What types of Extracurriculars are you involved in?

[CurlyReese]

Hi everybody. I'm curious as to what types of organizations, or activities other pre-meds are doing in their free time. I'm involved in my school's pre-med society, Relay for Life planning committee, and i volunteer at a hospital in peds. Next semester, i plan on creating a MAPS chapter on my campus. However, I'm not sure if this adequatly compares to the average pre-med, any suggestions?

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[What up doc]

Hi everybody. I'm curious as to what types of organizations, or activities other pre-meds are doing in their free time. I'm involved in my school's pre-med society, Relay for Life planning committee, and i volunteer at a hospital in peds. Next semester, i plan on creating a MAPS chapter on my campus. However, I'm not sure if this adequatly compares to the average pre-med, any suggestions?

i guess it compares pretty adequately to the average premed...but who wants to be average? have you thought about research? community service beyond your typical relay for life/habitat for humanity stint? multiple/diverse clinical experiences? creative/artistic pursuits in which you can distinguish yourself based on talent? athletic endeavors in which you distinguish yourself? significant/active leadership positions? these are all things i have on my resume and things i think bode well in the admissions process...good luck!

 

[njbmd]

I was a "rocker and soother" in the Boarder Baby Project at my local hospital. Boarder Babies were those babies that were abandoned by their mothers shortly after giving birth. We feed them, rocked them, read to them, played with them and generally just spent time interacting with the amazingly cute little people. It honed my interest in peds which stuck until third year when I did my first case in surgery.

 

[CurlyReese]

hhmmnn... i could step it up though, i plan on getting some research done in the next two years, and i am rushing a professional business frat...(thinking..) thanks for the advice

 

[Dr Lyss]

i went the non traditional ECs route and I think it has really helped. I got involved with service learning/ community service orgs on campus & did my clinical experiences in homeless shelters and urban clinics rather than traditional hospital settings. I think it has helped put more weight behind my words when I say I plan on working in community health

 

[CurlyReese]

cool....im considering studying abroad in two years, my scholarships would pay for it, but im not sure how that will look on my application since I'll be taking my physics courses at that institution....

 

[Dr Lyss]

if at all possible, try not to take any pre-reqs abroad. My advisors strongly discouraged us from doing this and suggested you push physics to senior year or take it over the summer. The grading in abroad institutions is notorious for not translating well once you come back (many of my friends were very pissed when they came back from abroad and their GPA was all messed up) AND the topics covered in their physics course may not include all those covered on the MCAT.

studying abroad = great
pre-reqs abroad = not so great

 

[CurlyReese]

oh wow...how ironic , today me and my premed advisor were discussing this topic, and he said that med schools dont really care, but i dont want to take the risk, looks like i'll be venturing to Spain after graduation then... thanks for the input

 

[Dr Lyss]

one option a lot of premeds at my school did (since a semester abroad doesn't really work well with the prereqs) is doing a summer abroad. They have a lot of different programs that are similar to the semester just shorter