I have been looking at http://www.mdapplicants.com/
that gives little profiles of what kinds of students different schools have accepted…
I notice there is a lot of extra-curricular involved…
A way long time ago, when I was in HS (class of 95), I was very active and got a lot of nice general extracurricular, like key club, fta, math league and crap like that…
i got a few scholarships too, when i went to my state university for undergraduate school the first time around; the best one being a regents scholarship (merit based free ride, one per county)
In my third year at art school (where i ended up getting my degree in animation) I started in at my schools art therapy program, where I got to volunteer at a foster home for preg teens, rockefeller university’s research facilities where they kind of used recreation to help test subjects pass the time, mt sinai’s pediatric oncology clinic, and a geriatric residential health center…
but all of this was just for one semester each, and was required as part of the art therapy program… the names are kind of fancy, but it was dealing with art therapy, not anything really hard core medical…and all this volunteering ended when i finished the program in 2002… i did not continue to volunteer at any of these places.
… for the last 2 years i havent done any extracurricular, no volunteering, no clinical anything, no leadership anything… just kind of schlepping around looking for work as a freelancer…i did help make an animated pilot episode that screened but really nobody knows about… but really, are they going to give much of a rip about that?
I am planning on participating in at least one research project and doing some light volunteering at the school I am at, but that will be it for any kind of ‘recent’ extra-curricular anything.
i generally have been a 3.8 student, but I am actually expecting that to drop a little when I am taking all those hard science premed classes…also, i would really prefer to take psychology electives (rather than advanced science beyond ochem) since i want to go into psychiatry. so I am starting to think that I am going to have to rely on my other assets a little more… but I am worried that all my good stuff is going to be considered ‘too old,’ and that they are going to notice this gaping hole of 2 years where i really wasnt doing anything fruitful.
should i worry? should i get into high gear for the extra curricular? what schools will not take a student like me?
thanks… sorry, i am just feeling a little insecure now 
Hi gaki -
One thing I did to deal with this is to put together a resume. I have linked to Home page for the Damn Good Resume series by Yana Parker because I think this is the book I used at our school resource center and loved! It addresses “gaps” and a host of other concerns not addressed by the common resume books.
If you look to the bottom left of the page there are also clickable links with useful tips.
-Sara
I had a long illustrious history of service work, but I needed to add clinical experience. I put in 200 hours of volunteering at a free clinic and 100 hours of shadowing doctors, which put me in a great position when I applied (and I learned a lot). Half that would still have been more than most of my peers in med school. Yes, it sucks up time, but it will really help your application.