How important is my daughter's summer activity before she starts at Penn for medical school

<p>Do med schools look at the summer before entering undergrad?</p>

<p>See the thing is med schools don’t look specifically at anything.</p>

<p>On the AMCAS application, the applicant lists his or her activities, awards, jobs, offices, research, publications, clinical experiences, etc on their app. The applicant has 15 spaces to list everything. Most applicants have many more things to list than they do spaces. So the applicant has to pick and choose what to list. Frankly unless your D has done something pre-college that was particularly prestigious (Intel finalist, journal publication) or is participating in an activity she will continue all through college, then pre-college activities won’t be listed–ideally because she more relevant and recent things to list.</p>

<p>lol…are you kidding? calm down. </p>

<p>You are worried that med school Adcoms will be concerned about what your D did during the summer after she graduated from high school. Uh, no. </p>

<p>If you feel that she needs to do “something” medically-related during this summer, have her do some shadowing of your family’s doctors. </p>

<p>(remembering that my son spent that summer working at a Mexican restaurant to pay off his car…lol…oh, well, he was able to improve his Spanish during that time.)</p>

<p>In summer after high school S worked construction outdoors (in Southern Cal) at commercial sites which reinforced his decision to seek a career pathway that offered air conditioning. </p>

<p>^^Exactly.</p>

<p>D1 spent her summer working full time as a life guard and swim instructor at the city’s public pools. </p>

<p>D2 worked as summer day camp counselor during the week and as a party assistant at the local children’s science museum on weekends. </p>

<p>Both kids had car insurance/maintenance to pay.</p>

<p>Guess who’s back
Back again
WannaBe’s back
Tell a friend
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back
Guess who’s back</p>

<p>I spent the summer traveling with my parents, dealing with horribly chapped lips and frequent bloody noses from taking accutane (as well as going to the doctor every 3 weeks to make sure it wasn’t destroying my liver - thankfully my liver handled it all like a champ), and hanging out with my friends.</p>

<p>That summer and the summer before you start med school are her last totally free summers. If you’re concerned that your daughter isn’t planning on doing something to boost her resume, don’t worry about it.</p>

<p>Waving wildly at @i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown‌ . Thanks for checking in! An update on what is going on? Nosy parents wanna know. :)</p>

<p>@GA2012MOM‌ - got my first 1st author pub (of my PhD) in the bank. Working on a predoctoral grant and trying to wrap up one last experiment for my second 1st author pub. Still on track to return to med school in 2016 (with the current 1st year class).</p>

<p>I missed you all. In my absence here started posting in other places. The rest of the internet is so much meaner than here!</p>

<p>@I<em>wanna</em>be_Brown‌ </p>

<p>Waves hellloooo! Long time, no see, stranger.</p>

<p>Congrats on the publication. The first one is always a thrill. </p>

<p>D1 just got her first author journal article [surgery] accepted for publication. (D1 is also halfway through writing a novel and has had a short story accepted for publication. Fiction writing and snowboarding are apparently her stress relief outlets of choice for the residency interview season.) D2’s senior research [from college] is going to appear in PNAS this summer. </p>

<p>So kids are doing great. Glad to hear you’re doing well too!!</p>

<p>@i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown‌ Its been dull without you around here man.</p>

<p>And congratulations. Which publication and what topic so we can find out where and who you are!</p>

<p>Congrats to wowmom’s D!</p>

<p>

And who am I? That’s one secret I’ll never tell. You know you love me, XOXO IWBB (<a href=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR2SmEwwSco”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR2SmEwwSco&lt;/a&gt;)</p>

<p>So you will grad in '17? If so, my D will be as well…is taking a research year so BF who is a year behind can can catch up for a couples match.</p>

<p>my plan is 2018. Finish PhD in spring 2016, MS3 is 16-17, MS4 is 17-18.</p>

<p>^:)^ </p>

<p>Congrats @i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown‌ </p>

<p>IWBB </p>

<p>You are the inspiration of this board how can we do it without u? ^^^^^</p>

<p><a href=“Private GIF”>http://giphy.com/gifs/kristen-bell-veronica-mars-qvF7EEEwgw3sI&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>So nice to see you, IWBB! (I am waving!)</p>

<p>The ONLY reason that the summer immediately before starting undergrad was mentioned in D’s medical school applications was that she shadowed/worked with the same doctor that summer and also during college. It was part of the timeline - that’s it.</p>

<p>Enjoy this and all other summers in UG. they are precious and they will not happen ever in your life. If you can get a job, it is great, but not possible in our homewtown. Volunteering - well if you are a persistant kind, you may find something, and better yet, start looking right after Jan. 1. We have waiting lists for many. Good luck with shadowing, use your own docs and parents of your firneds. However, on a flipping side, all these opportunities, and more so, like Med. Research, great job, volunteering, all long term were easily available for my D. at her college. So, she did the most (and she had enough for at least 2 applicants) during school year at her college, including the great job that she did not even apply, was hand picked by prof. for the position. She did light volunteering in the summers, but again only because of her persistant nature. Jobs - huge waste of time applying to summer jobs, like over 30, nobody needed her. She had great relaxed summers, spent tons of time with her friends, slept in… and they never repeated and never will, Med. School is a very busy place, residency even more so, then real life begins, and as all parents know, having family is the busiest part of it.</p>

Med school is a lot like learning a foreign language, so little makes sense at first. So try to learn some lingo. If she thinks it will be FUN, try an online intro anatomy course, and read books like HotZone, The Man who mistook his wife for a hat, The Emperor of Maladies, The Social Transformation of American Medicine, House of God, Under the ether Dome, other award winning medically themed writing, history of science/medicine books and documentaries/series. It will be rather a long time until she has a chance to read/watch for fun again……