When should you start extracurriculars for medical school? (how far back will medical school application ask you to list extracurriculars? summer before college? stuff during high school?) I am currently a high school senior, so should I apply for and participate in either research or a medical program of some sort this summer before starting college? If I don’t start this summer will it hurt me?
Also does anyone know of another forum outside College Confidential that is specifically for med/premed students? haha thanks!
Unless it’s something you would do throughout college I would say only put things during college. You can list anything on AMCAS but you only get 15 slots.
Studentdoctornetwork is the medical forum of choice but beware it is full of people displacing their frustrations onto each other.
- you can list anything you want on your medical school application. There are no hard & fast rules.
But there is an issue–you only have a limited number of slots (IIRC, it’s either 12 or 15) to list everything: honors/awards/scholarships, research experiences, physician shadowing experiences, clinical volunteering experiences, community service projects, publications/posters/presentations, senior thesis, leadership positions, employment/jobs, hobbies and other activities.
You need to list a start & stop date for each activity you list along with the contact information of someone who can verify your involvement.
- medical school admissions is all about “what have you done lately?”
Adcomms are not particularly interested in what you did during middle and high school. They want to know about the person you are at the time you apply to med school, not who you were 5 years ago.
Really up to you, but you may be just as well served by getting involved in a community service project or getting a public contact service job. (People skills are very important for physicians. Learning how to deal with difficult people is a critical job skill for physicians.)
No.
SDN. Student Doctor Network. AKA : Super Duper Neurotic. There are forums at SDN for all kinds of medical professions, but be aware that there is a lot of neuroticism, hyperbole, oneupmanship and ■■■■■■■■ on the site. Read posts critically and check the badges of posters. (There are some adcomms, medical school faculty & practicing physicians who post advice for pre-meds, but there is also a lot of ‘the blind leading the blind’–pre-meds offering bad advice to other pre-meds.)
Actually there are two student doctor forums:
Student Doctor Network— https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/
and
Student doc forum ---- https://www.studentdoc.com/phpBB2/
They offer a slightly different slant view in medical school hopefuls and medical school students