"If you say I want to go to medical school and you've never set foot in a hospital, they just won't believe you," he says.
William D. Fixsen, senior lecturer on Biology and director of the Health Careers Program, agrees that there is not a single right answer. Fixsen advises students to look for jobs that fill up the weaknesses in their transcripts but also says that summer jobs should be of genuine interest to students.
"There is not a single right path to medical school. It should be something that excites you," Fixsen says. "I'd rather see a student light up when talking about their summer experiences, i.e. something relevant [to the medical profession]. That intensity is far more important."
To obtain such jobs, Fixsen advises students to utilize OCS and its Pre-Med Health Careers Counselor Lee Ann Michelson.
He also suggests browsing through the Web page of the Student Committee on Pre-med Education (SCOPE) to find out about pre-med related activities on campus (www.hcs.harvard.edu/~scope/).
Medical School Hints
Stanford and Yale medical school officials agreed with professors Davis and Fixsen about the importance of well-rounded students.
Dr. Norman Blank, director of admissions at the Stanford University School of Medicine, says medical schools aren't looking only at whether students have devoted time to research or volunteer hospital work.
Rather, a combination of self-exploration and sincere devotion to helping, and learning about, people in need is what will best help students know why and what field they want to go into in the medical sciences, Blank says.
Blank explains that a student should "do whatever they feel passionate about and want to be immersed in" in the medical field.
"The goal is to say to yourself: I want to go into a demanding profession. What do I know about myself and the world that makes it clear that this is the right thing for them to do?" Blank says.
Blanks suggests that the pre-med student "be an explorer and explore as much of the energy level, the interest level and the enjoyment of hard work [as possible]."
Ms. M. Lynne Wootton, director of admissions at the Yale University School of Medicine, agrees that "there is no really easy answer" to the summer job search for pre-med students.
Instead, Wootton says that Yale seeks well-rounded individuals who "show a demonstrated commitment to service" that is more than just a few token hours of volunteering.
Yet Wootton adds that other pursuits, such as laboratory research work, are equally good for a candidate's resume, and that there is not one set rule as to which summer endeavors are best.
The director says that any exposure to patient care, clinical work or community service are good avenues for students to pursue.
"There isn't one aspect that we put more emphasis on than another, but there is a strong feeling by the admissions committee at Yale that students exhibit some commitment to community service," she says.
Dr. Gerald S. Foster, associate dean for admissions at HMS, agrees that students' extracurricular activities should first and foremost be geared towards their personal interests, whether it be in research, community service or clinical work.
"All medical schools look for students with some extra dimensions," Foster says. "There's no such thing as a preferred activity outside of classes, [but] we do look for substantive experiences."