updated:
2/ 2005
Next update: 2006
Copyright 1999-2006
Alex Shteynshlyuger
Master.com.content
Grooming Yourself for Medical School Admission
Contents:
You've heard it: Medical schools look at extracurricular activities. Here I try to give my view on the role these play and what you should do about them
Why do medical schools want extracurriculars?
- Shows your interests, motivations
- Shows how serious you're about the things you choose to do.
You've been told these are important and in all truth, they are. But contrary to what you might expect, medical schools do not necessarily want someone who has been all over himself or herself doing "extracurriculars."
It does not matter what you do for extracurriculars as long as you care about it and put your heart to it. It does not look all that good if you are a member of a million groups but do not have anything to talk of in terms of accomplishments because you have not done much for any given cause. It is much better to concentrate your energies to a few particular areas of interest.
It is obviously beneficial if you have done something that benefitted others. Helping others with their problems always makes for a good story. It could be tutoring school children or helping elderly. It could be working on a particular political issue and advocating some cause.
What really matters is your accomplishment--what have you achieved, what have you learned for the future. And remember failures are also your accomplishments in a way--they teach you important lessons for the future. Do not be afraid to talk about your failures--but always talk on a positive note: do not dwell on how you failed and how sorry you feel. Talk about what you have learned and how you would do things differently in the future. This by the way applies more generally in life, not just for the purposes of medical school admissions.
One of the MUST-be-ASKED questions during medical school interviews is about your clinical experience. Medical schools do not expect you to have saved lives. Even though some premeds choose do to EMT, this is not required. On the other hand, you SHOULD do something that requires you to work directly with sick people.
My impression is that the reason medical schools want to see clinical experience is to make sure that you know something about the profession you have chosen.
What do admission committees expect you to gain from "clinical experiences?"
They expect you to understand what it takes to care for others. They want you to experience the realities of working with sick people so that you know what you're getting yourself into for the next 6-10 years of medical school and residency or even the rest of your life.
They also want to know what you have learned about other people--especially people in need, such as the sick, and about yourself from working with the sick.
So, what is clinical experience? It could be working or volunteering in a hospital as a volunteer or in any other position where you interact with patients or sick people. It could be working/volunteering in a nursing home or a hospice, or a home/summer camp for sick children, including those with developmental/genetic abnormalities. Really, there is no definition of what clinical experience is or isn': setting does not matter. If you have cared for a sick relative for a period of time, and I do not mean you visited him or her twice in your life, you can talk about it. For example, I know a person who was caring for her dying mother who had a terminal cancer--that's the kind of clinical experience I wish no one will have to get. If you can tell a story about how a particular experience influenced you and what you have learned from it--it could be a clinical experience. Do not try to bullshit or be insincere. It is very easy to smell a rat.
Most of the more prestigious schools desire that their applicants have some research experience. Doing research requires you to think and after long time of doing research it teaches you to think as a scientist--to integrate the facts you know and come up with new ideas, conclusions, etc. Thus research gives you a very useful set of skills and naturally medical schools are looking for it.
Yet, one can get in without having done any research. In fact many schools could not care less--especially those whose aim is to prepare as many primary care physicians as possible. These schools care more about how well you relate to people and whether caring about sick people is something that really interests you. Of course, you research experience will not hurt and can only help in such cases, but not having research experience is not a minus on your application.
If you have devoted significant amount of time to research you know your topic inside out and you can talk about it (with excitement). This could be helpful during interviews since you can discuss your project and its importance (not necessarily medically related), your experiences and what you learned from doing research. Just don't bore the interviewer if he or she is not interested, but if they want to know have a full-blown sales presentation of your research project ready.
