What's considered "good ECs"?

[CUNYguy]

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I hear the term "good ECs" thrown around, but what makes them good?

I'm CPR/BLS, Adv. first aid, and EMT-B certified. Volunteered at a hospital >150 hours. Worked as a medical billing clerk/assistant for >2 years.

I feel like even though I have these experiences, it's not considered "good" since its really only a few things that you can possibly do as ECs as and undergrad.

I'd like to hear what everyone thinks is "good", and examples.


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[Awesome Sauceome]

Clinical experience and research. I know a few people who are certified in a bunch of stuff, but they never got any real experience with it. Medical billing is meh I suppose, I mean definitely put it in your app for sure. But its not like clinical experience. Research always looks nice as well, but its not a requirement at DO schools. Definitely get some shadowing in as well. If you can get a letter of recommendation from a DO that will certainly help your cause.

 

[razor]

Good ECs? Literally anything. It's all how you spin it on your app and interview.

If you worked at McDonalds for 6 years before applying, talk about how you learned the value of teamwork, efficiency, and multitasking. Get a little more fluffy and talk about your difficulties w/ affordable health care as a minimum wage worker and you want to serve your fellow man that is destitute.

If you were a researcher dissecting elephant dung in whatever country elephants like to roam, talk about your worldly experiences and passion applying basic science principles to real world problems that hit home to people of all walks of life.

If you did nothing, literally nothing for a year after undergrad, talk about your time for introspection. Work the mindfulness and meditation angle and how you believe that we need to be good to our minds and bodies.

You see, it doesn't really matter what you do. It's all how you spin it and make it important to you. Because in the end, if you really were such a humanitarian or loved bench research so much or whatever, you wouldn't be applying to medical school. You'd be in a PhD program engineering clean drinking water for little african babies. But we're all dying to be physicians, which means we were BSing our way through the application about our passion for that research project about intraflagellar transport in C. elegans.

 

[el_duderino]

"Good ECs" means all of the following:

Clinical experience
Shadowing
Leadership
Volunteering

"Great ECs" means all of the above, consistently, over a long period of time.

Research is a bonus, but virtually required for the powerhouse research institutions (Harvard, JH, etc).

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Good ECs? Literally anything. It's all how you spin it on your app and interview.

If you worked at McDonalds for 6 years before applying, talk about how you learned the value of teamwork, efficiency, and multitasking. Get a little more fluffy and talk about your difficulties w/ affordable health care as a minimum wage worker and you want to serve your fellow man that is destitute.

If you were a researcher dissecting elephant dung in whatever country elephants like to roam, talk about your worldly experiences and passion applying basic science principles to real world problems that hit home to people of all walks of life.

If you did nothing, literally nothing for a year after undergrad, talk about your time for introspection. Work the mindfulness and meditation angle and how you believe that we need to be good to our minds and bodies.

You see, it doesn't really matter what you do. It's all how you spin it and make it important to you. Because in the end, if you really were such a humanitarian or loved bench research so much or whatever, you wouldn't be applying to medical school. You'd be in a PhD program engineering clean drinking water for little african babies. But we're all dying to be physicians, which means we were BSing our way through the application about our passion for that research project about intraflagellar transport in C. elegans.

false

I agree that spin on your situation is important, but seriously false.

You think there isnt stuff that some adcoms really love seeing? heck even Goro has made a list of things that he says really make an application stand out.

You seriously cant beat good clinical experience. 6 months of clinical experience > 10 years at McDonalds.

 

[razor]

false

I agree that spin on your situation is important, but seriously false.

You think there isnt stuff that some adcoms really love seeing? heck even Goro has made a list of things that he says really make an application stand out.

You seriously cant beat good clinical experience. 6 months of clinical experience > 10 years at McDonalds.

True. I hear, and agree, with everything you're saying. The difference is what I bolded above. Do they really love seeing that on your app? Sure, but I was just saying if you're an academically competent applicant with some form (any kind) of real world experience, then there exists an adcom director somewhere that will give you some love. My comment was by no means a how-to manual for getting your #1 choice school when you have below avg stats. I was mostly just trying to speak to the point that we do our mandatory 6 mos of service as a volunteer EMT or whatever just to check that box on our app. Because if we loved it so much, we would have continued in the EMS profession.

 

[razor]

And my personal story is I had ZERO clinical experience. I had 3 DO acceptances w/ avg mcat and strong GPA. My EC's?

I grew up on, and later worked college summers on a dairy farm. Was most of my time spent driving a bobcat hauling manure? Yes. Did I work in as much as I could about being a vigilant observer of animal health and the 1 day a year that we did vaccinations? Yes. Not that this will work for everyone, but a good/interesting/unique story goes a long ways because every other applicant served a 2 week christmas break mission in (insert poor country here) and took a BLS/CPR course and worked a first aid booth at the community spring fling.

Quick edit to make this completely accurate: I did my due diligence of 8 hours of DO shadowing. I don't really consider this clinical experience though. This was so I could get a DO letter. Very bland letter, so I wouldn't recommend this either unless you have other outstanding LORs from faculty that new you very well.

 

[razor]

and apparently I don't no or know the difference between the words knew and new.

 

[CUNYguy]

So to summarize, there are a select list of "do's" but as for "dont's" it's not well defined, but as long as you get something out of it that you can attribute to your competency as a physician, it's okay?


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[coolingglasses]

And my personal story is I had ZERO clinical experience. I had 3 DO acceptances w/ avg mcat and strong GPA. My EC's?

I grew up on, and later worked college summers on a dairy farm. Was most of my time spent driving a bobcat hauling manure? Yes. Did I work in as much as I could about being a vigilant observer of animal health and the 1 day a year that we did vaccinations? Yes. Not that this will work for everyone, but a good/interesting/unique story goes a long ways because every other applicant served a 2 week christmas break mission in (insert poor country here) and took a BLS/CPR course and worked a first aid booth at the community spring fling.

Quick edit to make this completely accurate: I did my due diligence of 8 hours of DO shadowing. I don't really consider this clinical experience though. This was so I could get a DO letter. Very bland letter, so I wouldn't recommend this either unless you have other outstanding LORs from faculty that new you very well.

Nailed it.

 

[Goro]

I have a fondness and respect for people who do:

Habitat for Humanity
Teach for America
Americorps
Tutor or read to poor children
volunteer at nursing homes or hospice or work at camps for sick children
being a Big Brother/Sister
being in or having served in the military


The key to these things is:
showing you know what you're getting into
Showing your altruism and humanism
showing us you want to be around sick people for the next 30-40 years.

I hear the term "good ECs" thrown around, but what makes them good?

I'm CPR/BLS, Adv. first aid, and EMT-B certified. Volunteered at a hospital >150 hours. Worked as a medical billing clerk/assistant for >2 years.

I feel like even though I have these experiences, it's not considered "good" since its really only a few things that you can possibly do as ECs as and undergrad.

I'd like to hear what everyone thinks is "good", and examples.


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[adriano710]

I hear the term "good ECs" thrown around, but what makes them good?

I'm CPR/BLS, Adv. first aid, and EMT-B certified. Volunteered at a hospital >150 hours. Worked as a medical billing clerk/assistant for >2 years.

I feel like even though I have these experiences, it's not considered "good" since its really only a few things that you can possibly do as ECs as and undergrad.

I'd like to hear what everyone thinks is "good", and examples.


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In my opinion good EC's are above the average EC's a medical applicant has. With that said, good EC's to me would require 200-300 hours of clinical volunteering, over 50 hours of shadowing multiple MD's and DO's, some research (does not have to be publicized), community service (different from clinical volunteering), multiple club involved in, multiple leadership/committee roles, strong LOR's from an MD and a DO, strong LOR's from two science profs, strong LOR from a non-science prof, as well as a hobby such as a sport that you have stuck at for a very long time (though HS and college). On top of this I think a medical brigade shows a lot of dedication and commitment do what you want to do. ALL OF THESE make for good EC's and by good I mean above the average applicant.

 

[Dreamstoo]

In my opinion good EC's are above the average EC's a medical applicant has. With that said, good EC's to me would require 200-300 hours of clinical volunteering, over 50 hours of shadowing multiple MD's and DO's, some research (does not have to be publicized), community service (different from clinical volunteering), multiple club involved in, multiple leadership/committee roles, strong LOR's from an MD and a DO, strong LOR's from two science profs, strong LOR from a non-science prof, as well as a hobby such as a sport that you have stuck at for a very long time (though HS and college). On top of this I think a medical brigade shows a lot of dedication and commitment do what you want to do. ALL OF THESE make for good EC's and by good I mean above the average applicant.

I think that would make a great list of ECs.

What I consider bolded is what I think is a "good" list of ECs.

 

[pericardium]

I'm sort of surprised nobody has said anything about working in healthcare yet. What do you guys think of paid healthcare work experience as an EC? I myself have worked for a few months as a cardiology technician and as an EMT for 2 years, how are those as ECs?

 

[CUNYguy]

I'm sort of surprised nobody has said anything about working in healthcare yet. What do you guys think of paid healthcare work experience as an EC? I myself have worked for a few months as a cardiology technician and as an EMT for 2 years, how are those as ECs?

Very similar for myself. Except I didn't do the echos, or vascular procedures, I was exclusive to vitals and EKGs/holters (outside of billing).

I'm aspiring to get a DO to go into cardio, so I guess if it brought you to your aspirations, and motivations toward becoming a physician, it's a strong enough EC.


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[CUNYguy]

..considering you can support those claims.


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[adriano710]

I think that would make a great list of ECs.

What I consider bolded is what I think is a "good" list of ECs.

Guess I have great EC's in your eyes haha! However, I'm pretty sure club involvement and leadership roles are pretty mandatory when trying to get a spot into a medical school (upper or lower tier). Also you didn't bold LOR's which are required by almost every single medical school.

 

[Dreamstoo]

Guess I have great EC's in your eyes haha! However, I'm pretty sure club involvement and leadership roles are pretty mandatory when trying to get a spot into a medical school (upper or lower tier). Also you didn't bold LOR's which are required by almost every single medical school.

I've known many people who have gotten in with minimal club involvement and leadership and yes I forgot to bold LORs, oops.