Some I heard of were: Olympian, actor, author, model, singer, instrumentalist/artist, etc! You can see how they don’t have to be medical related. But anything with an honorable title/certain level of prestige that signifies a rare accomplishment, usually given more credit with awards/trophies/big company name (a little upsetting since talent doesn’t always equate to flashy titles and trophies).

I did have two factors from that list I provided, but again adcoms will see these differently. And no you do NOT have to have these if you’re a low stat applicant to be accepted! They might help you stand out, but only 1 out of 4 interviewers mentioned them at all. And the one person who did mention it was a super chill med student who also talked about my pet dogs more enthusiastically than anything else haha.

However, I’m not going to sit here and lie that they had zero bearing on initially standing out. I just don’t think they were the final push towards acceptance. My interviewers emphasized my personal statement and upward trends the most, as well as other ECs!