Outstanding EC/Accomplishment?

[Guest Paulchemguy]

I've been chatting with other premeds about EC and volunteering. It seems that most premeds are doing weekly (or more) volunteering at the hospital. Then I thought, I should do something more special, or unusual (in a good way) that could make my application stand out. Now this may sound like I have the Pre-med syndrome, doing stuff just for med school. But I don't, cuz I really do enjoy the stuff I'm dong right now.

 

So basically my question for ya all (pre-meds and meds), what kind of interesting/outstanding EC/volunteering that you guys have?

[Guest rubberoduck]

Hi. I can answer this question.

 

I'm the typical individual, and my experience may not apply to you or anybody else out there.

 

My philosophy, after completing first year with the "pre-med syndrom", is now "do what you enjoy." If you like what you're doing, then you will do a great job at it and it WILL stand out (at least I think so, because I am just starting my application).

 

After second year, I decided to volunteer (in addition to my volunteer interpreting job at Mt Sinai hospital) at the humane society (animal shelter). I did not get into this because I wanted the experience to go on my application, but I took this job more out of a love for the animals and a desire to help (I'm a kitten bottle-feeder, it breaks my heart to see the poor kittens-sometimes really sick, to go hungry because there isn't enough volunteers to help feed them). After going this for a couple of months, I realized that there's a lot of connections in a somewhat unrelated field to the practice of medicine. You get a chance for hands-on experience, often unsupervised (when you're trained, of course), which you don't get in a hospital because you're not a med student or higher. You learn to share your compassion and tend to the sick, and problem solving skills (like what happens if the kitten refuses to eat bc he is sick? are you gonna give up and let him starve to death?)

 

So basically, any kind of activity can turn out useful if you're doing it out of genuine passion. I had no idea how my experience at the animal shelter would help with my application, but I wasn't thinking about that when I signed up. I feel happier knowing that I can help, and this happiness has translated to my volunteering work at the hospital ( I started like everyone else to get "hospital experience"). So I'm enjoying my work even more and am looking forward to it despite my ridiculous schedule.

 

The moral of the story is, do something that you will love, because it will help you find meaning later on. You can't always predict everything (I know that because I was the exact extreme). Doing things that I love has helped strengthen my resolve toward medical school too, and that was something totally unexpected.

[Guest natman]

For me...I think volunteering with Special Olympics has been the most rewarding of any volunteer work, but also stands out on the application.

A large part of my essay revolved around special olympics coaching, and it came up in the interview as well...It is really enjoyable and there are no shortage of interesting moments.

Just an idea...

 

Natman

[Guest WG Pre med]

Hi,

On your application did you mostly outline the volunteer activities you did during undergrad, or did you only elaborate the ones you started when in undergrad? I'm asking becuase all I did in high school was play soccer at the national level. Will no high school EC's hurt my application?

Thanks for your time.

[Guest peachy]

Will no high school EC's hurt my application?

I really doubt it. After all, what you did recently will always matter far more than what you did far in the past! I remember making a real effort to exclude listings of activities from high school because, personally, I thought they were irrelevant and would look like padding...

[Guest Icarus]

I have to agree with the Special Olympics post. I think that helped out my application a lot and it was really enjoyable. Make sure that you find a sport that you like and coaching it will be a lot of fun.

 

I did include a few highschool EC's on my application, but only major ones that I felt were important and were things that I intended to expand upon in my essays, such as student council president, etc. I certainly didn't include every activity I was involved with, but if you need to fill up your application, I think they'd be better than nothing.

 

As for hospital experience, I actually spent some time as a clinical volunteer in a hospital and left that off my application in favour of things that I thought spoke more about me personally.