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Who Said Ec's Show Capability To Handle Workload?


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So I've been thinking about something recently. Whenever EC's are discussed here, the two most commonly purported reasons for their importance are demonstrating Canmeds competencies, and ' showing med schools you can handle a school workload while having time for EC's '. The former makes sense to me. I can definitely see that, and IIRC has legit sources behind it. But where did the second reason emerge from? Which official source (i.e a med school) actually said we want to see Ec's cuz it proves you can juggle school with other commitments. Genuinely  curious as I have not looked in the issue in detail, but to me it seems like a pseudo-fact that just sprouted over the years and gained traction.

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As a reviewer I look at ECs to see if the candidate can balance work and life. There. Fact.

 

I wouldn't necessarily make that kind of judgement from ECs, especially from quantity of them, because it frequently doesn't take into account other important factors. Access to certain "desirable" ECs such as lab positions is not equal everywhere, and some opportunities may simply not exist where the candidate is located. There might also be financial reasons or personal obligations that make the pursuit of numerous and varied ECs difficult. It doesn't mean the person can't balance work and life. Over emphasizing their importance also encourages a game of EC one-upmanship. Massive lists often make me wonder if people are just padding their application or actually genuinely interested in what they're doing.

 

If I was reviewing files, I would just look to ensure that there was something rather than nothing.

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I wouldn't necessarily make that kind of judgement from ECs, especially from quantity of them, because it frequently doesn't take into account other important factors. Access to certain "desirable" ECs such as lab positions is not equal everywhere, and some opportunities may simply not exist where the candidate is located. There might also be financial reasons or personal obligations that make the pursuit of numerous and varied ECs difficult. It doesn't mean the person can't balance work and life. Over emphasizing their importance also encourages a game of EC one-upmanship. Massive lists often make me wonder if people are just padding their application or actually genuinely interested in what they're doing.

 

If I was reviewing files, I would just look to ensure that there was something rather than nothing.

Considering my post was a single line I am not sure where you read into it that I look at multiple ECs or specific ECs when I review files, I was intentionally sparse with details. 

 

I simply look to see if the applicant has: 1) a life 2) can balance it with work. 

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Considering my post was a single line I am not sure where you read into it that I look at multiple ECs or specific ECs when I review files, I was intentionally sparse with details. 

 

I simply look to see if the applicant has: 1) a life 2) can balance it with work. 

 

Ahh, that all makes sense now. My EC's have nothing to do with medicine, so you give me hope that reviewers are human and look for more than the bland EC's like studying in Florence, or publishing in journals. 

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I wouldn't necessarily make that kind of judgement from ECs, especially from quantity of them, because it frequently doesn't take into account other important factors. Access to certain "desirable" ECs such as lab positions is not equal everywhere, and some opportunities may simply not exist where the candidate is located. There might also be financial reasons or personal obligations that make the pursuit of numerous and varied ECs difficult. It doesn't mean the person can't balance work and life. Over emphasizing their importance also encourages a game of EC one-upmanship. Massive lists often make me wonder if people are just padding their application or actually genuinely interested in what they're doing.

 

If I was reviewing files, I would just look to ensure that there was something rather than nothing.

 

ECs should include work and other activities, not just volunteering activities. Not everyone is going to have lab activities, but at the same time most people are undergrads and almost all Canadian universities do allow students to partake in research or teaching of some sort. 

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This is the thing with ECs - people look at them for different reasons, so there isn't one specific answer to this question. Some look at it for some idea of work/life balance - although a lot of positive work life balance things aren't there (visit your family every weekend? what EC does that fit under as an example?). Some of the near thoughts about that in medicine have shifted away from work life balance as much towards the concept of resilience instead - basically accepting in medicine there is always going to be a crappy work/life balance in many specialities as that is just the job, so are resilient enough to handle that and how can we improve that. It has been an interesting shift actually.

 

Some people look at ECs for commitment in some sense - that you can pick a goal and advance it.

 

Some people look at ECs to show work ethic - can this person pour a ton of hours into their goals? Note this is often the opposite of work/life balance, ha, but the same tool. For instance getting Olympic gold medal most people would say is an impressive EC - but Olympic athletes are usually anything but balanced. As side note many of the best doctors I know are not exactly "balanced" either.

 

Some people look at them to see if you have passion/drive and can use it to verify your reasons you want to be doctor - say you like helping people, great - some me the EC that has you do that. Say you like learning about the human body, great - some me some ECs where you did that. Say you like............ I mean there is no reason to be a doctor you cannot actually already be doing in some other way. Having that shows consistency. How can your life be about something you don't actually show any effort towards doing?

 

Point there are a lot of reasons to look at ECs.

 

Oh as for Premeds critical to hospital volunteering - in some cases they can help but often they are "annoying" - many volunteers are there for years (ahem decades), and have open schedules. Premeds have variable schedules each term, often are away in the summer, and usually at most are there for a couple of years. Valuable yes, but don't think the entire system would collapse without them. I don't think there is some sort of hospital plot to trap premeds into volunteer roles :)

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From an equity perspective I think I would prefer it more if all school did something like U of C's application where you write your top 10 experiences.  Not everyone has time to volunteer and not make money.  Volunteering and being involved in clubs are very privileged things and having those be set standards on OMSAS is kind of a deterrent to people who cant "fill the categories out" 

Nevertheless, I think your "life experiences" not just ECs are an important component of your application. 

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This is the thing with ECs - people look at them for different reasons, so there isn't one specific answer to this question. Some look at it for some idea of work/life balance - although a lot of positive work life balance things aren't there (visit your family every weekend? what EC does that fit under as an example?). 

Ya that was one of the things I was thinking about when I posted the question. I personally like to think I have a very optimal work-life balance, but many of the activites/hobbies I do are not something you would put down on an ABS sketch (and I'm not talking useless activities like gaming or something). But the rest of your post offers interesting and convincing reasons for looking at ECs, thanks for the info

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