3 Things to Look for When Choosing Your Extracurriculars
Choosing the right extracurriculars can make or break your medical school application.
There are three things you should look for when picking your extracurriculars: Quality, Leadership Opportunities, and Passion.
Quality:
When it comes to medical school applications, you want quality over quantity.
Try to find a club or organization that has opportunities for long term service and involvement.
Medical schools would rather see you involved in one long term volunteer commitment then ten one time activities.
Check out my article on How Not to Write A Personal Statement to learn how use your activities to portray your brand in your essays!
Leadership:
When you start checking out different clubs on campus ask yourself:
How much competition will you have for leadership opportunities?
If there’s a super popular club on campus with lots of members. It may not be the best club to get the opportunities you need for your application.
It’s much easier to get a leadership position in a small club, than one with hundreds of members.
Passion:
Yes. Extracurriculars and volunteering are necessary for a strong application to medical school.
But in my opinion, what’s on paper only gets you as far as your secondaries or your interview.
What gets you into medical school is what makes you… You.
It’s your passion, your empathy, and your unique qualities that make the admission committee take you from the qualified pile to the accepted pile.
That’s why picking extracurriculars and clubs is so important…
When joining a long term extracurricular ask yourself:
- Am I passionate about the activities I’ll do in this club?
- Will I be able to write an essay about my involvement in this club?
- Will I be able to talk about my involvement in an interview in a way that shows my passion for others?
If you’re not passionate about what you’re doing… it’s going to show in your writing and in your interview.
In Summary:
Look for long-term, quality activities that show your passion and uniqueness.
Your extracurricular don’t have to have to be just “pre-med clubs.”
Yes. “Pre-Med clubs” help you get volunteering and shadowing opportunities, and I definitely recommend joining at least one.
But you can also join a sorority, the dance team, or other clubs that show a passion or talent that other applicants won’t have.
No one else is like you. So show it on your application.
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