How much do ECs matter? Forum

[nm825]

I graduated from George Washington University in May.

I'm applying to med schools in June (some MD but mostly DO); however, I am very concerned I won't get in anywhere because my extracurriculars are awful. I took the MCAT in September and got a 35 on it, which is like scoring a 168-169 on the LSAT in terms of percentiles, but I imagine the MCAT pool is a little stronger considering a bunch of people have already been weeded out, whereas there's always some bottom-feeding law school out there.

If I don't get into medical school the first time, I may consider law school. I know law school shouldn't be a back-up with the awful market for lawyers, but let's ignore that.

My only extracurriculars are: VP of my junior year dorm, VP of my fraternity, I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and I worked for my local police department the past four summers

I have a couple of healthcare-related things (clinical research assistant, EMT, shadowing), but I don't really know how relevant those are.

My GPA is a 3.66. It's bad, I know, but it was weighed down by all my sciences classes. My major was economics and I had something like a 3.95 in those classes.


Considering I have no exposure to law and my ECs suck as is, are the lower T-14 out of reach? What about the ones just below like GW or Vandy? How much do ECs matter?

[UnicornHunter]

I graduated from George Washington University in May.

I'm applying to med schools in June (some MD but mostly DO); however, I am very concerned I won't get in anywhere because my extracurriculars are awful. I took the MCAT in September and got a 35 on it, which is like scoring a 168-169 on the LSAT in terms of percentiles, but I imagine the MCAT pool is a little stronger considering a bunch of people have already been weeded out, whereas there's always some bottom-feeding law school out there.

If I don't get into medical school the first time, I may consider law school. I know law school shouldn't be a back-up with the awful market for lawyers, but let's ignore that.

My only extracurriculars are: VP of my junior year dorm, VP of my fraternity, I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, and I worked for my local police department the past four summers

I have a couple of healthcare-related things (clinical research assistant, EMT, shadowing), but I don't really know how relevant those are.

My GPA is a 3.66. It's bad, I know, but it was weighed down by all my sciences classes. My major was economics and I had something like a 3.95 in those classes.


Considering I have no exposure to law and my ECs suck as is, are the lower T-14 out of reach? What about the ones just below like GW or Vandy? How much do ECs matter?

With a 3.66, you're not getting into Yale or Stanford, so ECs don't matter. The only thing that does matter is your LSAT, which you don't have yet so... take the LSAT and get back to us. Or, ideally, think long and hard about what you want to do. Law school, as you point out, is a pretty terrible back-up plan for someone who wants to go to med school.

[Ti Malice]

Your ECs are fine. They're not special, but they don't need to be. As far as ECs go, the only thing that can really hurt you with the T14 schools you have a shot at (which, with right LSAT, is every school but Yale and Stanford) is not having any ECs at all.