After reading Medaholic’s great post on why grades are the most important component of the medical school admissions process, it got me thinking about how important the non-GPA/MCAT components actually are. And the more I think about it, the more it seems like they are significantly less important than most people realize.
Now, let me make sure there’s no confusion by saying that I do think things like extra-curricular activities, community involvement, travel experiences, hobbies, etc. all have a huge amount of value. But I think their value lies much more in how they help you personally develop and grow, and not so much in really affecting your chances at getting into medical school to the degree that your GPA and MCAT scores do.
And yet it seems to me that a lot of students see to have the perception that you need to have a resume that is a mile long in order to have a shot at getting into medical school. Because of this, some students take on way too much and completely exhaust themselves day in and day out. Not only do I think this is bad for the student’s mental and physical health (and that doing something solely for the sake of applying to medical school is something you will probably regret), but in terms of the medical school admissions process, it’s really unnecessary. And worse, some students take on so many non-academic activities that it seriously hurts their academic performance, without realizing that GPA is always the first step in the medical school door.
Granted, I can’t speak for all medical schools, since there are 17 in Canada and I only know about the Ontario ones. So while I don’t want to make any generalized claims, what I will do is analyze four of the medical schools in Ontario whose admissions process I do know a decent bit about, and the role non-academic components actually play. And from there, you can come to your own conclusions (though it’s pretty obvious what I think).