How do my activities stack up for top medical schools??

Question

How are my extracurriculars for applying to Top medical schools?

Here's my activities during 4yrs ugrad at UPenn. I juggled this with my bioengineering major. Anyways let me know your opinions/advice, please be constructive!

1. 5 summers of actomyosin research at NIH: 1 publication, 1 presentation at the Annual Biophysics convention in LB, CA.

2. vice president of my fraternity: Im pretty much in charge of ALL internal events includ. alum reunions, banquets, comm serv events (i.e. bone marrow drive), parties etc.

3. exec board of tutoring organization: tutored for 4 semesters in local elem sch

4. 1 yr volun at Hosp. of Penn, 1 yr volun at Childrens Hosp of Phila, 1 yr research at CHOP

5. shadowed radiation oncologist for 1 sem + rec

6. CSA - social chair

7. competed in amateur boxing 1yr / volun. at gym for 1yr (alot of hrs) / fought for a charity boxing night

8. volunteered in China for 2wks

9. coached a little league bball team for 2 summers / won 2nd place in tourney / did score-k

Answer 1

UPenn undergrad, you are set!

You have plenty of activities to boast about--make sure you quantify the time spent on each. I hope that your MCAT and GPA are just a impressive. I'm a doc (done with all the c**p that you'll soon be dealing with) and I have to say unless you are going into academic medicine or an MD/PhD with aspirations of going into research, or you are so smart that you will get High Honors on most of your med school classes thus ensuring you a highly competative residency program in an IV league program (radiology, radiation oncology, urology, dermatology, anesthesiology, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, ENT, ophalmology with subspecialty in retinal surgery) then in real life no one cares where you graduated from in med school. My husband (MD from Indiana University, Residency at MGH, income $360k), me (MD from Harvard, Residency at University of Miami, income $250k). What matters is what you opt to specialize in and what your interests are. I ended up owing a heck of alot more, since Harvard med school is SUPER EXPENSIVE compared to a state school. Believe me the student loans come back and bit you in the butt. I would consider this as well when you are applying especially with the current trend in the US toward socialized medicine. MDs will have a major cut in our income. This July 1st, medicare is cutting our pay another 10% (private insurance follows medicares payment plan within the year).

If you are still interested in med school, hands down, the number one aspect of your application that med schools look at is your MCAT score, then your GPA and your school (ie whole-in-the-wall community college vs Harvard). Without stellar grades and MCAT you could have tutored the Dali Lama, done research on PCA analysis (winning you the Nobel prize), and boxed Mike Tyson for charity, and it would still be an uphill battle.

I trust that you do have the scores otherwise you wouldn't be applying to high-end schools. Good Luck!

Answer 2

Get letters of recommendations from these activities and keep them handy.

Drop the party thing for fraternity, I think you mean social gatherings.

Give some detail, but not too much on these. Need some numbers, such as

1. Spent 200 hours of time volunteering for research at NIH.

3. On Exec board for tutoring org that was responsible for 300 hours of tutoring for 33 students. Personally tutored 12 students over 4 semesters with my hands tied behind my back.