So you have decided you want to go to medical school. Now you have to start thinking about extracurricular activities! Extracurricular activities are just another way to tell your story on your application. You want to make sure your activities reflect your journey!
What do I mean when I say “extracurriculars?” Extracurriculars are basically everything you do in college besides studying. These activities will go on your medical school applications to show your clinical healthcare experience, volunteering, research experience, jobs, and even your hobbies.
If you have not read part 1 of my Application Series, read it here!
Tracking Your Activities
The first thing you should do is start a premed diary/journal to keep track of everything you have done during undergrad.
I recommend this premed diary, designed and for sale by yours truly!
Some things you need to keep track of are:
- Hours spent at your activity
- A contact for your activity {such as a manager/supervisor}
- Any memorable moments that contributed to your motivation to becoming a physician
Extracurricular Categories
Clinical Experience
The main type of extracurricular activity that you want on your medical school application is clinical healthcare experience. You can get clinical experience in a variety of ways from volunteering to a part-time job.
I actually made a post that you can read here about 5 ways you can get clinical healthcare experience in undergrad!
Make sure you are actually interacting with patients closely if you are listing that activity as clinical experience. Passive activities such as shadowing or restocking ER rooms is not clinical.
Volunteering
Volunteering also has subcategories of healthcare-related and non-healthcare related.
Some healthcare-related volunteer experiences can be working at a free community health clinic, stocking rooms at an emergency department, volunteering at a hospital {can do things like transport patients or welcome desk greeter.}
Healthcare volunteering does not have to also be clinical experience. My example of stocking ER rooms; it does not count as clinical experience but it does count at healthcare-related volunteering.
Non-healthcare related volunteering is any other volunteer experiences. I recommend to find something you are passionate about and volunteer in that area.
Not only will you have volunteer experience, if you are passionate about it, you are more likely to enjoy the volunteer experience and talk about your experiences.
My main non-healthcare volunteering is with a family grief support group. This area is very close to my heart and ever since my mom died, I wanted to give back to children who are going through what I went through.
Research
Not everyone is going to have research experience and that is okay!
If you are interested in research, take a look at this post where I talk about if you need research for medical school or not and if you want to do research, how you can go about it!
Research can be something that sets you apart from other applicants and is a good conversation starter for interviews!
Shadowing
Shadowing a physician is an important part of any medical school application. Admissions committees want to know that you have a general idea of what you are getting into.
It does not matter which specialties you shadow, just that you shadow an MD or DO. {Check with the DO schools you are applying to. Some require a letter of recommendation from a DO and do not accept MD letters. In this case it would be beneficial to you to shadow a DO}
If you are wondering what shadowing is like, check out my post about my first experience in an OR when I shadowed a general surgeon!
Hobbies
Yes, you can include your hobbies on your medical school application! However, if you have 5+ different hobbies, maybe narrow it down to your favorite 2.
Admissions committees want to see that you have a life outside of school/medicine and that you have ways to handle stress.
I included playing the piano and aerial yoga on my application. Both I do to relieve stress and both I can talk about easily.
Writing Descriptions
So you have your extracurricular activities picked out and you have been keeping track of your hours and experiences, now is the time to write about them!
For the AMCAS application {MD schools}, you get 700 characters {with spaces} to describe your activity. Then, you can pick 3 activities which are your most meaningful and you get an additional 1,325 characters so you can expand upon the experience.
For the AACOMAS application {DO schools}, you get 600 characters {with spaces} and there are no most meaningful activities.
When you are writing your descriptions, tell your story. Admissions committees know what a scribe does, but they do not know how being a scribe impacted you and contributed to your desire for becoming a physician.
In your activities section, talk about patients who have touched you on your journey, a physician you shadowed who showed you the type of physician you aspire to become, how your research changed the way you view medicine.
Give the admissions committees a reason to want to meet you and invite you to an interview. You want to leave them saying “wow we need to meet this person so they can tell us more about…”
Extracurricular activities contribute to your application by telling more of your story. Do not slack off on this section and compete it hastily. Your goal is to show others that you know what the healthcare field is like, and you still want to enter it.
Do you know someone else who is applying to medical school? Share this post with them via the button below! As always, feel free to stop by my Instagram @medicineandmoscato to ask questions, get advice, or just chat!
