Leadership Opportunities

As a future physician, there is a really good chance that you will be considered a leader in your community, whether this is something you intentionally seek or not. Medical schools recognize this and in addition to helping cultivate your leadership skills as a medical student, admission committee members also want to see that you have some leadership experience in your college years. There is a place on your AMCAS application to list leadership experiences. I know I mentioned in a previous post that you don’t have to fill every section of the Work and Activities portions of the AMCAS… but to be a strong applicant, you really do need to report some leadership experiences as a student. 

Of course, just as important as it is to be a leader, you will also need to show that you can work as a member of the team and follow the directions of a leader, when it’s not you… But more on teamwork in an upcoming post. Today, let’s explore ways you can get this much-needed leadership experience.

Pre-med organizations

We’ve already discussed the importance of being a member of your campus pre-med or pre-health organization; this is a great source of information and resources that you don’t need to miss out on receiving. If you have a MAPS chapter at your school, you should join asap. You actually should have joined it 6 weeks ago when I wrote a post about it! If you don’t have one at your school, I mentioned starting a chapter! Creating an organization is definitely a sign of leadership. But if there is already a MAPS or other pre-health option already, then in addition to joining it, make sure you’re very active and that you strongly consider running for an office within the organization. In your freshman year, join. In sophomore year, become more active. As a junior and senior, run for an office. 

Other college organizations

There are certainly other orgs on your campus that don’t have anything to do with medicine or health that you may choose to join also (which is a good idea). Most clubs/orgs will have elected leaders and you can/should consider running for these positions too, if you’re really interested in the group.

Campus leadership

Elected leadership positions such as SGA, student senate, or whichever campus-wide leadership options your school has, are a really great way to represent your class and the student body and this looks great on your application. Be mindful of the time commitment related to these types of positions before taking it on!

Job

The workplace is a fairly common source of leadership on a lot of medical school applications that I’ve seen. Whether it’s a work-study job or a local job, if you work somewhere long enough and/or hard enough, you may have the opportunity to advance to a leadership position, even as a college student. In this role, you could train, supervise, or manage other employees. If you’ve been working somewhere for a while, you may need to look into this as an option. (Feel it out though, don’t get your hours cut or get fired for asking to be the manager when you’ve only worked there for 2 months!) But if it works out, this would be a good option for leadership and could be more money in your pocket!

Volunteering/community organizations

I am definitely a fan of you finding community service opportunities that you can be involved in for an extended time period. Like years, not just hours. We want meaningful, sustained service. In doing so, over time, you will become familiar with the organization and may even be asked to take on somewhat of a leadership role helping to train other volunteers, coordinate events, or perform other tasks within the organization. This will likely be unpaid, which is fine- you will be providing a great service to the community and you will be helping to reduce the load of the staff or other volunteers.

Greek organization

If you are a member of a Sorority or Fraternity, the opportunity to hold an office within your chapter is there. Depending on how many people are on the yard, you may have no choice but to be an office! You can also seek out regional and/or national positions as an undergraduate as well. 

These are just a few ideas. Remember, the goal is not just to have “President” next to your name so that it looks good on your medical school application. If you take on a leadership position, you need to actual fulfill the duties of a leader! And, of course, there has to be a balance between your studying, volunteering, working, and everything else you have going on.

So, the current task is to consider what activities you are already part of that you can hold leadership positions in and to also consider if there are other activities you should explore.

Do you have other ideas for ways you can get leadership experience as an undergraduate student? If so, please share them in the comments below!

Summer is almost here! Keep the goal of that white coat in mind, and don’t completely waste these months!

For those applying this cycle, don’t forget that AMCAS opens on May 3^rd! It’s go time!! Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any private/personal questions or concerns.