3.78 / 33 MCAT, Re-Applicant from last cycle. WAMC / Help with a school list?

[sovereign0]

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[Vain Brother]

assuming no other red flags, you should be good to go. the voluntourism thing might be OK if it's associated with the free clinics you did at home and you had an actual decision-making/leadership role

give us the list of schools you plan on applying to, and specify which ones are re-applications

 

[sovereign0]

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[sovereign0]

assuming no other red flags, you should be good to go. the voluntourism thing might be OK if it's associated with the free clinics you did at home and you had an actual decision-making/leadership role

give us the list of schools you plan on applying to, and specify which ones are re-applications

No other red flags, but thanks for mentioning the "voluntourism" thing. It was not associated with the free clinics I did at home. The way you phrased that implies that you believe it hurts my application?

It kind of sucks that all trips are labeled as medical tourism. Indeed, we did spend two days as tourists, but we spent four days working in clinics, and when I say working in clinics, we WORKED. Clinic days were 12 hours long including set-up and take-down. We admitted, took vital signs of, and gave drugs to over 500 people in my first trip, and many more the second time. After the clinics, we prepared for the next clinic until we fell asleep for a few hours, woke up, and did it again. I won't deny that we had two days off as tourists, but its really unfortunate that the consensus regarding such trips focuses on the tourism time rather than the patient care time.

 

[gyngyn]

It kind of sucks that all trips are labeled as medical tourism. Indeed, we did spend two days as tourists, but we spent four days working in clinics, and when I say working in clinics, we WORKED. Clinic days were 12 hours long including set-up and take-down. We admitted, took vital signs of, and gave drugs to over 500 people in my first trip, and many more the second time. After the clinics, we prepared for the next clinic until we fell asleep for a few hours, woke up, and did it again. I won't deny that we had two days off as tourists, but its really unfortunate that the consensus regarding such trips focuses on the tourism time rather than the patient care time.

Unless you can show that you did not displace someone who might be able to provide ongoing follow up, the work you did in these few days is for your benefit only.

 

[sovereign0]

Unless you can show that you did not displace someone who might be able to provide ongoing follow up, the work you did in these few days is for your benefit only.

As far as I know, our organization is the only provider of healthcare to the locations we visited, which were extremely rural. The nearest hospital is a 1.5 hour drive away at minimum, and few (if any) of our patients have cars. The population is extremely underserved. That said, I'm not quite sure how to prove that reliable providers were not displaced if I don't know if they were ever there.

I suppose the part I don't quite get is that even if we had traveled to a location where the population was adequately served, wouldn't the hours spent in contact with the patient still count as valid clinical experience? I feel that at the very least, time spent admitting patients and taking vitals is still a valuable experience whether it happens domestically or abroad, so I don't see how having it done abroad would hurt an applicant, especially when they have done the same domestically as well.

 

[gyngyn]

As far as I know, our organization is the only provider of healthcare to the locations we visited, which were extremely rural. The nearest hospital is a 1.5 hour drive away at minimum, and few (if any) of our patients have cars. The population is extremely underserved. That said, I'm not quite sure how to prove that reliable providers were not displaced if I don't know if they were ever there.

I suppose the part I don't quite get is that even if we had traveled to a location where the population was adequately served, wouldn't the hours spent in contact with the patient still count as valid clinical experience? I feel that at the very least, time spent admitting patients and taking vitals is still a valuable experience whether it happens domestically or abroad, so I don't see how having it done abroad would hurt an applicant, especially when they have done the same domestically as well.

"Visitors" can have the effect of discouraging local development of resources.
Your personal development may thus have the untoward effect of slowing medical sustainability for the most vulnerable.
I'm sure you mean well, but sustainable care is more likely to actually help.
Local volunteering has the advantage of accounting for this effect.

 

[sovereign0]

"Visitors" can have the effect of discouraging local development of resources.
Your personal development may thus have the untoward effect of slowing medical sustainability for the most vulnerable.
I'm sure you mean well, but sustainable care is more likely to actually help.
Local work has the advantage of accounting for this effect.

That's an interesting way to look at it and I can understand that. I still have the opinion that providing basic primary and preventative care where there is none was worthwhile and beneficial to the population (if only acutely), but I recognize that you are wiser than I am and your points are valid. If this is the case (and this isn't argumentative in any way, I mean it as a genuine question), why do many medical schools participate in medical missions / service missions?

Also, could you give any advice with respect to my application/school list?

Thank you.

 

[gyngyn]

That's an interesting way to look at it and I can understand that. I still have the opinion that providing basic primary and preventative care where there is none was worthwhile and beneficial to the population (if only acutely), but I recognize that you are wiser than I am and your points are valid. If this is the case (and this isn't argumentative in any way, I mean it as a genuine question), why do many medical schools participate in medical missions / service missions?

Also, could you give any advice with respect to my application/school list?

Thank you.

We only participate as a part of ongoing government-requested training of local health-care providers.
We also provide immediate aid to victims of natural disasters until permanent services can be re-instated.

 

[Vain Brother]

while i agree with gyngyn philosophically, i would still advise you to list the mission trips on your application, assuming you weren't doing anything outside of the scope of your knowledge. i don't think our view is anything like an overwhelming consensus view, though there are definitely some people on admissions boards who view these experiences askance. on balance it won't hurt you

as far as your school list, i think your "match" list has a nice mix of reaches and matches; your "reach" list are mostly hail marys. you could cut out all the "reaches" and find a few more matches i think