The range of "social skills" among pre-med students is very large. Some are very talkative, active, and extroverted, while others are shy, reserved, and introverted, but in the end, "social skills" aren't just about being outgoing vs. quiet.
Social Skills are one of the AAMC's 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students that medical schools look for when selecting candidates. Let’s talk about what it means, how most pre-meds satisfy it, and how you can make your Social Skills stand out among the pool of applicants.
Social Skills are one of the five interpersonal competencies defined by the AAMC. The AAMC defines Social Skills as “an awareness of others’ needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples’ interactions and behaviors; adjusts behaviors appropriately in response to these cues; treats others with respect.”
In simple terms, they want to see that the student has a general awareness of others, understands the role that social and behavioral cues play in interactions and behaviors of others, and adjusts accordingly.
Basically, medical schools want people who are easy to work with, good team members, good communicators, pleasant to be around, assertive/proactive yet tactful, and sensitive.
And generally Social Skills are key to opening up a lot of opportunities for you on your path to medical school.
It works out conveniently that these are qualities you should already want to hone and improve as a person, regardless of ambitions in medicine.
It is common for pre-meds to feel mortified by concepts such as public speaking, interviews, networking, confrontation, etc. On the other end, there are some pre-meds who are extremely comfortable with the concepts listed earlier or they are social in their day-to-day life. As said, there is a wide range in how comfortable pre-meds feel socializing. Pre-meds look to demonstrate their social skills by doing some of the following:
Social Skills can be presented or demonstrated through joining clubs or performing activities. However, medical schools like to confirm their judgements through interviews. That’s why interviews exist. Your social skills can also be judged in a social setting.
This can be a two-step process. Medical schools will judge Social Skills (at least indirectly) by the activities you choose and the roles you fill. Then, they confirm those Social Skills during the interview.
Social Skills are hard to master, and that is why it is important to practice:
It is quite important to practice the suggestions above and turn them into daily habits. They take a long time to develop and they require the ability to be self-critical, within reason. It is best to develop the suggestions above into habits with help of family and friends. Ask for them if they see any improvements: if you are closer to achieving a certain suggestion, if you can improve at a certain aspect, or what they suggest will help you.
There are a ton of social challenges that encourage people to grow - maybe link to some of them like this: https://www.coaching-online.org/comfort-zone-challenges/
About the Author:
Srinikhil Vemuri is a second-year biomedical engineering student at Texas A&M. Srinikhil is passionate about sports medicine and integrating his education in engineering to further aid in the development of technologies that assist in the recovery of injured players and to detect the chances of injury before they even occur, all while working as a physician. Srinikhil's other interests include watching soccer, reading magazines about cars, and spending time with friends and family.
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