Zoe Srackangast asked 2 years ago
Hi,
I’m looking to get advice on how to choose which student orgs to be part of. I am currently part of 4 orgs (2 are pre-med related, 1 is tutoring, 1 is related to housing/homelessness); I hold a leadership position in 2 of them. I recently came upon a new opportunity that involves helping plan for starting a telehealth clinic in Detroit. I don’t think I could manage simply adding another extracurricular so would it be better to stay in an organization with a long-term leadership position but little to no meaningful experience or be part of something for a shorter time with no leadership but have a greater passion for? Also, I know tutoring is a positive extracurricular since it demonstrates the ability to teach others, which is important in the medical field, but if I don’t truly enjoy it/not getting much out of it, is it worth continuing?
Thank you!!
Pre-Med Hub Staff answered 2 years ago
Hi Zoe,
This is great that you are involved with a diverse range of student organizations and you are developing leadership experiences. When you are choosing among different options that are available to you, you should choose the ones that are meaningful to you, and help you grow and learn new things. Because if you do something only for checking a box, it would be hard to explain the reason behind choosing it with genuine passion during your interview or completing your application. To stand out as a medical school applicant, it is always good to focus on the few things that you are most passionate about and go deeper with each one and make an impact.
Continuity matters but if you think you do not enjoy the activity and there is not much to learn from it, it would be better to go for something that more resonate with you, and then challenge yourself to make an impact in short time, and find a creative way in new activity to demonstrate the ability to teach others (for example, educate patients about health issues in a telehealth clinic).
Hope you find this helpful, but feel free to drop into our Zoom office hours if you want to talk more about it. Newnan Pre-Health advisors also hold office hours multiple times a week!
Haniyeh
Pre-Med Hub Advisor