The Importance of Extracurricular Activities for Medical School Applications
You’ve no doubt read about the multifaceted requirements for admission to medical school. This post is an attempt, first, to demystify them a bit, and second, to untangle one of the least understood requirements.
The price of admission begins with an excellent GPA and MCAT score. Most applicants have both. The definition of “excellent” varies from school to school, but no school defines “excellent” as “meh.” However, a stellar GPA and MCAT score will only get a school’s attention; to gain an interview, applicants must somehow distinguish themselves from the talented multitude. There are three ways to do this:
- What you say about yourself – and how you say it
- What others say about you
- Your extracurriculars
Each is a significant piece of the puzzle; the remainder of this post explores the last.
Misconceptions about extracurricular work are widespread and persistent. In my experience, these are the top three:
- Healthcare work always trumps other kinds.
- The more leadership titles you can collect, the better.
- The more extracurriculars you can do, the better.
Before we discuss each of these, let’s review what “extracurricular” means and the five kinds of activities that admissions committees care most about.
“Extracurricular” means any activity that’s not required for a course. Medical schools use your record of what you do outside of class as an index of who you are when no one’s telling you who you should be or what you should do.
However, it might be necessary for you to take a job or to take care of someone. Admissions readers respect applicants who honor financial necessity and familial obligation. Doing what needs to be done is a sign of responsible maturity. Outside of these two exigencies, your time outside of class is yours, and how you use it matters.
The AMCAS application includes 19 categories of extracurricular involvement, but medical schools typically prioritize five: service, shadowing, leadership, research, and direct experience with patients. (The latter isn’t one of the 19 categories, but admissions readers will look for it under service and employment.)
Accepted has published a detailed article on strategies for completing the AMCAS Work and Activities section, including what activities to list, what to omit, how to classify them, how to choose your most meaningful experiences, and how to describe them. Decades of learning and teaching have taught me that examining how and why things go wrong is a useful complement to examining how to do things right. Consider this a “do not do” checklist:
Don’t assume that health- and healthcare-related work is all that matters.
It makes intuitive sense that premed students should stuff their schedules with healthcare-related activities. And, yes, it is important that admissions readers see evidence that you’ve investigated healthcare from several angles. So, at the risk of stating the obvious: shadow physicians in multiple specialties. If you’re the least bit curious about osteopathic medicine and might apply to an osteopathic medical school, by all means locate an osteopath to shadow. Find opportunities to work directly with patients. If possible, investigate research opportunities that connect with healthcare. Do your best to confirm that this hard road is the one for you.
But admissions readers are looking for three-dimensional applicants, and three-dimensional applicants do not have one-dimensional interests. If you have serious involvements outside healthcare – if you’re an athlete, musician, entrepreneur, or activist; or if you’re invested in anything that someone besides yourself might describe as interesting and you’ve devoted serious time to it – don’t give that investment short shrift.
Your activities outside healthcare will help admissions readers develop a sense of who you are and will help make you real to people who don’t know you. This is a primary goal of your application.
Don’t assume that leadership is the same thing as a leadership title.
Some students collect leadership titles like Swifties collect her vinyl albums – and, like the original release of reputation, some titles are valuable. A leadership title can say something about what your peers think of you. If the role confers power and you use it well, the position can speak to your initiative, creativity, and investment in a cause. Medical schools care about these things.
But roles are meaningless without action. Leadership is something you do, not just a title you hold. Medical schools are exquisitely attuned to resume padding, and a pile of titles that outweighs or obscures tangible results is more likely to hurt you than help you.
Also, there are only so many leadership positions available, and many of them get gobbled up by those who are ostentatiously confident and/or assertive. But opportunities to contribute to whatever causes speak to you are practically numberless.
Don’t assume that the more extracurriculars you can rack up, the better.
Like most college students, you may have discovered that there are far too many worthwhile and interesting activities to squeeze into four years. The temptation is to treat the profusion of extracurricular possibilities like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
For most, foraging indiscriminately among activities turns out to be a bad approach to maximizing happiness. It also is exactly the wrong approach to distinguish yourself from other medical school applicants.
Admissions readers are looking more for depth than breadth of involvement, and depth requires time. Time allows you to learn, cultivate relationships, and increase personal efficacy in whatever pursuit you’ve chosen. A sustained investment in a group, cause, or activity speaks to your capacity for commitment and persistence, as well as to your emotional maturity. Choose carefully, and then do your best to honor your choice.
What you say about yourself, what others say about you, and how you spend your time outside class will help medical schools get to know you beyond your grades and your MCAT score. But your extracurricular activities should help admissions readers get a better handle on who you are.
As a former director for three undergraduate honors programs at the College of Natural Sciences at UT Austin, Madison Searle read more than 5,000 applications while also advising students applying to graduate and professional programs. A freelance writer, he has taught writing seminars to premed students. Madison’s goal is to help applicants communicate clearly, concisely, and in their authentic voice. He has helped hundreds of pre-health professional students prepare for and apply to medical, dental, veterinary, and pharmacy schools. Work with Madison! Schedule a free consultation today!
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