What really makes an applicant stand out in the adcom's eyes?

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Yeah. I get that alot, about the fishing thing. A professor once told me that it doesn't matter what you are interested in, its just the fact that you embrace what you are interested in. Why am I interested in fishing? My grandfather was a huge fisherman, and passed away from cancer very suddenly, so my dad and I took it up. Its kind of how we coped for a while, and it became a dad-son kinda thing. So it remains.
 
tylerh87 said:
I'm not very interested in the "check the box" philosophy. I don't think there is such a thing. If you want to be a doctor...its gonna be evident to the Admissions Committee. For example:

I am a premed major. I have a 3.91 GPA, and will take my MCAT this April. I study alot, and do well in my classes, but I also do things that I LIKE. Example: this fall I started a Bass Fishing Club at my school. I am a member of a bass fishing team that fishes tournaments against other colleges regularly. Why do I do this? Its my outlet. I love to fish. I compete in tournaments all the time and have done many things to establish the club, such as securing sponsors to help us out with our costs. I am also a phlebotomist at a hospital in the summers full time. It helps me get through school financially (and funds my fishing habit 😀).
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What if my passion was to play video games, and my leadership experience involves leading and coordinating a large team of players in simulated science fiction battles? What would I put on my application?

"Flying internet spaceships while under the influence of pretty much anything"

Some things are more accepted than others, and I'd argue that the hypothetical drunk space admiral is actually developing more advanced leadership skills when he leads his comrades and dictates combat strategy.

tylerh87 said:
I am also the Vice President of my fraternity, but still find time to study for my MCAT. These things are not to "check the box." These things are what I do because it is who I am. I do things I like to do...not for any other reason. If you go volunteer at a hospital JUST to fulfill a medical school requirement, then why do it? If you don't wanna commit some time to the medical field now, what makes you think that you are going to enjoy committing MUCH more of your time to your patients in the future?So I mean, thats just my opinion, but seriously...if you wanna be a doctor, it will be evident.
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Because I don't want to be a hospital volunteer, I want to be a physician. The two are very different -- I'm apathetic toward involvement in the healthcare field unless its as a practicing physician. Whats wrong with that? Nothing.

Your desire to be a physician is evident only when you pour a lot of effort into the "accepted" extracurriculars.
 
tylerh87 said:
Yeah. I get that alot, about the fishing thing. A professor once told me that it doesn't matter what you are interested in, its just the fact that you embrace what you are interested in. Why am I interested in fishing? My grandfather was a huge fisherman, and passed away from cancer very suddenly, so my dad and I took it up. Its kind of how we coped for a while, and it became a dad-son kinda thing. So it remains.
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I'm assuming you don't care, and you shouldn't. You should of course include this in your apps as I'm sure you have. Also, it sounds like fun, I've not fished in years but eating fresh fish+sitting around near water is pretty attractive.
 
MattEvers said:
That's a picture I sent amwatts of my girlfriend. I hope you didn't mean anything negative by your post. 😱
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Oh, of course not, I just meant I was blinded by the sheer beauty of the pic! You are a very lucky man. 😛
 
VoiceofReason-
I understand where your coming from on the interests thing. But in a way, what you do defines who you are, and that is perfectly acceptable. I'm not sure where that particular hobby would go on a medical school application, but maybe you could find a place 😉. On the volunteering thing, that is just a matter of opinion. I personally have no problem committing my time in a volunteer setting or for low wages now in return for the success I hope to have in helping others later.

Drogba-
Thanks alot, I appreciate it. Your right, I don't really mind that people probably think its "redneck". I find it super relaxing as well as challenging.

On another note...if thats your girlfriend, well, good luck. Cause she definitely needs some help with the pants.
 
tylerh87 said:
VoiceofReason-
I understand where your coming from on the interests thing. But in a way, what you do defines who you are, and that is perfectly acceptable. I'm not sure where that particular hobby would go on a medical school application, but maybe you could find a place 😉. On the volunteering thing, that is just a matter of opinion. I personally have no problem committing my time in a volunteer setting or for low wages now in return for the success I hope to have in helping others later.

Drogba-
Thanks alot, I appreciate it. Your right, I don't really mind that people probably think its "redneck". I find it super relaxing as well as challenging.

On another note...if thats your girlfriend, well, good luck. Cause she definitely needs some help with the pants.
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I give her all the help she needs, GETTING THEM OFF! Who cares if she can't get them back on (except everyone else who is subjected to her... image).
 
Dude, have the words "scarred for life" ever crossed your mind? Dang. They just don't grow em that nice in the south.
 
tylerh87 said:
Dude, have the words "scarred for life" ever crossed your mind? Dang. They just don't grow em that nice in the south.
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Lies, everyone knows obesity is worse in the south! And I'm just scared for my life with this girl... I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on the dangers of lovemaking in this context.
 
Drogba said:
I'm sure I don't need to elaborate on the dangers of lovemaking in this context.
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Please don't, I'm still trying to recover from your previous comment...:scared:
 
SoCalGirl said:
Oh, of course not, I just meant I was blinded by the sheer beauty of the pic! You are a very lucky man. 😛
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I am lucky; it's nice to never have to worry about having enough woman. 😎
 
VoiceofReason said:
my leadership experience involves leading and coordinating a large team of players in simulated science fiction battles?


...developing more advanced leadership skills when he leads his comrades and dictates combat strategy.
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Leave out the drunk part and I'd say you packaged playing video games very nicely! I never thought of them in this way. :laugh: And think of how much you'd stand out among other applicants!
 
SoCalGirl said:
Leave out the drunk part and I'd say you packaged playing video games very nicely! I never thought of them in this way. :laugh: And think of how much you'd stand out among other applicants!
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Haha I'd stand out enough to be the first one thrown in the round file.
 
VoiceofReason said:
Haha I'd stand out enough to be the first one thrown in the round file.
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:laugh: You have a way with words. You'll have to help me with the EC's on my app when I apply. 😛
 
I was the top bard on Tallon Zek in Everquest in high school. I led 50+ person raids to kill virtual dragons and single-handedly slaughtered relatively large groups of players in PvP. This demonstrates my overwhelming drive to succeed.

I didn't put this on my application. Though I did put the fact that I made 10k from the game on my app for UCLA.

I didn't get an interview. I'm blaming it on late application. 😳
 
SoCalGirl said:
:laugh: You have a way with words. You'll have to help me with the EC's on my app when I apply. 😛
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🙂 thanks, I don't know how close you are to applying or anything but there's a great thread somewhere here with a ton of information about wording, formatting, and activity selection for your EC section. LizzyM (this is the one that stands out in my memory) and others made awesome contributions to it.
 
VoiceofReason said:
🙂 thanks, I don't know how close you are to applying or anything but there's a great thread somewhere here with a ton of information about wording, formatting, and activity selection for your EC section. LizzyM (this is the one that stands out in my memory) and others made awesome contributions to it.
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If anyone has a link to that thread. I would appreciate it😀. I gotta know how to best highlight my farting achievements
 
VoiceofReason said:
🙂 thanks, I don't know how close you are to applying or anything but there's a great thread somewhere here with a ton of information about wording, formatting, and activity selection for your EC section. LizzyM (this is the one that stands out in my memory) and others made awesome contributions to it.
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Cool, I will check it out sometime soon. I'm applying for the next cycle so that'll come in handy.
 
synth said:
I was the top bard on Tallon Zek in Everquest in high school. I led 50+ person raids to kill virtual dragons and single-handedly slaughtered relatively large groups of players in PvP. This demonstrates my overwhelming drive to succeed.

I didn't put this on my application. Though I did put the fact that I made 10k from the game on my app for UCLA.

I didn't get an interview. I'm blaming it on late application. 😳
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I'm actually going to be somewhat serious here. I have led many a task force in City of Heroes over the past 3 and a half years, and it's a shame more adcoms don't play MMOs, because, in all honesty, that takes leadership skills. Perfect strangers are letting me call the shots with their fun-time for a good 3-4 hours. Come on.

Of course, I still won't be putting this on my application, that's for damn sure.
 
Geekchick921 said:
Perfect strangers are letting me call the shots with their fun-time for a good 3-4 hours.
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Is it wrong that this turns me on? 😀

In all seriousness, I do agree with you. I bet if you worded it right, it could potentially be a good thing with some of the ADCOMs. On the other hand, some would simply dismiss it as padding of the application. It's a shame ECs are limited to what ADCOMs understand.
 
MattEvers said:
Is it wrong that this turns me on? 😀
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Nah, a bunch of the guys we play with tell me or my fiance that they wish their girlfriend or wife played with them, or that they had a girlfriend or wife that would. It makes me feel special. 😎

In all seriousness, I do agree with you. I bet if you worded it right, it could potentially be a good thing with some of the ADCOMs. On the other hand, some would simply dismiss it as padding of the application. It's a shame ECs are limited to what ADCOMs understand.
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Hey, I think I just might mention it in my interview if I'm getting a good vibe off the committee and they ask me if I have had any leadership experience. That's something that would have to wait until I was being interviewed.

I have led dozens of task forces and trials, which is, well, maybe the CoH equivalent of raids, but on a smaller scale... we have raids too but I don't do them enough to try to run them. And I run/help run 3 different supergroups (guilds), one of which is ranked in the top 100 for earnings on my server, and all three have great, usually active members. It's a shame that, if this was a real-life activity, like coaching a sport, directing or conducting a music or theatre group, or running a student club that requres several less hours than what I've done in-game, it would count, but since my fun-time is at the computer, it probably won't.

Lizzy, can you shed some light on this? I figure we're completely SoL, but is there a way to finagle this somehow?
 
Geekchick921 said:
Lizzy, can you shed some light on this? I figure we're completely SoL, but is there a way to finagle this somehow?
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A year or two ago there was a thread (titled "Hooks") where we got to discussing Lan Parties. (I don't know if what you do is at all similar. ) I gave it 👍. Do a decent job of describing the things you do using the action verbs (direct, coordinate, develop, lead) you'd use on a resume.
 
LizzyM said:
A year or two ago there was a thread (titled "Hooks") where we got to discussing Lan Parties. (I don't know if what you do is at all similar. ) I gave it 👍. Do a decent job of describing the things you do using the action verbs (direct, coordinate, develop, lead) you'd use on a resume.
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That's awesome. If a LAN party is what I think it is (like what the South Park kids had going in Cartman's basement in "Make Love not Warcraft"), then it's definitely similar. The major difference is that the people on a LAN can actually discuss tactics in person while they play the game. Some MMORPG players use programs like teamspeak for the same thing, but I usually just type it out.

Thanks a million, Lizzy.
 
really? who would have thought a game could be leadership...I play AA, and I am already a real life soldier. I should start putting those together and start doing some leadership in AA.

Some day, even breathing is going to be an EC

As long as I can do it..
Cheers
Piyush
 
synth said:
I was the top bard on Tallon Zek in Everquest in high school. I led 50+ person raids to kill virtual dragons and single-handedly slaughtered relatively large groups of players in PvP. This demonstrates my overwhelming drive to succeed.

I didn't put this on my application. Though I did put the fact that I made 10k from the game on my app for UCLA.

I didn't get an interview. I'm blaming it on late application. 😳
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Maybe you should rethink marketing these accomplishments. A study came out a couple of months ago showing a strong correlation between hours of virtual gaming played and decreases in surgical mistakes. I would provide a source, but I would have to google it again.
 
joyrunner said:
Maybe you should rethink marketing these accomplishments. A study came out a couple of months ago showing a strong correlation between hours of virtual gaming played and decreases in surgical mistakes. I would provide a source, but I would have to google it again.
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Its common sense. It improves hand-eye coordination. As far as gaming is concerned I've played wipeout for years, and have developed great reflexes. It'd certainly help..
 
I had an ultrasound guided needle biopsy (everything turned out OK btw) and I asked the interventional radiologist if he had been a video gamer as a kid. He laughed & said "yes".

It helps not only eye-hand coordination but imagining 3D when looking at a 2D image on a screen.
 
LizzyM said:
We have the BS detectors set on HIGH to ferret out the resume padders and box checkers. We are looking for sincerely interesting people who know how to work hard and play hard.
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honestly, i highly doubt that the BS detector exists.

several activities such as tutoring and playing the piano are really no indication of how good a physician you will be. It seems that a lot of adcoms feel that the students they are accepting are bound to be humanitarians or are going to be attendings. The truth is, we are all (mostly) planning on either going into private practice or working at an HMO. So why are these activities looked on so favorably? really a huge mystery to me? also, what's the point of leadership? I mean seriously...99% of us don't plan on leading anybody 😕

may be im just naive, but it really doesn't make sense to me...
 
paranoid_eyes said:
honestly, i highly doubt that the BS detector exists.

several activities such as tutoring and playing the piano are really no indication of how good a physician you will be. It seems that a lot of adcoms feel that the students they are accepting are bound to be humanitarians or are going to be attendings. The truth is, we are all (mostly) planning on either going into private practice or working at an HMO. So why are these activities looked on so favorably? really a huge mystery to me? also, what's the point of leadership? I mean seriously...99% of us don't plan on leading anybody 😕

may be im just naive, but it really doesn't make sense to me...
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I think by "BS detectors set on high" she means something along the lines of someone claiming shadowing experience for the time they spent in a hospital during their own birth, etc.
 
BrokenGlass said:
I think by "BS detectors set on high" she means something along the lines of someone claiming shadowing experience for the time they spent in a hospital during their own birth, etc.
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that's not BS, that's lying
 
paranoid_eyes said:
that's not BS, that's lying
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1) technially it's not lying. you were there and you were getting your first exposure to the profession.

2) BS and lying are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
 
paranoid_eyes said:
honestly, i highly doubt that the BS detector exists.

several activities such as tutoring and playing the piano are really no indication of how good a physician you will be. It seems that a lot of adcoms feel that the students they are accepting are bound to be humanitarians or are going to be attendings. The truth is, we are all (mostly) planning on either going into private practice or working at an HMO. So why are these activities looked on so favorably? really a huge mystery to me? also, what's the point of leadership? I mean seriously...99% of us don't plan on leading anybody 😕

may be im just naive, but it really doesn't make sense to me...
Click to expand...

Schools differ. In the case of a top-tier that hopes that a large proportion will choose academic medicine, leadership is a big deal. So is research. So is finding the people who are interesting enough that, as someone else on another thread so nicely described it, you wouldn't mind hanging out with them at 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve while you clean up a drunken Santa who is covered with vomit. And furthermore, we need something that winnows down the applicant pool to the 5% to whom we make offers. Being genuine, being genuinely interested in a career in medicine, and being well informed of what the practice of medicine is about (it's not all about lifestyle and $) are what we look for and I hope we have the ability to detect those who feed us some BS.
 
LizzyM said:
So is finding the people who are interesting enough that, as someone else on another thread so nicely described it, you wouldn't mind hanging out with them at 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve while you clean up a drunken Santa who is covered with vomit.
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ah so there are more selfish motives...even if this has nothing to do with how good a physician you will be.
well...i guess this is at least some justification that is understandable (honestly)

there are easier ways to cut the applicant pool down: it's called gpa and mcat

anyways, thanks for the insight. it's helpful to know the tricks needed to slip your way into med school.

(and btw, economics governs everything. even though our angel premeds say they aren't doing it for the money, do you really buy that?)
 
paranoid_eyes said:
ah so there are more selfish motives...even if this has nothing to do with how good a physician you will be.
well...i guess this is at least some justification that is understandable (honestly)

there are easier ways to cut the applicant pool down: it's called gpa and mcat

anyways, thanks for the insight. it's helpful to know the tricks needed to slip your way into med school.

(and btw, economics governs everything. even though our angel premeds say they aren't doing it for the money, do you really buy that?)
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would you say that "cash rules everything around you"?
 
paranoid_eyes said:
ah so there are more selfish motives...even if this has nothing to do with how good a physician you will be.
well...i guess this is at least some justification that is understandable (honestly)
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Wanting people who are interesting to talk to, who are pleasant to work with, might seem "selfish" but it is also a factor in being considered a "good physician" by patients and by one's peers. Ask physicians about collegiality and see what they say. Particularly in the specialties that depend on referrals from other physicians, the "nice guys" tend to get ahead of the "SOBs" all other things being equal.

there are easier ways to cut the applicant pool down: it's called gpa and mcat
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There are many high gpa/high mcat applicants who you wouldn't want to see taking care of an ailing family member 10 years from now, so cutting the pool on the basis of numbers isn't doable. I would not want to interview only the top 10% by the numbers. I'd be missing out on some very empathetic, very talented people.
 
Ultimately, a great way to stand out in the eyes of the adcom is to commit a felony, win the Superbowl, hook up with the dean, or be elected to the Senate. It's really not that complicated, guys, you just have to do something DIFFERENT. How many ex-senators have gone to med school? Superbowl winners? Felons? BE UNIQUE.
 
TheProwler said:
Ultimately, a great way to stand out in the eyes of the adcom is to commit a felony, win the Superbowl, hook up with the dean, or be elected to the Senate. It's really not that complicated, guys, you just have to do something DIFFERENT. How many ex-senators have gone to med school? Superbowl winners? Felons? BE UNIQUE.
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In that case I got some bad advice because I didn't include my criminal record on my application. Do you think I should contact the schools and let them know about it?
 
Lizzy-
Thanks for all your insight on this thread, its really helpful to hear things like the advice you give so often.

Does my experience as a tournament fisherman and setting up an organized team at my school set me apart? Or what? I'm not sure how to explain it on my application. We basically compete against about 100 other schools around the nation all year in tournaments, and at the end of the year compete in a National Championship (which has its own TV show on ESPN and Fox Sports). Is this a notable, and how can I express this?

Thanks-
Tyler
 
tylerh87 said:
Does my experience as a tournament fisherman and setting up an organized team at my school set me apart?
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if you consider the destruction of life for pleasure (winning a trophy) a good point to sell, then of course, it is a GREAT EC...

in all honesty, according to the "lizzy model" for the you need to get in, this sounds like a good EC (especially if your interviewer enjoys fishing-->then you're basically in).
 
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