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Understanding how to prioritize your time is a critical part of choosing extracurriculars. At the start of a new school year, it’s easy to find yourself wanting to be involved in various organizations and activities. However, it’s more important to show you are passionate about what you’re involved in, and potentially hold a leadership position, instead of being a general member in multiple clubs. Being involved on campus is excellent, but some extracurriculars may require more time commitment than others. If you do not budget your time properly with consideration of your schedule, you may spread yourself too thin and end up burnt out.
The key to prioritizing your time appropriately is having an understanding of what activities are most important to you. This will help you figure out how much time you want to spend on your activities. You should note that classes should always be the top priority (you’ll want to keep up your GPA!), and consider that you will need time to study and do work for your classes. If you have a job, make sure to consider your work schedule as well. Even just these two activities can take up a lot of your time. After looking at the time that these two things take in your schedule, you can start finding extra time that you can fill with extracurricular activities. Remember to leave yourself some time alone to relax and recuperate!
Finding extracurriculars that suit your interests, passions, and goals, is an essential part of being a pre-medical student. To avoid stretching yourself out too thin, it is important to place your focus on a limited set of activities and develop involvement within these extracurriculars throughout your undergraduate career. So, what should you look for in extracurriculars? Activities that are relevant to medicine, such as volunteering at hospitals or clinics, participating in research projects, or joining healthcare clubs are a good place to start. These are activities that will broaden your scope and understanding of medicine, as well as make you a qualified candidate for your future career. Furthermore, consider activities that speak to your interests and who you are as an individual – they don't necessarily have to be medically related. These activities can display your well-roundedness and diversity in experience. Pinpoint whether community, resources, leadership, teamwork, or something else is important to you, and find an outlet that allows you to experience these qualities. Incorporating a mix of medically relevant activities and those that reflect your unique interests is an effective way to approach extracurriculars and is one step toward success as a pre-medical student.
If you are looking for student organizations or clubs, the easiest way to find these is through Maize Pages. If it's the start of the year, then Festifall will allow you to speak to members in person to get a better feel for the organization. If not, then we recommend trying to reach out to learn more about the club. To find research, many people tend to look at the Umich webpage for the major that they are interested in, and then look at the labs that professors currently have. Once you have found a lab that interests you, you should email the professor explaining your interest in the lab and ask if they have any room for an undergraduate assistant. Be sure to be specific! These labs are reading many applications, so make sure you show them you did your research. Finally, to find clinical opportunities, many people look at LinkedIn or Handshake to find jobs or other research experiences.
Here are a few helpful links when looking for research/clinical opportunities:
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