omega007

Do college EC's matter in top med school admissions?

Entadus

Yes. (10 char)

curmudgeon

Yes, they matter. The question that remains open for me is "Do they matter enough to pull someone up a couple of MCAT points?" at the tip-top rated (fwiw) schools .

OTOH, I can tell you based upon my scouring of interviews granted at Mayo (and a few others) this cycle , EC's will get you an invite before grades/scores will.

It appears to me , based again solely on my eyes, that early invites at Yale, UCSF, Penn, Michigan, JHU, WUSTL have been going pretty much by the numbers. Now, does that mean those high stats kids DON'T have great EC's , too? Well, certainly not. It just means , at least for early invites, there is little/no margin for error for an unhooked student.

curmudgeon

As an example, this was just posted on sdn as a Michigan admissions twitter update

curmudgeon

If my post #3 above wasn't clear, I was comparing schools ranked generally 10-25 with those ranked top 10. I've found that the first group appears to be less numbers oriented , even at the start of the interview season, than the latter group. I am still in hopes that the latter group schools , once they get through interviewing the huge stats kids, have a few slots left over and based on just mathematics it would appear that they must.

somemom

I do think they can/do help.

Besides the usual and expected ones- research, shadowing, volunteering, DD was a collegiate athlete and USA jr national team athlete; I am thinking that might be part of what makes her interesting despite a 29 MCAT.

I also am really impressed with how she was affected by her homeless volunteering and reading those essays showed that she was sincerely changed by those experiences.

I think it is that you have done all the expected experiences, but also that quality of what you did with those experiences. DD definitely did not just perfunctorily check off some boxes, she was not sure if she wanted to apply for med schools so her shadowing etc was not for application but for her own education and edification; i believe that shows up in her writing

mmmcdowe

EC's are utterly important for a top school.

shades_children

Quoted for truth.

Your application for allopathic medical school, any allopathic medical school, would be in big trouble if you didn't have any ECs.

omega007

What type of EC's actually? How much is required?

bookiemom

Med schools like to see a strong involvement in one or two activities or organizations, with a leadership role preferably. They also want volunteering and some volunteering or job experience in a health care setting with direct patient contact. This should be throughout the four years of college, showing your interest in serving others and in being a leader. This is EXPECTED.

I disagree with post #7. Everyone has this on their app.s. There are specific sections for all of this on the standard application. You don't want to have any blank areas.

bluedevilmike

Extracurriculars

mmmcdowe

I never said that ECs weren't important for non-top 10 schools, I said that they are utterly important for top 10 schools. In fact, they are probably even more important on average because everyone at that level is going to have good grades, gpas, and extra-curriculars.

bookiemom

Sorry, mmmcdowe. I clearly did not read your post carefully. And yes, utterly important at all med schools.

mmmcdowe

No worries, I've done it too

Acceptd

Hey all - i was planning on joining this club that takes a medical mission trip to Guatemala i think once or twice a year? It sounds really interesting and i think it would be a great experience for me to actually leave the US for once in my life and experience another culture firsthand. I feel like I have read somewhere that these types of trips are almost looked down upon my medschools and i was wondering if i am remembering this right or not? What do you guys think? Thanks.