Am a high school freshman and looking for advice on what kind of ECs those who got accepted in Case Western’s Integrated BS/MD program? If you could share hours of volunteering and where, hours shadowing doctors, # of research papers published, at how many and which conferences, articles written for journals and which ones? Besides medicine, am passionate on HealthCare policy. Can you advice what I can do on Healthcare policy front?
Thanks!
As a freshman, you should be taking honors courses and getting A’s in them.
Read a bunch! That always helps with your reading/writing.
If I were you, I would start volunteering at your local hospital (or other place) as soon as you are able to. Your local hospital may have a minimum age of 16 or something so look into it. Now you could see if there is any “Explorers” programs or anything.
As a junior or senior, start looking into shadowing doctors. Start with your doctor or you parent’s…or if they know any doctors. Some will let you and some won’t.
How many hours? There is a difference between 1 week of shadowing and a summer of shadowing.
Same thing with Volunteering: there is a difference between those who volunteer 20 hours and those who volunteer 200 hours.
Research would be good too, of course.
They are looking for Significant exploration of the field of medicine, such as volunteering, shadowing, research, or some combination of those.
For SATs, they are looking for scores in the top quartile (e.g., mid to high 700s). So see how you do on your PSAT Junior year and then study study the parts you didn’t so as well on.
I don’t think anyone is expecting you to have any ECs on the healthcare policy front…but volunteering in say, an emergency room or a nursing home will expose you to the various types of patients that come in and I am sure you will be exposed to all kinds of factors that influence health (economics, drugs, guns, vaccines, etc)
Thanks a ton Bopper for your insights.
@bopper: what is Explorers program? Can you share more information or a link?
Your local hospital might have a medical explorers program…e.g.
https://www.centrastate.com/news/centrastate-helps-teens-to-explore-careers-in-health-care-through-its-medical-explorers-program/
or
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/leading_the_change/connections/articles/medical-explorers-program-guides-career-pathways-in-health-care
@Bopper - Thanks for a ton!