Does RA position look good for med school?

[timothy022]

Do you think med schools take into account the quality of extracurriculars vs quantity? I'm not president of 5 million clubs like most premeds, but I have limited extracurriculars that I'm very passionate about. A big extracurricular for me is being an RA, I think it has taught me a lot of transferable skills like working with a diverse set of people, customer service, being on call, time management, etc. I've spent a LOT of time on this role, so it kind of has limited other stuff I can be involved in...but I truly love the role so much and think it has made me grow a lot as a person, and I am happy to and able to verbalize this if asked.
My other large extracurricular is a 2 month non-clinical volunteer trip abroad for environmental conservation, and after that experience I came back to my school and started a house course to teach future students what to expect, and also joined the preparatory academy to share my experiences with students going on any type of service trip. I do have research for 3 semesters (no publication), clinical volunteering and stuff that checks the required boxes, but was wondering if y'all had any thoughts about this limited number of experiences but very high passion behind each one?

 

[goalsetter2025]

Are you ROTC or Service Academy? I'm assuming based on your description that you're in a civilian college. The fact that you submitted this in these forums probably means that you are interested in military medicine. If not, you're probably in the wrong place.
I'll give you a big tip. My parents work for the WHO, but they've also sat in on a couple admissions board for T10 medical schools. The most important thing they look at (at least at the top schools) are GPA and MCAT. I'm referring you to the best "Medical" forum ever: https://www.studentdoctor.net/

You can scroll through here to find your answers. But, I will say that QUALITY > QUANTITY. You don't want to be checking off boxes. If you can write a solid admissions essay about 1 activity that shows how altruistic and devoted you are to medicine, even if you did only ~2 hours of that activity, it'll be a lot better than someone who volunteered 100+ hours in 5 different places but can't express anything about their experiences

True story: So my parents helped screen/evaluate a couple candidates for a Top 3 USNEWS medical school about 5 years back. Mostly 4.0 gpa students and crazy high MCAT, but they ended up ranking a student with a 3.3 gpa(!) and mediocre MCAT much higher than other applicants. Why??? Because the candidate had spent all 4 years of college doing 1 service activity only, and had accumulated 1000+ hours from it. By the student's junior year, she risked everything and got a pretty big loan to help fund her project and start multiple campus chapters throughout the country. In fact, she was so devoted to her mission/cause that she started a chapter in a northern African country. By the end of her junior year, although she was in a lot of debt, she still felt satisfied that what she was doing was helping countless people. Took a gap year, went to Africa to support what she started over there-- and even had a national geographic article written about her. She got into that medical school, graduated, but still routinely goes back to Africa as a resident. Her project that she started now is 100% locally-independent (as in sustains itself using local population), and provides over 50% of drinking water in that community.

My parents and I actually met her when we were sent to Africa about 5 years ago. Awe-inspiring and brilliant. It's hard to find doctors nowadays who aren't in it for the money. As of now, The WHO has put their sights on this student and plan on poaching her after she finishes residency.

 

[bopper]

A doctor is the leader of a medical team...so yes, Med schools like to see leadership in your ECs.
But (in non-covid times) they also want to see you volunteering in a medical setting and shadowing doctors.

 

[UHBlackhawk]

Probably, but each medical school gives more or less weight to different things. As an example, some love non traditional applicants, some only interview traditional applicants.
My DW was a non traditional. As a Lieutenant she was a logistics officer, served in combat (Desert Storm). Then was accepted to flight school. Commanded a troop (eight aircraft). Then applied to medical school and did quite well on her MCAT. All while having two kids.
At an interview with a prominent medical school she was told by a twenty something male interviewer, “I see you haven’t done much since graduating from college.” She was not accepted to that school.

 

[AROTC-dad]

At an interview with a prominent medical school she was told by a twenty something male interviewer, “I see you haven’t done much since graduating from college.” She was not accepted to that school.

 

[MayoSpartan]

I am a professor at a medical school and like the SAs we look the whole candidate but it is weighed heavy on MCAT, science GPA, and overall GPA. College you graduated from other extracurriculars are important. When I interview candidates I look for things that give me a hint at what kind of leadership qualities they have and put them through numerous scenarios and measure how they would react. Agree with what was mentioned above volunteering is important but most of us can sense BS pretty easily.