FAQS: Experience outside the classroom

10. HOW DO I GET EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE OF THE REQUIRED CLASSES, AND WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCE SHOULD I GET?
The following threads, biased towards those on which I’ve posted (because they’re the ones I could remember and knew how to find), explore some of the issues associated with getting experience outside of the classroom.
The summary of my advice on this issue, and that of some others who posted to these forums, is that you should follow your heart towards the kind(s) of doctor you might want to be. If you think that academic medicine might be in your future, you should definitely do some research; if you think your goal is primary care medicine, you should emphasize community-level clinical experience, etc. Most of all, you should do things that you enjoy, that you feel passionate about, and where you can learn and grow as you work or volunteer.
On a less ambitious level, you should at least make sure that you spend at least some time observing the practice of medicine, in order to be able to say that you understand what the lives and work of doctors are like.
Whether in the lab, the clinic, or on street corners in mobile medical vans, it is your experience outside the classroom that can define for medical schools where your real passions are, and hence, what sort of person you are and what makes you unique.
These experiences are also important for getting letters of recommendation from people who may be able to see some of your personal qualities and skills that teachers won’t know about. The last links below discuss the logistics of getting letters of rec, emphasizing the point that even for people who love you, you will need to walk your recommenders through the process.
–sf/dc joe
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VOLUNTEERING
My lengthy description of my own take on “clinical experience” volunteering can be found a ways down the thread, and some other folks contribute additional info:
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…6;st=10
A model of the kind of thing I was discussing in the above post can be found at a newer post, from someone involved in setting up a free clinic:
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…;t=125;
EXPLANATION OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF RESEARCH
A discussion of different types of research with contributions from several folks, including one of my most lengthy posts, explaining various sorts of research, and more briefly discussing whether you should do research, how you should choose research experiences, and the value of research for premeds.
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…esearch
ADVICE ON GETTING RESEARCH POSITIONS
OPMs suggest several approaches to getting research positions.
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…esearch

THE LOGISTICS OF LETTERS OF REC
We briefly cover how to handle letters of rec, sing the praises of letter forwarding services, and emphasize that even incredible and highly-accomplished geniuses who love you and want nothing more than for you to get what you want from life still must be treated like incompetent children when it comes to getting them to write and send off letters of recommendation for you.
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…2;t=81;
A more recent and very helpful discussion of letters of rec, with a short sobering tale from Rachel about the perils of not following up, and a more lengthy explanation of some of what you need to know from Mary R, can be found at:
http://www.oldpremeds.net/cgi-loc…87;st=0

For some reason, none of these links are working-- which really blows because I’d like to read them! biggrin.gif I guess I will do a search…

sorry, these links are left over from a previous incarnation of the software that used to run this forum… if anyone can find the links, can you post them? for the next little while anyway, i don't have the time to do the search… this is going to be a problem with a bunch of the FAQ posts…
best regards
joe