Your Attractive AMCAS

How to Plan Extra Curricular Activities

This is another important aspect of your AMCAS application and your appearance with medical schools. Here Med School Admissions will ask these questions when they look at your AMCAS:

What did you do with your limited free time?

How were you able to become efficient with the limited time you had?

Did you devote a significant amount of time to humanitarian efforts?

Do you have significant experience in a hospital setting?

Have you devoted enough time to take sure medicine is the profession for you?

The most important question is: how does one reflect these questions with his/her extra-curriculum?

Your extra-curriculum should address each of these questions satisfactorily. I cannot recommend what extra-curriculum you should participate in because that ruins the point of you showing your individuality. However, I can make some tips on extra-curriculum that are helpful in preparing you for medicine, finding mentors, and managing extra-curriculum and everything else involved with college life.

Don’t be afraid to take off some time from school if you need or want to. This time you take off can give you a break from academic rigors. This time can also be applied to research, making money, or creating your own project. However, don’t stay out of school for too long, because there is no need to delay going to medical school if that’s where you want to go.

Instead of or in supplement to a laboratory class, participate in an active lab doing exciting research. I learned more about the scientific practice of biology participating in a research lab than my classmates who were participating in a regular biology lab and I was motivated to do the work for many reasons.

1. The work I was doing no one else was doing.

2. I learned more applicable lab methodologies than my classmates.

3. I developed a relationship with a teacher/mentor who gave me more personal attention than any TA could.

4. There was a possibility of furthering scientific knowledge.

5. There was a possibility of publishing.

When medical schools at leading academic research centers see that you have done research, they highly value it because you can possibly contribute to the research at their school. And the more successful research that is done at the medical school, the better off the school is (I won’t go into the details). In general medical schools like to see a good long term relationship with a lab, not a one semester participation for the premed extra-curriculum. They also highly value premeds who have published in a peer reviewed journal. This is very attractive to medical schools, and can be a great saving grace for many premeds if you can find the right conditions to help you publish. To maximize your chances you would need to find a lab that is already publishing many papers in the last year and will have many papers that will branch off these findings. Contribute to a good portion of the work on this special project and voila, a publication.

Instead of volunteering at a local hospital doing clerical work you don’t enjoy, create a program that you will enjoy. You can make your volunteer experience exciting if you create a volunteer program that you believe caters to premed needs. You will also be helping your fellow premeds out by allowing them an interesting avenue to experience medicine and give their time. Medical schools will also see the leadership and organization capabilities you have from this venture.

Participate in a sports program. If not for medical schools, for your own personal benefit. You will form great friendships, learn how to work as a part of a team, and keep yourself healthy in the meantime. However, be careful. As I can personally attest, some sports programs require over twenty hours a week of participation. Don’t undertake a new sport if you believe it is going to detract from your overall plan.

I was a decathlete on Stanford’s Track team and it meant juggling many responsibilities in addition to being a division 1 athlete. Here is how I did it:

Daily, I would study late at night with no distractions from friends for at least two hours. Go to sleep for eight hours. Wake up at 7 to go to weight training. Go to class at 9. Sleep a couple hours. Go to lunch. Go to class. Go to practice. Go to dinner. Study one hour. Nap/hang out. Study two hours and repeat. It’s really as simple as that based upon all of the other principles I have laid out.

If you are a varsity athlete, you must MAKE time to study. Realize that you are probably not going to make money as a professional long jumper.

If you don’t have any experience speaking Spanish, enroll in a course that emphasizes conversational Spanish. This is especially important in healthcare. Being able to communicate with Spanish speaking patient will prove advantageous no matter where you are.

With the new flexibility in your curriculum, you should have ample time to have a great time being with friends, participating in fun projects, and devoting time to researching what type of physician you want to be. Be careful not to let your extracurricular pursuits diminish your academic performance. Don’t commit too quickly to activities and give yourself time to get accustomed to balancing the two.