What if you have no awards or leadership experiences?

[dredredre]

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I keep seeing posts of people getting awards and being the presidents of sorority's/fraternities. What if you have no awards but have a 4.0 in by the time of apps (and lots of other EC's) and you're not the president of anything? What can you do?

And are there other leadership opportunities that you know of that don't involve being a PRESIDENT?

 

[deleted407021]

I keep seeing posts of people getting awards and being the presidents of sorority's/fraternities. What if you have no awards but have a 4.0 in by the time of apps (and lots of other EC's) and you're not the president of anything? What can you do?

And are there other leadership opportunities that you know of that don't involve being a PRESIDENT?

Not that big of a deal.

Leadership title doesn't matter so much as what you did and how you learned from it.

pre-allo = 🙄 for days

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

I think showing peer leadership could work (organizing study groups??), but that seems sort of weak. I would like to know though because I was also never in any club, definitely never with a fancy title.

 

[MerciMerci]

Leading is an action, not a title. Many without titles lead, and many with titles do not lead.

 

[FutureOncologist]

Leading is an action, not a title. Many without titles lead, and many with titles do not lead.

That'd work, except he'll need to put some sort of title in. Or at least a meaningful explanation. The quote wouldn't fair well if he put that into the application

 

[Sarah_Sonny25]

you don't need to be president for your involvement to be meaningful. Sure leadership is definitely a plus when applying to med school, but demonstrating that you can work well on a team even if you're not running things is also an important quality. Did you have any E-board positions or responsibilities in your EC involvement?

 

[dredredre]

you don't need to be president for your involvement to be meaningful. Sure leadership is definitely a plus when applying to med school, but demonstrating that you can work well on a team even if you're not running things is also an important quality. Did you have any E-board positions or responsibilities in your EC involvement?

No, I don't unfortunately. I don't even know how you can get more responsibility in an EC. I guess I can try to get an EMT license if it's really important to have leadership and responsibility roles as such.

Edit: actually, scratch that. I do teach children ages 5-8 tennis on the weekends. I'm not licensed, though. They're children of family friends. Would that even count?

 

[Sarah_Sonny25]

I'd defer to an Adcom member about their opinion on that--but I probably would if it was something I was very committed to and spent a lot of time doing. I'm just confused how you are involved in "lots of other EC's" but do not have any teamwork or responsibilities related to those activities--what ECs are you involved in?

 

[medic86]

No, I don't unfortunately. I don't even know how you can get more responsibility in an EC. I guess I can try to get an EMT license if it's really important to have leadership and responsibility roles as such.

Edit: actually, scratch that. I do teach children ages 5-8 tennis on the weekends. I'm not licensed, though. They're children of family friends. Would that even count?

Having an EMT-B certification will do nothing for the "leadership" category.

 

[dredredre]

I'd defer to an Adcom member about their opinion on that--but I probably would if it was something I was very committed to and spent a lot of time doing. I'm just confused how you are involved in "lots of other EC's" but do not have any teamwork or responsibilities related to those activities--what ECs are you involved in?

Hospital volunteering, church volunteering, crisis hotline volunteering, shadowing docs, will be doing undergraduate research, tutoring, member of a biological science club (but NOT in a leader role).

I guess I just meant *plenty* rather than "lots". Looking at the list now, I suppose that there's room for improvement. But I don't have any vice president or chair/executive roles or anything.

 

[justadream]

Would most adcoms consider typical club leadership pretty average/weak as an EC? (I'm talking like being president of a club with ~30 people).

 

[medic86]

Would most adcoms consider typical club leadership pretty average/weak as an EC? (I'm talking like being president of a club with ~30 people).

Only if you did absolutely nothing.

 

[sliceofbread136]

Spin one of your other ECs to have some leadership (example teaching). It won't be super strong but it is better than nothing