Thoughts On Ec's

[MD4ME]

Hi,

 

I've been told that some non-trads can tend to over-estimate the extra curriculars / non- academic portion of their application. I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on mine below and if I should include high school items. I'll be going in with a pretty low GPA as an IP for UBC and hoping this might compensate for that.

 

High School

 

- short-term missions trip to Mexico

- student leadership team for youth group at church

- Lacrosse assistant captain (5 years)

- Worship team member

- academic awards and scholarship

- Lacrosse referee

- Blood donor

 

Post High School

 

- Athlete Chaperone for Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (7 years)

- Worship team member (11 years)

- Small group Bible Study leader (4 years)

- Youth group leader (5 years)

- Lacrosse Coach (2 years)

- Emerg Volunteer (1.5 years)

- Summer Camp Counselor (2 summers)

- Board member for government/industry group focused on increasing safe winter driving (2 years)

- BC Supervisor for Health and Safety (overseeing up to 13 locations) (2 years)

- Customer service supervisor/representative (overseeing team of 6) (1 year)

- Member of my professional organization (3 years...no contributions really to the group though...)

- Canadian Registered Safety Professional (1 year)

- Blood donor

- Certified Safety Auditor (3 years)

- Research Assistant for program with kids with FASD (3 months)

- Job shadow in a Physiotherapy clinic (3 months)

 

Other mentionables

 

- father of 3 kids (all under the age of 4.5)

- born with congenital birth defect in my feet (30 years - basically have to overcome daily pain and almost crippling pain to do sports)

- been diagnosed and seeking treatment for atrial fibrillation (2 years - i figure this might show that I can relate to patients)

- half-way through a certificate program at BCIT (3 years, 88% average. Marks won't count towards GPA but shows desire for continuous education)

 

Thanks for your insight

 

Adam

[JohnGrisham]

Seems decent, but more so about how you explain your roles in them etc.

As for things like memberships in professional organization, that in itself is probably not going to be useful - but if you have space and want to put it down anyways, then why not.  "Member of my professional organization (3 years...no contributions really to the group though...)".

 

 

The BCIT grades likely won't count, but definitely still submit the transcripts and let them decide. At the very least, they have a record of it for the post-interview "holistic" review, and may help out to show continuous desire.

[shane007]

@acrowston - If I may ask how old are you and if you are working full time while working on the degree. I'm currently working as a software engineer (35 y.o.), have no prereq course, and starting to prep for the dental school (Canada only) starting this year (If I could get fall prereq courses at uOttawa or Carleton). My stats are -

 

1. Undergrad in Computer Engineer from India ('03; 7.45 CPI which is equivalent to 74.46% which might be a 3.0 GPA as per OSMAS)

2. Master in Management Science from uWaterloo ('07; 84% which is 3.7 GPA according to OSMAS

3. 10+ years of job experience in IT as programmer, project manager

4. 2 years of exp working with a non-profit in India (long back though)

5. No shadowing hours

6. No recent volunteer activities

 

I would appreciate any feedback/suggestions

[m_jacob_45]

Hi,

 

I've been told that some non-trads can tend to over-estimate the extra curriculars / non- academic portion of their application. I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on mine below and if I should include high school items. I'll be going in with a pretty low GPA as an IP for UBC and hoping this might compensate for that.

 

High School

 

- short-term missions trip to Mexico

- student leadership team for youth group at church

- Lacrosse assistant captain (5 years)

- Worship team member

- academic awards and scholarship

- Lacrosse referee

- Blood donor

 

Post High School

 

- Athlete Chaperone for Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports (7 years)

- Worship team member (11 years)

- Small group Bible Study leader (4 years)

- Youth group leader (5 years)

- Lacrosse Coach (2 years)

- Emerg Volunteer (1.5 years)

- Summer Camp Counselor (2 summers)

- Board member for government/industry group focused on increasing safe winter driving (2 years)

- BC Supervisor for Health and Safety (overseeing up to 13 locations) (2 years)

- Customer service supervisor/representative (overseeing team of 6) (1 year)

- Member of my professional organization (3 years...no contributions really to the group though...)

- Canadian Registered Safety Professional (1 year)

- Blood donor

- Certified Safety Auditor (3 years)

- Research Assistant for program with kids with FASD (3 months)

- Job shadow in a Physiotherapy clinic (3 months)

 

Other mentionables

 

- father of 3 kids (all under the age of 4.5)

- born with congenital birth defect in my feet (30 years - basically have to overcome daily pain and almost crippling pain to do sports)

- been diagnosed and seeking treatment for atrial fibrillation (2 years - i figure this might show that I can relate to patients)

- half-way through a certificate program at BCIT (3 years, 88% average. Marks won't count towards GPA but shows desire for continuous education)

 

Thanks for your insight

 

Adam

 

Similarly to what Commons said, being a member of a group is not something I would mention. Only talk about it if you had a significant role in the group (i.e. a group leader, event organizer, etc). Also, in my opinion, I would not include that you are a blood donor unless you organized blood drives or something like that. Overall, your activities sound good!