What exactly does "stellar EC's" mean?

[Strudel19]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

What are some examples of stellar EC's? Is it ton of clinical hours? President of a ton of clubs? Tons of research? Is a little bit of everything considered stellar?

 

[Bruits]

I would consider a combination of the following 'stellar':

Research: Honors thesis and/or multiple abstracts/publication.
Clinical: 200+ hours of some combination of shadowing, hospital volunteering, employment.
Misc: 1000+ hours working with needy, at risk, or underserved populations. Involvement in student clubs/organizations, including multiple leadership positions.

I would also consider employment throughout college stellar, but that is subjective.

If you can stretch these activities out longterm (2-3 years by time of applying), it looks best

LizzyM has said in the past that military involvement adds about 5 LizzyM points in her mind.

Couple those EC's with ah 3.9+ 37+ and you have someone with multiple top 10 acceptances.

The hard part is finding the necessary time to do all that crap, especially if you are a non-trad with a full-time job.

 

[Lya]

When people say, "stellar ECs," it can be very subjective. Someone's stellar ECs might not look stellar to someone else, while they look stellar to another person.

Multiple research publications are one thing many people would agree stellar ECs. Other things could be: Peace Corps/AmeriCorps, professional musician/dancer/law grad/finance/athlete/another career, start-ups that are progressing and expanding well, military personnel/war veterans, and so on.

I would focus on the quality of accomplishments, instead of the number of hours, to evaluate whether some ECs are stellar, but even this can be subjective.

 

[tn4596]

In my books, u can stop hospital volunteering after 100 hrs or so, anything after is a waste of time; u r not gonna learn anything. Shadowing, however, is way better because there are different specialties plus you can get rec letters. But I guess everyone has tons of hours in those two activities these day. So, what make you stand out from the crowd at top research school is gonna be "good" publications, preferably clinical research or anything medicine related. If you just want to get accepted . Just go ahead and get cookie cutter ECs and numbers then enjoy ur precious time in undergrad.

 

[theseeker4]

What are some examples of stellar EC's? Is it ton of clinical hours? President of a ton of clubs? Tons of research? Is a little bit of everything considered stellar?

Accomplishing a lot in one thing is >>>>> being involved in a lot of different things. Being president of a ton of clubs is meaningless if you don't actually produce/do anything in those roles. Having a ton of clinical hours is not impressive, since anyone can do that. Having a bunch of research experiences is not as impressive as designing, running your own experiments and then being published in a reputable journal. You get the point..

 

[Dbate]

.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Stellar ECs are things that make you stand out. I'd say the two most common ones are playing an instrument and playing a college or professional sport. Pretty much any impressive achievement outside of academics will count as an impressive EC. Note that I said "achievement". No one cares about the amount of hours you have as long as they're not super low, nor does having a long list of ECs impress anyone.

You also have to still offer the full package to have truly stellar ECs. At the very least you'd need to be stellar in one or two areas and then have an acceptable amount of involvement in research, community service, and clinical experience.

 

[Aerus]

In my books, u can stop hospital volunteering after 100 hrs or so, anything after is a waste of time; u r not gonna learn anything. Shadowing, however, is way better because there are different specialties plus you can get rec letters. But I guess everyone has tons of hours in those two activities these day. So, what make you stand out from the crowd at top research school is gonna be "good" publications, preferably clinical research or anything medicine related. If you just want to get accepted . Just go ahead and get cookie cutter ECs and numbers then enjoy ur precious time in undergrad.

It's the opposite. You can't really learn much from shadowing. After 50 hours of shadowing, there is a diminishing margin of return, both in terms of what you gain through exposure as well as the benefits on your application.

Volunteering is meant to show altruism. More hours show more dedication. Anyone can get 100 hours. That's seen as less altruistic and more "box checking".

Also, getting letters of rec from doctors you shadow are useless, unless you are applying to DO schools and the letter is from a DO doctor.

Stellar ECs are things that make you stand out. I'd say the two most common ones are playing an instrument and playing a college or professional sport. Pretty much any impressive achievement outside of academics will count as an impressive EC. Note that I said "achievement". No one cares about the amount of hours you have as long as they're not super low, nor does having a long list of ECs impress anyone.

You also have to still offer the full package to have truly stellar ECs. At the very least you'd need to be stellar in one or two areas and then have an acceptable amount of involvement in research, community service, and clinical experience.

I agree, although I'm reluctant to say that playing an instrument counts as "stellar". Pianists and violinists since the age of 8 are quite a dime a dozen.

 

[giraffesuptop]

What are some examples of stellar EC's? Is it ton of clinical hours? President of a ton of clubs? Tons of research? Is a little bit of everything considered stellar?

if you wanna know what stellar ECs are, go to mdapplicants.com and look up "TheKDizzle." His profile is the definition of overacheiver, so impressive that one becomes incredulous when reading it all

 

[Lya]

if you wanna know what stellar ECs are, go to mdapplicants.com and look up "TheKDizzle." His profile is the definition of overacheiver, so impressive that one becomes incredulous when reading it all

I remember seeing his profile. It is very impressive. I wonder if he applied for Rhodes or others.

 

[tn4596]

It's the opposite. You can't really learn much from shadowing. After 50 hours of shadowing, there is a diminishing margin of return, both in terms of what you gain through exposure as well as the benefits on your application.

Volunteering is meant to show altruism. More hours show more dedication. Anyone can get 100 hours. That's seen as less altruistic and more "box checking".

Also, getting letters of rec from doctors you shadow are useless, unless you are applying to DO schools and the letter is from a DO doctor.
.

There is diminishing return if you shadow the same doctor for 50 hrs yea. But how about shadowing many doctors across different fields? If you make it to med school, you probably are going to do more shadowing anyway, might as well get a head start when you have the free time. Personally, I think hospital volunteering is the worst way to show altruism. You have no training therefore your participation degrade to greeting, folding sheets, stocking supplies; great for activities for retirees, not so much for busy premed. I only volunteer to get to know the environment that I might work in one day, that's it. The only reason people do it is because it is the easiest ECs to get into, where as practically everything else take more efforts. If you want to show altruism, you should put your time into things like food drive, habitat for humanities etc. I don't see many premed do those, but everyone and their mother have 500 hrs spent in hospital studying or doing nothing. And yea I wouldn't list athletic and musical ECs because the avg premed isn't gonna suddenly turn into a d1 athlete to pad an application.

 

[bear2roo]

if you were an athlete who accomplished impressive results for an individual sport (national medals and beyond) but was not in NCAA b/c the UG did not have an NCAA team for said sport, is that still 'stellar'? My UG had a club for that sport and we participated in mainly local leagues.

In essence I was an athlete but not an "official D1 NCAA athlete"--however many people I competed against during my career went to NCAA D1 schools, some went to world championships, or even olympics, and during my prime (soph yr) I was almost their level. I travelled a lot on my own money & time to compete and had a national rank & all. I would compete in the local college non-NCAA leagues and the national circuits.

 

[osprey099]

Stellar ECs are ECs that you are extremely passionate about or have a personal connection to. They don't have to be that X number of hours or Y level of prestige. However, you do need to be able to talk about them and write about them in a convincing way. Also, a LOR from an EC supervisor is usually expected if you're gonna be high on your EC in your apps.

 

[bear2roo]

Stellar ECs are ECs that you are extremely passionate about or have a personal connection to. They don't have to be that X number of hours or Y level of prestige. However, you do need to be able to talk about them and write about them in a convincing way. Also, a LOR from an EC supervisor is usually expected if you're gonna be high on your EC in your apps.

well my coach can't speak english well so no letter there haha......

 

[giraffesuptop]

well my coach can't speak english well so no letter there haha......

You could suggest that he write a LOR in his native language and then have someone else translate it for AMCAS, unless that breaks some obscure rule I don't know about

 

[ct303]

Anyone wanna chime in on starting your own NGO? How do you think that looks?

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I agree, although I'm reluctant to say that playing an instrument counts as "stellar". Pianists and violinists since the age of 8 are quite a dime a dozen.

I absolutely agree with you on that, but I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the students at top tier schools (at least according to MDApps) just so happen to play an instrument or a sport or both. And as a personal anecdote, when I interviewed at a top 20 last month every single student I met played an instrument. From what I gathered a lot of the other applicants did too, so it looked like the school was selecting for that.

 

[ct303]

phuckin awesome, as along as your ngo actually does something helpful for the community

Glasses for orphans in third world countries?

 

[Lya]

Glasses for orphans in third world countries?

My friend was trying to do that, but that was her own project within the established NGO. Do you have contacts overseas where you can start discussing things with? Any doctor or professor or professional that you could work with?

Getting the resources, committed collaborations, and getting enough financial supports will be the toughest obstacles here.

 

[ct303]

My friend was trying to do that, but that was her own project within the established NGO. Do you have contacts overseas where you can start discussing things with? Any doctor or professor or professional that you could work with?

Getting the resources, committed collaborations, and getting enough financial supports will be the toughest obstacles here.

Yes, we have contacts abroad that helped. I would love to discuss how we do it with her if she is interested! PM with her information if you would like me to get a hold of her.
We just did 3500 pairs of glasses in early August. I got verified in the middle of the trip so I would come back from distributing glasses and fill out secondaries all night.

 

[Lya]

I absolutely agree with you on that, but I don't think it's a coincidence that most of the students at top tier schools (at least according to MDApps) just so happen to play an instrument or a sport or both. And as a personal anecdote, when I interviewed at a top 20 last month every single student I met played an instrument. From what I gathered a lot of the other applicants did too, so it looked like the school was selecting for that.

There are also other applicants who play instruments but don't get into top schools. Moreover, there is a huge difference between being a concert pianist or professional violinist and casual musician or simply being in a school orchestra. If it is the former, that is stellar. If it is the latter, I doubt that was unique.

Just my opinion. I see where you are coming from, though.

 

[Lya]

Yes, we have contacts abroad that helped. I would love to discuss how we do it with her if she is interested! PM with her information if you would like me to get a hold of her.
We just did 3500 pairs of glasses in early August. I got verified in the middle of the trip so I would come back from distributing glasses and fill out secondaries all night.

She is already in medical school, so I am not sure if she is still pursuing that anymore.

That is a great start! If you want, you should do some anthropological surveys to measure the influence of your project. You might be able to find other needs that should be addressed. Also think about how you can make things more sustainable. Partnerships with local academic colleges/schools are one of the ways to do so. Moreover, also think about the next person/people who could lead your project for the continuous leadership in case you leave.

 

[ct303]

She is already in medical school, so I am not sure if she is still pursuing that anymore.

That is a great start! If you want, you should do some anthropological surveys to measure the influence of your project. You might be able to find other needs that should be addressed. Also think about how you can make things more sustainable. Partnerships with local academic colleges/schools are one of the ways to do so. Moreover, also think about the next person/people who could lead your project for the continuous leadership in case you leave.

Ahhhhh gotcha.

Thanks for the advice! I have definitely been thinking about that since I don't anticipate the time needed to run it once medical school starts (still waiting on interviews tho). Great ideas I hadn't considered before! Thanks!

 

[frosted_flake]

What are views on being a D2 athlete? (Was for a year and a half) I would have continued my sport but I got injured at practice and am not allowed to play anymore.

 

[Planes2Doc]

"Stellar ECs" are check boxes that are strategically checked at the right times, which create the right perception of one's self by ADCOMs.

In my opinion, the people that unfortunately come off as looking the best are what I call "ZERO to Mother Teresa" applicants. This is an applicant that will go from not doing any ECs to suddenly becoming the next Mother Teresa virtually overnight (when they officially become pre-med). The applicants that come off as bleeding heart pre-meds hell bent on saving the world will ultimately be the ones who gun for derm and rads residencies once they get into medical school. Thus, I feel that the students that "accomplish" most and deemed the most desirable by ADCOMs will turn out to be the complete opposite.

It's all about the dog and pony show, since ultimately, most regular college students aren't going to be doing any of these activities. The dog and pony show must be very carefully timed. It's best started early since commitment somehow equals genuineness. Therefore, someone who starts these activities as a freshman or sophomore might look like an awesome person, while someone who starts these very same activities within a year of applying will look like a selfish box-checker.

Typically, the outline of your typical SDN cookie cutter pre-med is: Clinical volunteering, shadowing, non-clinical volunteering, and research. The first two are a must, unless you are doing certain types of paid clinical work. Otherwise, the last two are bonuses. You need to be able to show ADCOMs that you know what you're getting into, and that you're altruistic. Therefore, shadowing is an obvious box-checking activity, and ADCOMs don't mind if you treat it as such. Volunteering, on the other hand, should be a long-term commitment. I wouldn't cut it anytime before filling out AMCAS at minimum since that will blow your facade and show your true intentions, unless of course you were doing things like this long before you were ever a pre-med.

Altruism is a very rare trait. That's why I'm always in awe, and greatly admire people who give back to the community when they aren't doing it for any other ulterior motive. I can't say that I've seen too many non-pre-meds lining up at hospitals to clean beds or stock linens for free. So a majority of people, who don't do this normally (which of course there is nothing wrong with that), will have to put on a nice show for ADCOMs. The important thing is to not blow your cover. Just keep doing it, and if you really don't care, drop it once you've already interviewed at the school.

Things like research are important for research-heavy schools, and less important for others. Of course it's good to check that box though.

Hobbies and other things are bonuses which can create good talking points.

Ultimately, what do I think are the most stellar ECs? The ones that help the most people, because that's the point after all, right?

Well never once have I ever heard anyone on this site asking how they can help more people. They only ask about how they can help themselves. I don't think I'll find anyone looking to help anyone but themselves in the near future.