Undergraduate Pre-medical Clubs
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Pre-Medical Clubs: A Sea of Options
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Pre-Medical Clubs Are An Essential Step to Medical School
Extracurricular activities are a big part of making sure you are a well-rounded applicant for medical school. One of those activities is getting involved in clubs on your undergraduate campus. Depending on your school, this could leave you with tons of options. So how do you choose?
The best way to start deciding is to follow the the trifecta of clubs: one professional, one community service, and one personal. Doing all three lay out a wide-ranging framework to show your broad leadership, commitments, hobbies, and dedication to helping others.
A Brief List of Popular Professional Pre-Medical Clubs
American Medical Student Association: One of the largest and oldest clubs for physicians in training, you’ll likely find an AMSA chapter at every school. The organization is dedicated towards helping pre-medical students through professional development, community service, and more. It’s definitely a club to explore as a pre-med.
Pre-SOMA: The undergraduate division of the Student Osteopathic Medical Association (SOMA), Pre-SOMA is essentially a DO-focused version of AMSA. Another great club to get involved in, especially if you plan to apply to DO schools.
Did You Know: We have a whole piece written on the benefits of joining associations like AMSA, Pre-SOMA, HOSA, AMWA and more!
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Click Here to take a look at our breakdown of pre-medical associations!
Future Healthcare Professionals (HOSA): A healthcare-based organization that looks to promote healthcare awareness, leadership and community service. This club may provide a more diverse lens into healthcare, not just the medicine focus that primarily comes in AMSA or pre-SOMA.
[Any Academic Club]: There are many science-based clubs out there for varying interests – chemistry, physics, biology, etc. The more passionate you are about the subject, the more likely you’ll be able to help via a leadership position. This emphasizes a key point lost to many people about clubs. There isn’t any one perfect pre-medical club experience. The person who is genuinely passionate about Biochemistry club is going to come off a whole lot more authentic then the person who joins all the pre-med clubs for the sake of putting them on their CV.
Some Options for Community Service Clubs
Habitat for Humanity: A nonprofit organization whose goal is to build and improve houses for families. It’s a great club that stems from an international organization. You’ll get a chance to something really hands-on and help make an incredible impact.
Campus Relay For Life: This community service organization is focused on fighting cancer and is led by the American Cancer Society. This is a great opportunity to combine community service with your medical passion.
[Anything Local]: Our local communities are a great place to start giving back! Depending on your location, there are likely clubs at your college dedicated to helping the homeless and underserved. You don’t have to join a big organization, pick a project that is close to you! Giving back to a local project may actually show you are more in-tune to helping your community than participating in a larger organization that you aren’t necessarily passionate about. You might even find local opportunities using our pre-medical volunteering thread.Â
Personal (NOT Pre-Medical) Clubs
This is for you to decide on! Pick a hobby or activity that you are interested in and get involved! This can be a club sports team or other non-science based interests like entrepreneurship, religious organizations, theater, politics… just about anything that you enjoy, there’s probably a club for it. And if there isn’t, feel free to be the one to start it! Remember, they want to know that you do more than just live and breathe medicine, show your interests and ability to take a leadership position and be a part of a team in something you truly enjoy.
There are tons of clubs out there for you to join, especially at some of the state colleges. Show your diversity and dedication by partaking in the clubs that interest you over the years. You don’t have to be President of each one either – different roles will show you have a wide-range of skillsets and can work as a part of a team no matter what your role is. If you follow our recommended trifecta, you’ll be sure to have a well-rounded application by the time applications come around.
If you’re still feeling a little lost, that’s ok! Seek out some advice from fellow pre-meds and our mentors in our forums.
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