<p>For med school applications purposes, is it impressive to be EMT certified?</p>
<p>Nope - not in the slightest bit. It will actually look like resume padding</p>
<p>Now if you had used your EMT cert and worked as an EMT to gain clinical experience, then its a positive thing.</p>
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<p>The certification alone is worthless.</p>
<p>It can be helpful if you actually work as an EMT but itās not really a high-end EC because many premeds do it and being a EMT is quite different from being a physician.</p>
<p>ok because i was thinking of getting certified but the classes are pretty expensiveā¦
what qualifies as āhigh-endā ECs? activities that are unique and stand out?</p>
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Rhodes scholar, president of clubs, nobel prize (lol) but virtually anything is possible as long as youāre passionate about it.</p>
<p>Basically things that not everyone can do. Things that require unique personality characteristics (such as leadership skills) or talent. Things like being a Division I athlete or publishing 2 first author papers or starting your own company. Youāll need hospital volunteering, research, volunteering and stuff like that but basically anyone can do them.</p>
<p>do the amount of volunteer hours and research experience from high school add up or are they re-counted once you start college?</p>
<p>Nothing from HS counts.</p>
<p>ECās count a lot less for getting into med school than they do for getting into undergradā¦</p>
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<p>I disagree - while med school admissions can be quite numbers based at times, decent ECs are essential to a successful application, and great ECs count for a lot in all cases, especially if your numbers arenāt amazing.</p>
<p>^^^^^Agree with Icarusā¦</p>
<p>Having significant ECās are vital and flesh out an application. Med school admissions, because they are so competitive are far more holistic than any other admissions process. Being well rounded - and doing well in all areas - is the surest way to get into medical school. However, when it comes to ECās the most important thing is not the title or prestige of the EC in question (despite what NCG has saidā¦though those things would be noteworthy), but youāre ability to āsellā the EC and its relevance during the interview. Doing things youāre passionate about will always sound more impressive than impressive accomplishments you hate or lucked into. If you can take the experience and relate it to why youāll be a better physician in the future itās worthwhile as an activity. But if you canāt sell the experience and explain its worth to the decision makers, no matter how great it actually might have been, itās useless.</p>
<p>I can see that for my daughter ECās were an important part of her getting in to the schools where she was accepted. In a way it was like undergrad - there were the expected testing and academic credentials that got her in the door but I believe that the rest helped give them a clear picture of who she is. At that point the chips are going to fall where they may. Some schools immediately responded to her āpackageā and thought she was interesting. Other similarly ranked schools - not so much.</p>
<p>Here is, imho, a wacky example of an EC. One summer the D worked on a farm as a planter. She wanted to learn how things grow and how to grow organically. It tied into her interest in nutrition, weight and chronic diseases. I wouldnāt recommend it for everyone but after years of working in the sciences and having the standard pre-med volunteer stuff covered it absolutely fit my kid. She learned a ton and could tie it to what she wants to pursue in the future. </p>
<p>Oddly enough, she was not the only aspiring doctor working in the fields that summerā¦and both of them got into very highly regarded programs.</p>
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<p>this is one of the biggest myths perpetuated mostly through a combination of jealousy and misinformation. as far as clinical experience you can get without a bachelorās goes being an EMT/paramedic is absolutely the best and most substantial. </p>
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<p>there are many things you can do to get the fee waived</p>
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<p>ābest and most substantialāā¦meh - you donāt get in because of your clinical experience. Really, and I hate saying this (because people get the wrong idea whenever anyone mentions āchecklistsā for med school admissions), clinical experience is THE ONE thing that really is merely a box to be checked off. You do it, you mention it was a learning experience in either your personal statement or the interview and youāre done. Whether you were an EMT/paramedic and saved a life, or you were stocking sheets and towels and then talking to patients as a volunteer on a ward floor, once youāve proven to the committee that the experience was āsignificantā thereās not any more advantage to be gained.</p>
<p>Compare that, to the benefit that non-medical ECās can bring to the table and thereās a real advantage to excelling in that area. The pre-med whoās simply a member of the biology club, the pre-med club, TA for intro chem lab, and played intramural sports for his dorm floor as a freshman pales in comparison to the person who was vice president of the Student Alumni Association, Philanthropy chairman in his fraternity, Student Ambassador for the College of Arts & Sciences, won āmost improved dancerā in the Ballroom Dancing club, and finished two sprint triathlons as a senior. The second student has a lot more interesting things to talk about, has proven leadership, and gives a much more complete picture of who he is to the admissions committee.</p>
<p>ETA: in case it seems like Iām contradicting myself in this second post from what I wrote earlier about ECās not being about the prestige of the ECās - the point Iām trying to get across is that itās not about doing something thatās noteworthy in and of itself like NCG suggested. The things Iāve listed above as being examples of good ECās arenāt really that unique, anyone could do them at nearly any school, but by themselves they show more significance than just being a club member, and taken together, theyāre an advantage in the application process.</p>
<p>āI disagree - while med school admissions can be quite numbers based at times, decent ECs are essential to a successful application, and great ECs count for a lot in all cases, especially if your numbers arenāt amazing.ā</p>
<p>I never said they werenāt important. They are important, but they almost never make up for low numbers.</p>
<p>And they are not essential. If you have a 3.9 and a 40 on the MCAT from a top undergrad, you will get in at many good schools just as long as you have the basic clinical experiences needed.</p>
<p>Check out this applicant:
<a href=āhttp://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3196[/url]ā>http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3196</a></p>
<p>And this one:
<a href=āhttp://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=5559[/url]ā>http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=5559</a></p>
<p>Compare these results with one with incredible extracurriculars and mediocre numbers:
<a href=āhttp://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=9349[/url]ā>http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=9349</a></p>
<p>^That applicantās numbers arenāt that bad (32 on the MCAT is higher than the average admitted), but he still barely got into Wake Forest (where he is headed).</p>
<p>1) MDapplicants is never a good tool to back up your argumentsā¦zero validity, a number of fake profiles (weāve already had a decent discussion about people lying to their friends about MCAT scores in another thread)</p>
<p>2) Considering how relatively few people will ever get a 40 and a 3.9 GPA, itās absolutely ridiculous to give advice based on their examples. </p>
<p>3) Maybe you should actually read the profiles youāve linked to -</p>
<p>The first oneā¦yes, little mention of what his ECās were, but that doesnāt mean they were zero.
The second oneā¦second verse same as the first.
The third oneā¦Heās going USC or did you not understand what he meant when he said "Correction: Got a call from USC (5/21) Need to think about this and quickly. The draw of LA County Hospital overcame the gorgeous scenery of NC and the Southern Hospitality.. Further, the applicant was accepted without waitlisting to FIVE schools. Thatās not exactly struggling with the process. Lastly, Iād argue that 9 semesters as a TA, when the applicant was a GRAD STUDENT, isnāt exactly an āincredibleā list of ECās. Thatās what grad students do, thatās likely how he earned his stipend.</p>
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<p>i have to strongly disagree hereā¦you shouldnāt think of ANYTHING as a check list itemā¦people say the same things about research for instance but if you just go to a lab because you think you have to then youāll get nothing out of it and itāll be a waste of time when you couldāve been doing something else you were actually passionate about. </p>
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<p>really? mdapps? u must be joking. </p>
<p>i mean feel free to give anecdotal evidence about yourself, your friends, classmates, etc but donāt go around searching mdapps as if it has a perfect accounting of peoplesā grades, mcat score and ECs. many people donāt write their ECs and few go into much detail. there are a bunch who flat out lie about stuff. honestly that website is basically useless.</p>
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<p>Because some people lie, the site is useless? </p>
<p>Donāt be thickheaded.</p>
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<p>How is it 0 validity because a small (Iām guessing very smallā¦ If you think otherwise, then good for you, youāre probably a ā ā ā ā ā ā ) percentage are fictional?</p>
<p>I wasnāt giving advice based on their examples. I was giving examples based on my advice. </p>
<p>Yeah, I didnāt feel like searching through to find the perfect example. Pardon me, but there are plenty of people who had great extracurriculars but didnāt have the numbers to cut it. Significantly more of those than people with great numbers and not the ECās to cut it.</p>
<p>Canāt really refute that, can you?</p>
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<p>hahahahahahaha</p>
<p>so in other words you gave some advice you just made up and in order to support it you found 3 mdapps profiles which none of us know if they are real or true or complete. </p>
<p>i would argue that all but a handful of mdapps are invalid ā¦many people donāt list any ECs and alot of people only list them very generally. you also go ahead and freely compare a 22 yr old right out of college with a 24 year old with a 26 year old who has a graduate degree as if they are all completely comparable. </p>
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<p>youāre right, i canāt refute thatā¦just like you canāt prove it. </p>
<p>not to mention āgreat ECsā is completely subjective, even among adcom membersā¦one adcom member might think itās awesome that someone did ballroom dance and another might think itās stupid and a complete waste of time. a committee at one school might look very highly upon lab research while another will routinely ask applicants with significant research why they arenāt doing a PhD instead.</p>
<p>btwā¦have u even applied to med school yet??</p>