Limited Extracurriculars

[sarah737]

Hi everyone, I am in my 4th year of undergrad and I'm hoping to become a doctor, but my extracurriculars are really lacking. I have a 3.9 GPA and haven't taken the MCAT yet. My current extracurriculars include volunteering with stroke patients and with alzheimer's patients. I'm hoping to start volunteering at the hospital this year as well. In the past I have volunteered with the canadian cancer society and worked in an interdisciplinary STEM project that aimed to build technology that would help people with disabilities, but both of these were short-term. The only research experience I have is conducting literature searches for an occupational therapist and helping with his research. Also, I was part of a multicultural club and an executive for a club that helped refugees. I know this is way below average, considering what other pre-meds have done, so I want to know what my chances would be at getting an interview. If anyone has advice that could help me with finding more ECs to become involved in, I'd really appreciate that too. Thanks in advance!

[fun]

Deleted.

[QuestionsAbound]

3 hours ago, sarah737 said:

Hi everyone, I am in my 4th year of undergrad and I'm hoping to become a doctor, but my extracurriculars are really lacking. I have a 3.9 GPA and haven't taken the MCAT yet. My current extracurriculars include volunteering with stroke patients and with alzheimer's patients. I'm hoping to start volunteering at the hospital this year as well. In the past I have volunteered with the canadian cancer society and worked in an interdisciplinary STEM project that aimed to build technology that would help people with disabilities, but both of these were short-term. The only research experience I have is conducting literature searches for an occupational therapist and helping with his research. Also, I was part of a multicultural club and an executive for a club that helped refugees. I know this is way below average, considering what other pre-meds have done, so I want to know what my chances would be at getting an interview. If anyone has advice that could help me with finding more ECs to become involved in, I'd really appreciate that too. Thanks in advance!

Plenty of people get interviews and into medical school with far less. There is absolutely no harm in applying to see how you do. Pick activities that you enjoy. I wouldn’t take a gap year for fear your ECs aren’t enough. If you apply to med school and you get in: great, you’re done. If you don’t get in? Then you have a year to continue to build your application.

You miss the shots you never take. Your GPA is good, and GPA is king.

 

Goodluck.

[Bambi]

Hi Sarah,

Definitely apply. You may or may not receive interviews, if you do, great. If not, marketing yourself for purposes of applying is an entirely new skill you will learn and even if this is a trial run, it will help you out! And you never know where and when lightning will strike. 

[m_jacob_45]

I think your downplaying your ECs a bit. They sound fairly good to me. I would just recommend picking up a few more things if you can, especially a few more non-medicine related since all of your activities have a connection to medicine/science. You also want to show them that you have other interests too. I would not delay applying if you have a good mcat score and see how things go. Also remember anything from 16+ is fair game, like if you did high school activities that are relevant (I.e. sports, drama, etc)

[sarah737]

3 hours ago, m_jacob_45 said:

I think your downplaying your ECs a bit. They sound fairly good to me. I would just recommend picking up a few more things if you can, especially a few more non-medicine related since all of your activities have a connection to medicine/science. You also want to show them that you have other interests too. I would not delay applying if you have a good mcat score and see how things go. Also remember anything from 16+ is fair game, like if you did high school activities that are relevant (I.e. sports, drama, etc)

My biggest issue with high school stuff is that I have lost contact with the people that ran the ECs I was part of (i.e. I have no idea how to contact them because they left), so I don't have anyone to put as a verifier. Would it be okay to put a friend/family member that knows about the activities or did them with me as a verifier, or is this not accepted? 

[Bambi]

You have to do what you have to do, use them as verifier.

[m_jacob_45]

On 9/6/2019 at 9:31 PM, sarah737 said:

My biggest issue with high school stuff is that I have lost contact with the people that ran the ECs I was part of (i.e. I have no idea how to contact them because they left), so I don't have anyone to put as a verifier. Would it be okay to put a friend/family member that knows about the activities or did them with me as a verifier, or is this not accepted? 

You may have to get creative with this one. I.e. for some things where I was in a similar situation, I emailed a vice principal or other similar person (anyone who is a representative from the school) asking them if I could put them as a verifier and just explained that it’s just to confirm I did the activity and that it’s not the same as a reference. Everyone was happy to help.