Student Society & committee work

[Real Beef]

Headed into second year. I noticed that in first year some of my classmates - particularly the younger ones - were gun ho to be a part of student society, student committees and the such. I asked one of my friends who is quite involved as to 'why he does this?' ... is it for CaRMs or for his personal enjoyment. He stated that he generally enjoys being a part of this type of stuff. It made me wonder whether I should be a part of various committees and the such .... having said that I am not vying for a competitive specialty and am the east campus emerg med interest group student president.

 

What is the utility of student society office positions and/or student committee work (i.e. sitting on some boring committee to pad your resume). My own impression of this is that it is less the resume padding i.e. VP external of the student society that is useful but the connections you make to peers and physicians who can hook you up with useful electives/rotations and eventually give great reference letters if one follows through with the connections.

 

Seems like a whole lot of meetings, paper work, and 'networking' that may not be all that high yield. Any thoughts on this? I am going to continue with my emerg president thing and continuing with networking in the emerg field through that. I cant help but feel that all the committee & student society work is just the whole gunner premed attitude carrying over to med school without much benefit that could be better used shadowing or doing research ....

 

Beef

[igeorgex]

do things you're passionate about or you feel where your skills specifically will help make a positive change.

 

otherwise, don't waste your time. be a good student, set up electives and impress. if research legitimately interests you, go for it. if going to conferences is your thing, do that. if you like helping teach others through an interest group or advocating for health policy, then that's great too. ultimately, you are building a "story" for yourself come CaRMS time whether you intend to or not. it's a more interesting story if you engaged in things that you really wanted to be part of.