<p>how many activities can one list on their med school app? and what's a reasonable number of ECs to be involved in?</p>
<p>Fifteen. However many you want.</p>
<p>Over nine thousand.</p>
<p>Does research go on a different list?</p>
<p>No. Research, awards, publications, extracurriculars all go on the same list. You are permitted fifteen items, and conventional wisdom says not to use all fifteen.</p>
<p>doh! I used all 15. I have heard the idea of only using up to 13 or 14 to avoid making it seem like you are padding. Most people probably have 4-6 solid, noteworthy EC's. The rest would probably be fluff anyway.</p>
<p>Really? What if you're just freaking amazing at research and have several publications and awards, and you don't have space to fit in the 4-6 solid, noteworthy EC's that you also have? Is there anywhere else to note extra stuff (perhaps the secondaries?), or are the primaries the only place where you can list this?</p>
<p>Edit: Do they also ask your time commitment to these activities? And... if you start out volunteering at a hospital or something one year and then you get an even better clinical position on-campus the next year, would it look bad for you to quit working at the hospital (after just one year)?</p>
<p>You could always MENTION them in your secondaries, but only if you're prepared to write substantively about them. And you don't get fifteen secondary essays, so you're probably going to be writing about the same ones anyway. If you have more than fifteen publications, awards, and EC's -- then you're just going to have to leave some of them off.</p>
<p>I have yet to see anyone with more than 15 worthy accomplishments/EC's. In that case, you could combine multiple items into one slot. For example, if you got 2 pubs from a research position, most people either list those two pubs in the description for the research position (hence, they would take up 1 slot not 3) or list all of their pubs in one slot. I myself listed all of my shadowing experiences in one slot and all of my hospital volunteering experiences in one slot. If I was doing the same thing just at another hospital, I didn't see the need to waste two EC's slots.</p>
<h1>13, 14, and 15 for me was a full-time summer job I had in the summer after freshman year, volunteering I did with an organization in the Bay Area, and Phi Beta Kappa so you can see I was scrapping the bottom of the barrel at that point.</h1>
<p>I have a question about ECs also. I want to do MD/PhD. My main activity will be research and physician shadowing. Now if I jsut shadow physicians, is it still necessary to just volunteer in a hospital. Or if you shadow physicians in a hospital, can you take up 2 slot? Also being a TA for a class counts as an ECs also, right? Now, does being president of like the pre-med society or bio club, help? I mean I want to devote most of my time to research, but I should still try to attain leadership roles in those activities, right? How do you guys make time for it, or do you do research during the summer because I do it during the yr and during the summer?</p>
<p>I had a friend who didn't shadow - only volunteered - and was rejected for "not having enough 'doctor experience'". That's an exact quote. While it seems unlikely, I believe the converse could be true - too much doctor experience, not enough patient contact.</p>
<p>Leadership ALWAYS helps, but can be a real boon if you can speak about it well during the interviews. Particularly for throw away things like the Pre-med club, where membership is open to anyone and anyone can show up for meetings. There's certainly a difference between that sort of club and something where you actually have to apply, interview, and be accepted for membership in the organization (even if the med school doesn't necessarily know that's the process, you can usually ascertain organization type from the description of the group). </p>
<p>I know plenty of people who did research during the year and were very involved on campus. I mean really, schedule your research w/i the 8am-5pm time period and most clubs meet in the evening, so then there's no overlap.</p>
<p>I understand what you mean, but when do you study and do hw and review for exams? Also could leadership in research count if my mentor lets me be a PI and gives me students to train? So joining clubs like the pre-med society, isn't very ideal b/c everyone is there. I mean is it necessary if you know exactly what to do and stuff. I am also in some honor societies in my school, like Sigma Beta, but I have to do a few activities and each activity is denoted a point value, and eventually when I reach that point value, I'll be recognized as a full time member, but I would rather devote that extra time to like other clubs and research, what do you think?</p>
<p>Also, I know that some ppl taught disadvantaged students and stuff, but how can I do that if I am spending the summers in the lab at my school? Like what activities could I do that would generate a similar effect?</p>
<p>What about athletics? Or leadership in Greek life (i.e. fraternity exec board, IFC exec board)?</p>
<p>Come on. Everything is good. Nothing replaces anything else.</p>