by Andrew Nguyen
“It’s really remarkable,” stated Emily, a hopeful health professional applicant from southern California. “I’ve talked to medical and pharmacy students from just five years ago and they tell me it’s different now.” Emily wasn’t referring to rising fuel costs, inflating consumer prices or ballooning tuition. In fact, she was referring to the depth of activities commonly presented by successful students applying for professional health schools ranging from allopathic medicine to veterinary medicine.
Although not many extracurricular activities, if any at all, are formally required as part of the application process, most applicants and counselors now agree that an application without good extracurricular presentation may hinder your efforts during the admissions process.
The extent to which a lack or a weak presentation of non-academic activities can hurt your application may depend on the specific program or school. A health professions adviser from a university in California further mentioned that different schools may value specific activities more than others. For example, if you are applying to research-oriented schools, student research at your undergraduate institution “alone may not be enough unless you have publications or presentations.” Even then, it’s still a good idea to look for outside research opportunities in addition to your work with the campus.
It also appears that the specific nature of your work off-campus is beginning to play as important of a role as the level of your involvement. Christy, who recently submitted her application to various medical schools, stated that her adviser drew a “sharp distinction” between medical community service and general community involvement.
While no one can doubt the benefits of these extracurricular activities, performing them as part of your application for professional school puts you in a special situation: How can you balance everything from academics and paid employment to extracurricular interests and research, and do it all with extraordinary proficiency? In addition, how can manage your work and activities so that they address the different sets of values emphasized by the multitude of schools you may be interested in?
After a talk with successful applicants from last year’s cycle, the one thing they all have in common is an incredible amount of efficiency in their work. They tended to choose activities in which there are areas of overlap, meaning that one activity can serve multiple purposes or provide multiple experiences. For instance, if you tutor a small group of students, you can gain leadership experience, gain paid work experience (if you are paid), and contribute to the campus community (if you are a student tutor), all of which are desirable qualities embodied by good candidates for any field.
With the heavy amount of academic work you are expected to complete during your undergraduate/pre-professional years, it’s crucial that you find efficient activities such as the aforementioned example. Remember, your academics are still the heaviest factor indicating your preparedness for health professions programs and most schools will reiterate that no amount of extracurricular work can ever make up for a poor GPA or poor entrance exam score. In addition, your goal is to also pick an activity where your natural talents can be displayed and would eventually lead to a stellar letter of recommendation from a superior. Thus, these activities also reduce the time and effort in finding a recommender and obtaining their participation.
Finding efficient and meaningful activities that advance your career in more ways than one may be difficult or easy depending on your area of residence and other potential factors. Outlined below, for your convenience, are activities that have been recommended by different health professions advisers and by students who have participated in them. The benefits cited with each activity are those that previous students have enjoyed during their participation. Depending of your own level of involvement in each, you may or may not receive the same benefits in their entirety. These examples are to give you an idea or a direction for finding similar activities. You may not find the exact opportunities in your community, but similar activities are definitely possible. Make sure you look hard into the potential opportunities in your area. It may take some persistence and some innovative thinking, but it’s definitely worth your time in more ways than one.
- Supplemental Instruction Leader/Instructor
Being a supplemental instructor for a lecture section allows you to lead your own mini classroom of students in specific subjects. This is often a paid program, but may differ from campus to campus in organization, so be sure to check with your campus. Bianca, a medical student, stated that her involvement with the program earned her a pay check, recognition as a leader and a letter of support from the main instructor of the lecture course.
- Laboratory Instruction
Your campus may give you the paid opportunity of being a lab instructor for some basic science courses. Similarly to being a supplemental instructor, teaching lab students allows you to show your ability to lead a group of people. You may also benefit by receiving a letter of support from the professor teaching the lecture section since most undergraduate lab instructors coordinate heavily with the professor.
- Summer Research/Internship with Pharmaceutical Companies
Some major pharmaceutical companies offer a variety of opportunities for students during the summer. Most of these are paid work opportunities and can range from science research to engineering work to human resources. According to a pre-health adviser, these internships allow students to gain valuable research experience outside of the university and work experience in a less academic setting. Often, students also enjoy the added recognition of being associated with a major corporation.
- Peer Tutor
As mentioned before, peer tutoring is a valuable way to present leadership experience and contribute to the campus while maintaining a paid job. From my own personal experience as a tutor, it is also a great way to review for entrance exams (MCAT, PCAT, etc.) since peer tutors are often hired to teach general subjects.
- Medical Scribe
This is usually a paid program where students are able to work directly with physicians. The department in which you work may vary depending on the location. This is a great way to gain clinical experience and be paid for it. According to a pre-med student from California State University at Long Beach, being a scribe also provided her with an opportunity to shadow the supervising physician. Since she was able to work so closely with medical professionals, she was also able to earn several letters of support for her application.
- Student Office
Being an officer of a student organization on campus allows you to participate in a diverse number of potentially eye-catching activities. First and foremost, you get to display your leadership ability in a slightly different setting. Secondly, your role as a student officer will allow you to participate in different community service events as well.
These activities are but a few commonly available examples. You often get the best outcome by mixing and matching a few of these activities. Good luck to all and here’s to a productive undergraduate career.
One of the most overlooked activities, in my opinion, is human subjects research. I did a few years in various psychiatry labs where I got exposure to both wet lab (genotyping, rats + medication), imaging/electrophysiology (MRI, MEG, EEG), and quality “patient contact” (histories, psych evals, cognitive testing). I also got publications, posters, and an oral talk. I learned how to work with an IRB, the FDA, etc. I worked my way up to lab manager and gained some leadership experience. And I got some very nice letters. Plus, since it was 1 activity, I wasn’t dealing with a lot of competing demands on my time. It might be tricky to find at a non-research university, but I’m amazed how many people think that all research is in a wet lab and all patient contact is in a doctor’s office.
I would disagree with much of the advice presented in this article. As someone who successfully got a free ride to a top allopathic medical school, matched into a top medicine residency and now just matched into a top cardiology program, I think that I have some insight into what makes a successful applicant. I have also interviewed roughly 100 applicants while I was at my medical school.
Resume padding is simply that. When I was interviewing, I could pretty much instantly tell when someone did something because they were interested in it vs. did it because they thought it would help their application. Also, there was a large group of pre-med drones that seemed to present with virtually the same application of science major, good gpa, good MCAT, activities all the same as their pre-med colleagues which they weren’t obviously excited about. The selection committee and interviewers are not excited about these applicants.
I found from my own experience that pursuing activities that genuinely interest you is the most important way to develop an interesting and believable application. Focusing on “efficiency” rather than personal development and interest is in my mind totally flawed. Perhaps some of the above activities are of genuine interest in which case you will pursue them in a manner that will help your application. If not, explore all available ways to spend your time in college: sports, arts, travel, study abroad, etc. This will make you a more rounded person and I guarantee you from the admissions side makes you a more interesting candidate. I still talked about my undergraduate major which was in a sort of obscure liberal arts field on my cardiology interviews.
I would urge people starting out on this long path to a medical career to explore all their options and develop their own interests. Falling into the trap of being a face among thousands of similar pre-meds is not going to work. While I think it is important to “test the waters” to make sure (to the best of your ability) that your chosen field is in fact right for you, have fun in college and do what interests you. This diversity of interest and focus will serve you best in the long run and help make you a successful applicant.
Very helpful, thanks! I’m starting college in the fall as a pre-med/bio
I agree that finding something you like to do and sticking with it will make you a more interesting applicant. It shows that you have principles, and are willing to make time for the things that are important to you. I am a Teaching Assistant for an undegraduate course in Animal (soon to be Comparative/Medical) Physiology at my school, and I love it! It is an invaluable experience in learning to teach and helping other students who come after me, but it also helps to keep the material sharp in my head, and I get invaluable insight into how other people learn/process information, and watching them grow as they progress through the class, it makes me proud when they do well.