@GoldenRock Thanks for your advice. It may be the inkling to get an experience abroad with friends as a group.
I agree with what GoldenRock said. I posted same question on SDN and was advised the one or two week foreign medical trips are not valued much anymore since kids are allowed to do things that you are not allowed in USA. Based on that my son decided not to do these kind of trips even though Vandy has lot of alternate spring break programs. Instead of that he did a 6 week public health program in a Latin American country and doing clinical and non-clinical volunteering at Vandy on regular basis.
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@srk2017 Thanks. Is the 6 week public health program in a Latin American country with Vandy or some other entity ?
@grtd2010 - With Vandy and they take 6 or 7 students only. Better to find programs organized thru school.
@GoldenRock May I ask you about Peru ? How is Peru for living situation and transportation for a trip ? DD is focusing on a possible volunteering there.
@grtd2010 Her trip was completely organized by school. In some place it was with a vetted local family and other places it is hotel. Only in Lima, some students have to take uber to go class. Other places transportation was arranged.
Make sure the entity is good and have organized nicely. I met a HS girl who last summer went to Peru for volunteer work and it worked out well.
@PPofEngrDr No experience since both my D and myself donât believe there is a need for these and there is no ROI for the fees they charge.
Said that, it is a booming business with no check and balance. Near my home within 1/2 block there are 10+ companies of these natures including test preparation.
@GoldenRock any idea how much they ~charge and what kinds of true value services they provide? As you can imagine kid is getting all sort of info and become difficult to parse every thing.
@PPofEngrDr Not really. Heard one company had a tiered fees, like guidance from 9th grade to 12, like $3.5k and if seeked help from 10th $2.5k and 11 grade some amount. This is for the UG and BS/MD application process. For MD, I wonât be surprised if the fees are much highers. Mostly it will run into thousands.
Knowing your DS profile, feel he can do well without any of these companies. Bottom line he needs to have a balanced profile and need to plan accordingly NOW.
GPA,
MCAT
Shadowing
Clinical Volunteering
Non-Clinical Volunteering
Leadership activities
Paid work experience (in college whatever he does)
Research
Any thing unique
How many and which schools applied
Interview performance
Though your D has done an outstanding job in HS, unfortunately nothing is going to be reported in AMCAS application. So he needs to build a similar stellar profile from Sep 2018 to the time of his application. Even though GPA/MCAT consumes the distraction, they are the least to worry for most of the students. Focus should be for the rest in the list.
@GoldenRock thanks that helps.No wonder why healthcare industry is so complicated, it starts with its education.
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My DS wonât have paid work experience (I donât think summer research grants count). I am also not sure what he can show as unique experience, may be his passion for EVs 
@srk2017 very easy to get paid experience - let him tutor high school students in his subject of expertise during summer/ work in college library etc. I donât think they are looking for medical work experience.
@brown2024 - I understand but he has no plan to do that for medical school purpose. He does lot of non-paying mentoring/teaching activities
I guess something unique can be defined in a broad context, both prior to and during these 4 years of undergrad. For example some folks have unique life experiences involving friends and family members or with themselves which may have been the catalyst for taking up medicine (besides parent(s) being in that field).
I believe med schools also try to have a diversified student body chosen from a variety of academic, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, thatâs perhaps why apparently there are many with English majors making it to medicine. So he may want to consider minoring or even double majoring in something that he is genuinely interested in.
I came across the profile of a young cardio vascular surgeon some time ago who double majored in chemistry and philosophy during his undergrad at JHU. So obviously he stands out when the admission committees are looking for some one which a varied background among a crowd of applicants with typical biology, chemistry or bio medical backgrounds. It may have also helped him quite a bit during his interviews for him to talk at an additional dimension and distinguish himself as a more matured and well rounded individual ideal for the profession.
D was experimenting a variety of fields on her own, starting with psychology and philosophy in the 1st semester (besides the core science subjects, of course). But seems to be gravitating to the field which pulled her to medicine in the first place. Anthropology, study about all aspects of human life.
@rk2017. My S is a hardcore science and tech guy He will be doing Bio Chem major and Scientific Computing (Vandy special) minor. He is doing computational research. He thought of doing another minor but given Research and ECs and need to protect GPA he decided not to. However Vandy requires good number of liberal arts classes so he should be exposed to subjects outside of science.
@srk2017 DD is doing Genomics Research in Medicine using Computational Models. Her background in Neuroscience(Cellular & Molecular Biology) with Computer Science(double major). makes her quite unique among applicants. She would also take Neuroscience courses in Psychology department as electives. As a part of general education and honors curriculum, she has already taken a lot of liberal arts classes. She has also completed a Foreign language requirement (AP Spanish credits).
@srk2017 Summer research grant should count as a paid work experience. Your son should have gotten W2 from Vandy for that amount. DD has done the same.
I could be wrong, but what stands out is a mosaic of academic backgrounds in distinct academic areas. Two sciences/engineering backgrounds wonât be as eye catching as a science with a humanities/liberal arts, just not at individual course levels, preferably as majors, but at least one at a minor level.
But then, you got to do what you got to do. Interest should be taken into account personally rather than to impress some one down the line.
@rk2017 DD will almost have a minor in Psychology. It is a combination of a B.S(Neuroscience) and a B.A(Computer Science) degrees. She will also complete a Certificate in Genomics. These are official programs, not just courses. Most (3+4) applicants will do a B.A(Biology) where they will get credits for MS-1 courses as Biology electives. To get a B.S(Neuroscience), one needs to do 2 semesters of research as a requirement in senior year.
as medical and engineering is blending more and more, CS becoming an integral part of research activities. In fact, UIUC started a medical school last year, https://medicine.illinois.edu/, and they called it engineering-based school of medicine (personally like it and may be a good fit for students who are also interested in eng too, guess that would be a very small subset of applicants pool and think those will stand out). From futuristic perspective when AI and ML is expected to take over the world, medical field wonât be able to remain immune.