<p>Is it a bad idea to limit my EC and Volunteering during the school years and then do a bunch during the summers? Next semester I'm taking a heavy course load and have a few school related ECs that will take up all of my time and I was just wondering.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. If you are keeping busy with a few things during the school year there’s no reason why you can’t focus on those. However, I would recommend at least a small continual volunteering activity (monthly blood drives, etc) that you keep up for more than a summers duration.</p>
<p>It is a bad idea, but it’s the same thing I did. (Except that I didn’t have any good reason.) It turned out okay in the end.</p>
<p>Part of the point of EC’s is to demonstrate (1) long-term involvement and (2) time management skills. I was totally bare on school-year EC’s, which robbed me of the ability to demonstrate that.</p>
<p>Now, I did this just because I was a school-year slacker and didn’t do anything – lots and lots of television and video games with friends. Your situation sounds a little different.</p>
<p>My school has some activities that only meets for ~4 times a semester. Maybe try something like that if it is a really busy semester?</p>
<p>It shows mature time management and decision-maker skills.</p>
<p>Length of involvement and commitment are two of the most critical elements of an EC. Dropping an EC for a semester or two while taking courses is generally not the best thing to do. However, if keeping it up wil result in a lower GPA, you should probably either 1) work on time mgmt, or, in the case that you are simply unable to improve, 2) drop the activity for the time being. Keep in mind, however, that most of your competition will have maintained jobs and ECs while in school. Many of them have 20-40+ hrs/wk scheduled (between work and other activities) in addition to the time they spend on schoolwork.</p>
<p>I am under the impression that it is not easy to be able to devote considerable time to EC’s while maintaining high GPA. Is it indeed the case that many premed students would be able to spend average 30 hours per week on EC’s as indicated by apumic? Were part of the 20-40+ hours per week counted toward actual credits (e.g. research)? Would other posters please share your observations?</p>
<p>To pick a random premedical student I know whose schedule I am somewhat familiar with, she has excellent grades and works about 15-20 hrs/wk. In addition, she is shadowing physicians regularly and has other ECs. She is a senior and will be applying DO the end of this yr.</p>
<p>Another premedical student I know volunteers 4-8 hrs/wk. He is an Olympic athlete and spends in excess of 20 hours/wk training. His courseload each semester has been moderate to heavy with 3-4 lab sciences/semester. His grades are excellent and he, I believe, also intends to begin applying this summer.</p>
<p>I personally work around 30 hrs/wk, volunteer 4-8 hrs/wk, and am involved in other regular ECs. I also hold some leadership positions and a faculty appt at my university. My GPA is in the 3.8-4.0 range and my courseload is consistently heavy.</p>
<p>In my experience, a typical strong pre-med probably volunteers 4-8 hrs/wk (with at least a portion of that being in a clinical setting), works in a clinical or academic setting part-time/PRN 5-10 hrs/wk, does research 5-10 hrs/wk, and has other [non-medical, non-science] interests s/he pursues on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Of course, just because many premeds pull that off does not mean that you have to. It simply means that some of your competition does.</p>
<p>Keep mind, as well, that people vary in how much studying they really need for an A. I find that I can typically pull an A in a course by studying about as many hours as I spend in class. Any more than that is just OCD “over-studying” for me. I find it makes little difference in the outcome. I’ve been blessed to be the kind of person that just “gets it” the first time. You may or may not be that kind of student. Only time will tell.</p>
<p>^ I am often amazed by the amount of time you guys commit to ECs.</p>
<p>With this said, be careful about joining some very time-consuming lab. I heard one premed student is currently committed to a research lab for two afternoons during the weekday. But the amount of time and the frequency are really not enough. The lab may require him to go into the lab 4 or 5 times a week (sometimes in the evening), otherwise there will not be any results. (the “animals” that you experiment on do not stop growing/breeding just because you need to go to the class or doing other things.) The commute time to/from the lab could be more than half an hour each way.</p>
<p>A couple years of ago, another premed (in his junior/senior year) ended up working in a very intense lab for more than 60 hours a week – more than a typical full-time job. A really intense research could be like a black hole, sucking up almost all of your time, if you end up in this kind of situation.</p>