WOW. That was sure something, I don't know if I can even call it advice. Are you being serious when you said pre-meds are making huge sacrifices to get into medical school? No, that is just not okay. Soldiers are making huge sacrifices to protect our country and people who put others first and foremost are making sacrifices, not pre-meds who are tying to check off a list of things to do to get into medical school. The end goal is not medical school and if it is for you, all I got to say is bad news: there is something called residency and working as a doctor and helping people and caring for them and passing dozens of more exams down the road.
Easy there, I have no idea what I did to piss you off so badly... You realize that the word sacrifice is used on different scales? I never once compared pre-meds to the troops, nor did I call them heroes or anything of that nature. As
@baxt1412 said, it's a relative term. If you head over to the allopathic forum, you'll see that people say medical school is a big sacrifice. If this offends you, then maybe medical school isn't for you... And news flash, in order to get into residency and work as a doctor, you need to get into medical school in the first place. And what do I mean by huge sacrifice? The pre-meds who get far in the process, put all of their eggs in one basket (hard science majors), and end up not getting into medical school will often be left in the cold. They won't be able to get a decent high paying job. They will find themselves underemployed. I know people who this happened to, including a person friend who was once pre-med, but is now working full-time years after getting her college degree as a receptionist in a doctor's office. This is the same doctor's office she worked at as a pre-med, and thus didn't require anything beyond her high school diploma to do. Hence, this is what I meant by sacrifice. This is the biggest bottleneck in the process, and the one where thousands of applicants get weeded out. Out of all the parts on SDN, pre-allopathic is the largest, and for good reasons.
Not checking boxes off won't make you fail, in fact it might even help you stand out because from those EC's OP you look so boring (this is not meant to criticize you since obviously I don't know you in person and this is just an internet forum, but I am trying to point out all the aspects that are wrong with the "advice" this person gave you) and like you were just trying to get into medical school verses actually looking for activities and volunteer opportunities that you will enjoy.
Well then, why do you think most of these people are doing these activities in the first place? How many people do you personally know in college that are doing so many service activities? Altruism is a very rare trait. The people who are genuinely altruistic are impressive indeed, but rare as well. Can you honestly tell me that college students with no interest in medical school or other health professional schools are lining up at hospital doors so that they can volunteer and end up cleaning beds, restocking shelves, and doing other free labor for the hell of it? Also, how many pre-meds that end up dropping their medical school ambitions actually continue these activities? Are pre-meds creating these laundry-list of activities because they might actually be trying to get into medical school?
And seriously Planes2Doc, "do what's best for you, and only you"? What sort of mentality is that? Here you go telling OP the importance of longevity in volunteering yet you can't even come up with something that even remotely resembles the idea behind WHY people volunteer and put their time into volunteer work. Your post is beyond redemption.
The genuinely altruistic people volunteer because they want to. Pre-meds who aren't genuinely altruistic volunteer because it's an unwritten requirement. If it weren't for their medical school ambitions, they wouldn't be doing these activities in the first place. Look, if people want to volunteer, they have their entire lives to do it. But during this stressful time which can make or break the rest of your life, why not make better choices that will help you first? Would you rather do a volunteer activity which lets you spend 90% of the time studying, or would you rather do a volunteer activity which keeps you doing meaningful work all the time? If that study time means the difference between getting into medical school, then it's worth it. So like I said, pre-meds are volunteering because they have to. This is WHY pre-meds volunteer and put their time into volunteer work. I'm sorry that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, but if this upsets you so much, then you should not only be upset at me, but upset at every pre-med that has volunteered not out of genuine passion.
