Originally posted by peterockduke
Unless you're like the class prez, I really think the poli sci stuff is about as cookie cutter as they come. Only thing that could be any phonier is "pre-med society member". I'm sure this offended half the people on SDN considering we ALL have this kind of stuff... and we all know it took less than 3hours / week.
Cerebus
As far as your overall EC's, I'm guessing you have a year left, I'd say you're doing pretty nicely, if you don't get the volunteering do more shadowing. I don't think your ECs are gonna keep you out of a school if you know what I mean... just your grill. 
First off, polisci is different than being active with political groups. In any case, there are very few things that are not cookie-cutter, and Im surprised peterockduke doesnt consider being class prez cookie-cutter, since its basically a stupid popularity contest (need I remind pete of that hot girl who got elected for wearing Britney Spears-esque outfits on her election posters and won, but then committed some election violation).
So if youre interested in political advocacy, keep doing what youre doing. The fact is, being non-cookie cutter is absolute BS. Everything has been done before. All adcoms care about is depth of interest and your commitment in said activity. Is political advocacy is your thing, stick with it. If singing in a choir or working with habitat or doing student govt is your thing, do it. While a lot of these things can be mistaken to be cookiecutter, the fact is its only the people that do things half-assed just for the sake of doing them that get screwed.
And heck, there are gunners in ECs as well, who try to do a little bit of everything and dont do it well. Those people that are president of every club, but leave all the work to be done by the other officers since they only care about putting it on their app.
So if you like something, just stick with it. The AMCAS and secondaries will give you space to talk about your most important activities, and it asks for how much time you spent also. Its more important to have committed yourself to something, especially something youre interested in and enjoy, than to have done noncookie cutter things just for the sake of being noncookie cutter-- and in so doing, gain nothing from the experience and have nothing to talk about at the interview.
Also, on paper, I might be the most cookie cutter applicant ever, because it just happened that my interests were what most premeds were told to do by stupid premed guidebooks. And I did just fine, and that has more to do with the amount of time I spent doing these things and how I was able to talk about them at interviews.
Oh yeah, I talked about politics at every interview (sports was also a frequent topic), so who knows, it might be helpful.
Im sure yall do fine Cerb, and just in case you hadnt thought of this, have you ever thought of asking your own doc about anyone they might know who would let you shadow. Im guessing you already tried looking at your schools hospital. Academic hospitals seem much better at taking in students than private ones, just based on their mission.
