One of my biggest worries during this whole process was: is my resume strong enough to match my peers? Graduating early has its perks but also a major disadvantage in that I lost a whole year where I could have been doing research, volunteering and etc. However, I am here to clear up what builds a strong resume and what does not! I am in no way saying my resume is very strong but I got accepted into a medical school so that must count for something right? The main components of your resume are: research, volunteering, shadowing, clinical experience, work experiences, and extracurriculars.
Research is one of the most important things that you can put on your resume. Every interview I went to, I had at least one question about the research I did. Personally, I believe that you should try your best to have at least 2 research experiences (You should definitely have at least one wet lab experience). Not only does this give you more opportunities to spark up discussion but it shows that you're comfortable in subjects that might not be related. For example, at the lab I worked at in Wayne State, we were studying membrane curvature so we were more of a biophysics lab. However, the lab I got assigned to through the SURF program at U of M, I worked in a cardiovascular lab. These 2 labs might seem unrelated but being able to connect them and draw from your experiences is extremely important. Having a publication is definitely a plus but is not needed. I would recommend trying to do a poster presentation instead.
A lot of people place extreme emphasis on volunteering for your resume and I somewhat disagree. Volunteering is a great thing to build your essays upon and to gain experience in settings where you might not be comfortable (which might stand as a good interview answer) but too much volunteering is an overkill. There are very limited spots for what you can put on your AAMC experiences so I would choose 2 or 3 main volunteering places and really put my focus and be consistent there rather than volunteering in a bunch of places for a short amount of time. You also need to balance volunteering and school so be careful. My big volunteering topic was the Detroit Fellows Tutoring Project where I went to elementary schools in Detroit and tutored students.
Shadowing doctors is CRUCIAL. This is where you'll get some recommendation letters and learn if medicine is right for you. I would recommend 80 - 100 hours in a few different specialities so you get a real understanding of medicine. For me, I shadowed a pulmonologist, internal medicine physician, nephrologist, and cardiologist. Not only do you get great talking points but you also gain valuable experience in how they deal with patients, what their field is about, and the equipment they use.
Clinical experience is something that is really hard to come by but is very important. My experience came from the time where I volunteered at Beaumont Wayne. I worked in the IMC Unit for a few years and assisted nurses by making water rounds around the floor, talking to the patients about their day, assisting with paging doctors, and directing phone calls. This experience is where you get to observe how floors run and get to understand patients. For me, it really helped build my understanding of why I want to do medicine.
Work experiences are also important but not as crucial as the other topics on your resume. You should have some work experience where you learned some valuable skills such as how to deal with people who might seem upset or how to make moral decisions. A lot of people usually have scribing down for this which is cool and all but I also feel like you should do something unique. This usually helps you write essays for medical schools and develop answers for interview questions which I will talk about in a later post.
The last important thing on your resume is extracurricular. This is where you have to let your personality shine and show your interests. Participating in extracurriculars that volunteer in the community is great but everyone already has that (You should still write it down though!). For me, I showed my passion for sports by talking about a club where we played basketball, discussed sports and etc. I would recommend participating and writing down extracurriculars that show your passion for: culture, religion, creative output, and etc. It should show who YOU are as a PERSON and your PASSIONS.
If you guys have any questions or would like to see everything on my resume, I'd be happy to help and send you guys a copy! You can contact me on my instagram, twitter, or my email which is located on the bottom of my page.
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