How Much Do Non-Academic Life Achievements Help With The Match?

[DO_med]

On my personal end I have been an international level athlete/national team member for years and continue to be throughout medical school. I also own a profitable business in the healthcare industry and there's a detailed Wikipedia page on me as I've been in the media a few times. Plenty of smaller extracurriculars too (ex. school committees/clubs) among other things.

 

How much "help" would I get from these things in the match? This is assuming I meet the mccee cutoff for IMGs (I'm a 2nd year US DO student) and have strong letters and multiple family med electives in Ontario (which is what I want to do). I did read in one of the tagged threads that they can help quite a bit - though it was referring specifically to UofT's IM program.

[Intrepid86]

Those things won't make up for bad stats or a bad interview.

[DO_med]

Those things won't make up for bad stats or a bad interview.

Assuming stats are solid and the interview is as well, how big of a difference maker can it be given the competitiveness of the IMG pool?

[Intrepid86]

Assuming stats are solid and the interview is as well, how big of a difference maker can it be given the competitiveness of the IMG pool?

 

 

It might make a difference, or it could make none at all. Only the people handling admissions decisions can say for sure, because only they know the true quality of the applicant pool in any given cycle. Regardless, I don't think ECs will be your limiting factor. This may not sound like a satisfying answer, but it's the most accurate one.