's homes burned to the ground needing help with furniture, shopping, etc; or victims of tornados/fires that were not immediately served by ARC (this is how I got involved more actively and officially with the ARC)
10s of hours a sorority girl in service sorority helping elderly and children with disabilities

Meaningful? I'll keep that to myself and my app.

Basically, when I see a need, I help if I can no matter how dirty or how disgusting or how tiring. I've volunteered since I was about 10, and don't see myself ever stopping until physical limitation stops that and even then, I tend to think I'll figure out a way to help others.

 

[calivianya]

I have very few ECs. I volunteer at a hospital, I shadowed one person, and I probably have >10,000 hours paid clinical experience in a very high acuity setting. Obviously, I marked the latter "most meaningful." It's shown me exactly what I want to do, down to what residency and fellowship I plan on pursuing and what type of setting I want to practice in as a physician should I get into medical school.

Most meaningful, to me, is something that majorly changes/informs the course of your life. If you do something, and you base what you expect your future is going to look like based on that experience, that's "most meaningful."


Honestly, I'm not an adcom so my ideas don't mean anything, but if I saw someone with like 20 different ECs that were a few hours each, I'd wonder why in the world you were so ADD you couldn't find something you liked to do well enough to keep doing it, and I'd wonder about your ability to commit to one thing long term. I'd personally vote for finding a couple strong, meaningful ECs over looking to juggle a whole bunch at a time just to pad your application. You're likely not going to find true meaning if you're just accumulating experiences for the sake of accumulating experiences.

 

[Ad2b]

Honestly, I'm not an adcom so my ideas don't mean anything, but if I saw someone with like 20 different ECs that were a few hours each, I'd wonder why in the world you were so ADD...

I'm hoping you realize how denigrating that sounds. Compassion, understanding and empathy win patients', and peers', hearts.

 

[Dr.Sticks]

Roughly 9,490 hours volunteering. AMA 😉

• Meals on Wheels (40 years)
• American Red Cross (blood donor services, disaster services - 9 years)
• Homeless shelters (32 years)
• Food drives (15 years)
• Inner city children's pilot program sustainable throughout school year (1 year)
• AIDS activist (when it wasn't cool to do so - look how far we've come to support HIV individuals - 2 years)
• Water wells in Peru - 1 month (Rotarian - 3 years)
• Animal rescue/rehab/rehome (countless 100s of dogs/horses and 1... cow; no I don't eat beef anymore; either transport/overnight-week-month, rehab; even got FedEx to loan a group a jet to land in WV to pick up dogs in a high kill shelter - true story, can back it up 😀; 15 years)
• Cleft palate surgery group board member (3 years)
• Ronald McDonald House (dinner prep/serve/clean up, games with siblings; 2 years)
• PATH certified trainer for kids and adults with physical or mental challenges (horse upkeep, leader of horses, children's coordinator, board member - 2 years)

and none of my hours above include:

10s of hours reviewing/editing personal statements for 2 different cycles (think maybe 40 - 50 people??)
10s of hours just "helping" - friends with parents who's homes burned to the ground needing help with furniture, shopping, etc; or victims of tornados/fires that were not immediately served by ARC (this is how I got involved more actively and officially with the ARC)
10s of hours a sorority girl in service sorority helping elderly and children with disabilities

Meaningful? I'll keep that to myself and my app.

Basically, when I see a need, I help if I can no matter how dirty or how disgusting or how tiring. I've volunteered since I was about 10, and don't see myself ever stopping until physical limitation stops that and even then, I tend to think I'll figure out a way to help others.

So I am guess you either will get in anywhere, or you got in to your top choice?
Or you are well past the process??

 

[Ad2b]

So I am guess you either will get in anywhere, or you got in to your top choice?
Or you are well past the process??

lol - oh, no... I hope some school out there will show me some love but I also hope to win the lottery 😳

I promised myself I would complete, fully, at least 2 cycles. That means, take the MCAT AND score it. I've done that; waiting on the score results.

From here out, I have no expectations, just hope. I'm well aware of my age, well aware of misperceptions about that age and length of service back to society. I weighed all of that when I started, especially with my very abysmal ugrad GPA from 1986.

As there are no plans to retire - ever - my hope is to get accepted somewhere, graduate, get through residency the best physician I can be, treat patients for 15 years and then teach while maintaining a part time practice. Given some of my business experience, I have some ideas about going to developing countries and helping there - bringing western medicine into those countries teaching their docs so they can treat their patients within the customs and mores of that culture.

If I am not accepted, which is probably more likely than not, I will continue to volunteer regardless.

 

[Dr.Sticks]

lol - oh, no... I hope some school out there will show me some love but I also hope to win the lottery 😳

I promised myself I would complete, fully, at least 2 cycles. That means, take the MCAT AND score it. I've done that; waiting on the score results.

From here out, I have no expectations, just hope. I'm well aware of my age, well aware of misperceptions about that age and length of service back to society. I weighed all of that when I started, especially with my very abysmal ugrad GPA from 1986.

As there are no plans to retire - ever - my hope is to get accepted somewhere, graduate, get through residency the best physician I can be, treat patients for 15 years and then teach while maintaining a part time practice. Given some of my business experience, I have some ideas about going to developing countries and helping there - bringing western medicine into those countries teaching their docs so they can treat their patients within the customs and mores of that culture.

If I am not accepted, which is probably more likely than not, I will continue to volunteer regardless.

Never too late to chase your dreams.
Good luck on your MCAT score!

 

[calivianya]

I'm hoping you realize how denigrating that sounds. Compassion, understanding and empathy win patients', and peers', hearts.

I didn't phrase that well at all. I have ADHD myself so I didn't mean that to be terribly insensitive to everyone else that has it. I just absolutely refuse to let my application emphasize that part of me.

I still can't see the people who have a ton of ECs with very small amounts of hours being looked on very favorably. We're trying to prove we're going to succeed at staying focused and dedicate ourselves to a career path that may take 10+ years to complete once we actually get accepted to medical school, if that happens. How is a school supposed to think an applicant can accomplish that if he/she clearly can't stick to doing anything for more than a month or two at a time, if that long?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I didn't phrase that well at all. I have ADHD myself so I didn't mean that to be terribly insensitive to everyone else that has it. I just absolutely refuse to let my application emphasize that part of me.

I still can't see the people who have a ton of ECs with very small amounts of hours being looked on very favorably. We're trying to prove we're going to succeed at staying focused and dedicate ourselves to a career path that may take 10+ years to complete once we actually get accepted to medical school, if that happens. How is a school supposed to think an applicant can accomplish that if he/she clearly can't stick to doing anything for more than a month or two at a time, if that long?

Yeah, I actually agree with you. A lot of ECs with few hours shows a lack of dedication and probably a check-box mentality.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Volunteering shouldn't be about the hours, it should be about the actual number of people you help!

Just kidding!

Anyway, I have yet to see someone on SDN ask about how many people they will help instead of how they can help themselves (with more hours). But it is what it is, don't hate the player, hate the game.

 

[ReapPremed]

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[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Volunteering shouldn't be about the hours, it should be about the actual number of people you help!

Just kidding!

Anyway, I have yet to see someone on SDN ask about how many people they will help instead of how they can help themselves (with more hours). But it is what it is, don't hate the player, hate the game.

If you spend 500 hours as a big brother or big sister, you've only helped one person. If you spend 4 hours in a soup kitchen, you probably helped dozens. I'd be willing to bet the 500 hours as a big brother looks better.

 

[Planes2Doc]

If you spend 500 hours as a big brother or big sister, you've only helped one person. If you spend 4 hours in a soup kitchen, you probably helped dozens. I'd be willing to bet the 500 hours as a big brother looks better.

Yeah that's a really good perspective. Ultimately, the one that looks better is typically more hours or better creative writing for the application and creative speaking during the interview.

 

[Ad2b]

@Matthew9Thirtyfive - hit it on the head; it really matters only the intent, not the # of hours or the # served. In the end, I really think it's about learning how others do not have it very good and making sure that if one becomes a doc, that aspect of humanity is not lost.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

@Matthew9Thirtyfive - hit it on the head; it really matters only the intent, not the # of hours or the # served. In the end, I really think it's about learning how others do not have it very good and making sure that if one becomes a doc, that aspect of humanity is not lost.

Yes. I just want to be clear that there needs to be some measure of commitment for apps, and hours is apparently the best way to do that. @Lawper disagrees I think, but I think using start and end dates in conjunction with hours is the best method. It tells you if the person just crammed a bunch of hour into a small amount of time or stretched an average amount of hours over years.

 

[Ad2b]

I think using start and end dates in conjunction with hours is the best method.

For most, I would say that's true but I don't think I'd want to put something like

Meals on Wheels: 1975 - present (2,000) That 1975 might stand out a little 😀

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

For most, I would say that's true but I don't think I'd want to put something like

Meals on Wheels: 1975 - present (2,000) That 1975 might stand out a little 😀

Not sure why you wouldn't. That's awesome. Shows an extremely long commitment. That is in no way a downside. I have things that have like 15 year time spans. No one has ever indicated that longevity looks bad. The only way I can see age hurting you is if you would be too old to practice by the time you finished your training. Even at 53, you'll only be 60 when you finish. You could still work for another 10-15 years if you're in good health.

 

[Ad2b]

Not sure why you wouldn't. That's awesome. Shows an extremely long commitment. That is in no way a downside. I have things that have like 15 year time spans. No one has ever indicated that longevity looks bad. The only way I can see age hurting you is if you would be too old to practice by the time you finished your training. Even at 53, you'll only be 60 when you finish. You could still work for another 10-15 years if you're in good health.

It's more that I'm aware of my age and realize "they'll" be aware of my age just don't want to actively call attention to it by using years; I also exclude any of the political things I've done which is about 3000+ hours of grassroots campaigning/volunteering to get our candidate elected (he was).

The plan has always been to work 15+ years in full time patient treating capacity and teach. I've also thought that maybe I could use some of the grant writing knowledge I have (was the grants administrator for a very large, global med device company approving grand rounds, cadaver lab, and other types of funding), to enable me to do some international stuff for developing countries.

No plan to ever fully retire though I suspect, like my dad, I'd slow down at 80; if his health didn't prevent it, he'd still be working at least 25 a week...

We'll see what happens. I don't think I did that well on the MCAT (everyone says that but I really, really don't think I did) so will need to think about retaking it and if so, ask myself some pretty hard questions.

And thank you for the support!! Really, it means a lot 🙂

 

[Ad2b]

I didn't end up needing my MCAT retake because I got a 515. This test, in particular, is very difficult to judge.

Congrats on a great score!!!! That was my goal score 🙂

The trifecta of power outage (resched 1st time) + Irmageddon (resched 2nd time) = big meh for real deal. I still had a blue tarp on the roof when I was trying to study for the test and get amp'd up again for it. Woke up late and my drive was over an hour; took the test on the ADHD medication I take without having food and .... there you go.😳

With the original test date: my lunch was packed with snacks in a soft side cooler so that I could eat and drink on breaks and any additional breaks I took (I'm accommodated). I was ready, stoked!

For the date I took it? Yeah. There was some vegan sort of organic almond dough balls that I bought from the store on the first floor along with some weird sort of organic sage something or other water stuff. I tried the organic things, gagged, threw them away, tried to guzzle the weird water concoction and just plowed through the exam...

I think in the middle of CARS, I was drawing flow charts trying to keep all the parts in the right order; BB was fine, PS was a joke... so, I hit score as I knew I would, signed the sheet and walked out thinking, "Meh. I can definitely do better than that POS I just wrote." It's okay. I promised myself not to give up until I'd taken the test and scored it. I promised myself I would not void no matter what. I promised myself I would not <insert anymore excuses>. I promised myself that I'd listen to Eric Thomas the Preacherman - if you've not heard of him, look him up! I did all of that. Wherever the pieces land, I'm okay with it. I hope to get above 500 and as I told my son, I KNOW, I at least got a 472 😉

The question becomes, really for all of us: how bad do I want this and at what point WILL my age become a significant deterrent. Right now, it's a distractor but I don't think it significantly detracts from my app given everything else.

Again, CONGRATS!!! Be fun to see where you land!

 

[calivianya]

The question becomes, really for all of us: how bad do I want this and at what point WILL my age become a significant deterrent. Right now, it's a distractor but I don't think it significantly detracts from my app given everything else.

Again, CONGRATS!!! Be fun to see where you land!

You too. 😀

My god, your testing experience - I might have just gone ahead and died on the spot.

For what it's worth, I don't think being older is a deterrent. I think it's a major positive. Not quite as old as you, but I'm going to be 30 next year, which almost nobody is according to MSAR. I think it makes our stories more compelling that we've done something else first, so we have actual, real-life-backed reasons for being where we are, and aren't just college kids who rushed through with hardly any real life under our belts before attempting this process.