who is sick and tired of all this volunteering crap?

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NemoFish

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Greetings!

I just wanted to say that I think volunteering (not clinical--that is valuable)--but the community service crap that med schools seem to eat up--is a complete waste of my time. Why should I have to do a year or more, four hours per week, of helping the homeless? What is that going to add for my professional development except to make med schools happy?

I'm doing it, but just to make med schools happy. I should do 4 hours per week, but 2 is all I can muster.

Why do med schools seem to drool all over applicants who are so "service-committed?" Why is that even essential? I completely understand the value of clinical experience, but I think how long and how much should be left up to the applicant with no negative repurcussions--thus, if you think one day a week for one semester will do it, that's all you should have to do.
 
Originally posted by NemoFish

Why do med schools seem to drool all over applicants who are so "service-committed?" Why is that even essential?
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are you for for real? troll?
 
NemoFish,
I certainly hope you don't end up at a county hospital if you do not like helping the homeless.

And most people do community service for the simple pleasure of helping the community, not for personal gain. Med schools eat it up b/c it demonstrates altruism, not b/c it benefits your professional development (which it does, by the way - e.g. interacting w/ people of diverse backgrounds, leadership opportunities).

If you really don't like it, you shouldn't do it.
 
or rather you could consider the time you put into residency as "volunteer work" if you divide salary/work hours you are making about as much as the fry-guy at McDonalds.
 
Don't med schools realize that most people do it solely for the admissions and stop as soon as they are accepted? I don't know anyone involved in some kind of volunteering who is not pre-med.
 
Originally posted by NemoFish


Why do med schools seem to drool all over applicants who are so "service-committed?" Why is that even essential? I completely understand the value of clinical experience, but I think how long and how much should be left up to the applicant with no negative repurcussions--thus, if you think one day a week for one semester will do it, that's all you should have to do.
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Holy Crap! Are you SERIOUS??? I can't believe you even wasted your time typing that rediculous post. That's got to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my whole entire life.

It's your business that you don't want to do volunteer work that's not "Health Care Related" but if you seriously don't understand why ADCOMs like the other kind then you've got serious brain bumps. Doc. By the way, just out of curiousity, why do you want to be a doctor?
 
I just wanted to add that I don't know anyone in med school who does this sort of volunteering, residency programs don't care about it, and most pre-meds I know drop all their volunteering the moment they're accepted, which is what I plan to do.

Don't med schools realize that people are quitting their volunteering as soon as they're accepted? Doesn't this prove to them that people are just padding their applications?

I just think that med schools should appreciate the other EC's people do just as much that don't involve the homeless, such as starting a business, working on a campus newspaper, etc. Yes, there's no real altruism at work in these activities, but they're important just the same.
 
I love when we get a new batch of know-it-alls.
 
Originally posted by NemoFish
I just wanted to add that I don't know anyone in med school who does this sort of volunteering, residency programs don't care about it, and most pre-meds I know drop all their volunteering the moment they're accepted, which is what I plan to do.

Don't med schools realize that people are quitting their volunteering as soon as they're accepted? Doesn't this prove to them that people are just padding their applications?

I just think that med schools should appreciate the other EC's people do just as much that don't involve the homeless, such as starting a business, working on a campus newspaper, etc. Yes, there's no real altruism at work in these activities, but they're important just the same.
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If you are so adamant about this, why dont you let the adcoms know your position? Better yet, put it in your personal statment. End it with your line "Why do med schools seem to drool all over applicants who are so "service-committed?" Why is that even essential?"
 
Originally posted by NemoFish
I just think that med schools should appreciate the other EC's people do just as much that don't involve the homeless, such as starting a business, working on a campus newspaper, etc. Yes, there's no real altruism at work in these activities, but they're important just the same.
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They do appreciate these too. You never know if the ADCOM reviewing your application worked on a campus newspaper and will like you for it. You really don't have stick with the homeless.
 
Originally posted by exmike
If you are so adamant about this, why dont you let the adcoms know your position? Better yet, put it in your personal statment. End it with your line "Why do med schools seem to drool all over applicants who are so "service-committed?" Why is that even essential?"
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Oh God, that hurts my side
 
Who out there has listed on their application that they volunteered 4 hours/week when it really was only like 20 minutes or so? C'mon, fess up. Don't be so self-righteous. We all know that this volunteer crap has nothing to do with how good of a radiologist, dermatologist, or plastic surgeon you'll end up being. Rock on, private insurance!
 
I honestly enjoy my volunteer work, its a break from the academic crap that permeates my life.
 
Originally posted by pboothe
By the way, just out of curiousity, why do you want to be a doctor?
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Does the second to last sentence in the last NemoFish's post answer your question?
 
Seriously dude, if you haven't yet, you really should make your feelings known to the schools that you're applying to. They'll eat this up.

Honestly: Yes students (as have I) do volunteer work because it looks good on a medical school application. However, I did find it very rewarding and I have nothing to complain about. I don't regret it, and given the chance, I would do it again. I like helping people. I know it can be hard sometimes to squeeze in volunteer work in the high volume curriculum of medical school, but some students still find time to do it in med school, and have you ever heard of an organization called Doctor's Without Borders? To me, these are the great doctors: NOT the ones that pull down 500Gs a year. Granted that these docs are probably saving lives and helping people too, but to me, the true measure of a great doctor is a combination of skill AND altruism.

After all, what is the point of being a doctor, maybe we should check what Hippocrates had to say about all of this.
 
Originally posted by Pinkertinkle
I honestly enjoy my volunteer work, its a break from the academic crap that permeates my life.
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So do I, but I guess I'm one of those weird people that's trying to figure out a way I can continue my volunteer work through and after med school.

Oh, I do know lots of non pre-med people who volunteer. It would be rather disastrous to the volunteering community if the only people who volunteered were those interested in beefing up their resumes.
 
Like any of you really enjoy your community service. If so, I challenge you to dump your future 150k+ salaries and join "Doctor's Without Borders" or some other international aid organization to practice during the extent of your career.

Any takers?

Didn't think so. I spend my community time doing other things, such as working with the youth at my church. The secret is to do things you enjoy and find a way to weave that in, not do something you dislike because someone told you to do it.
 
This thread is very sad.
 
Originally posted by pboothe
This thread is very sad.
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Why? Because it destroys the fantasy self-images you guys have developed about yourselves from the pressure of impressing adcoms? Some people become so absorbed in the "premed epitome" that they begin to believe they actually ARE that person.

Am I the ONLY honest person on this entire forum? I'm sorry, but I cannot say that I enjoy feeding some homeless guy over going out with my friends on a Saturday night. I do, however, enjoy some of the other service-oriented activities I do, but I guess I'm a bastard because I chose to do them within a context I enjoy instead of trying to be the person with the biggest altruism penis.
 
This thread is partially crappy but partially right. If you do volunteering that you absolutely hate for the sake of padding your application you have become the proverbial pre-med status quo bitch...meaning you're doing this just to keep up with other pre-meds and you've become the bitch of stereotypical premed ideals.
 
NO. Because it promotes the idea that pre-meds are mostly motivated by money, which perpetuates the problems that our country is facing in healthcare. Doctors are not better people than everyone else. But they should care more. They should want to help people.

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with choosing a profession because of monetary satisfaction, but if that is your sole reason for choosing medicine then why didn't you go into something else. You're not going to make very much money for a long time anyways.

I don't understand what "fantasy" you're talking about, and to be honest I cannot believe that you are taking this stance on this thread.

That's all I have to say about that.....(<-----he he that was very Gumpish)
 
Actually, I think it promotes the idea that premeds are HUMAN. Why should I try to be Jesus Christ? I'm just a guy like any other.

I'm not likening my own ideals to the money-hungry bastards. I didn't choose medicine, it chose me. I understand that the time commitment, stress, long hours, hard work, etc. are not balanced by the high income. If I was interested in only money, I would have gone to Pharmacy or Dental school.

However, to question one's entire motivation for medicine because he doesn't like feeding a bunch of homeless crackheads is silly. I don't like feeding homeless people. There are a lot of community service activities I don't like. I choose to do what I want on my terms that still fit within the scope of what adcoms look for. In the end, I think this makes me a better applicant than the "premed status quo bitch", if only because I can speak more intelligently and vividly of experiences I enjoyed than the same boring half-assed drivel of the typical premed.

Being altruistic doesn't mean one has to enjoy every aspect of altruism.
 
Originally posted by JKDMed
Like any of you really enjoy your community service. If so, I challenge you to dump your future 150k+ salaries and join "Doctor's Without Borders" or some other international aid organization to practice during the extent of your career.

Any takers?

Didn't think so. I spend my community time doing other things, such as working with the youth at my church. The secret is to do things you enjoy and find a way to weave that in, not do something you dislike because someone told you to do it.
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JDKMed : just because we enjoy our community service doesn't mean that we can't balance traditional practice with community service as well. you don't have be a doctor w/o borders to give back to the community.
working with the youth at your church is a great thing to do. serving the community doesn't have to mean working with homeless. the whole point is to give some time and effort to helping others.

megalofyia: i too am one of those weird people intent on continuing my volunteer work through med school and beyond. and as a former leader of a community service org, i had the opportunity to work with countless people (most of them non-premeds!) who volunteered for the sake of volunteering.
 
i read this whole thread and i didnt see anything about the value of clinical experience. most pre-meds do their volunteering in hospitals. some even get to rotate in different units. this provides valuable experience with patients, families, doctors, nurses, healthcare system, etc. i guess if you had comparable clinical experience with a paid job, it wouldnt hurt your application too much by not volunteering. but i think we need to stop assuming that others naturally think like ourselves (i.e. hate helping those in need) and stop complaining about this whole process in general.
 
Wait a minute JKDMed.....we've gotten way off of the point that I was trying to make for the original poster.

The original question was more or less why do ADCOMs like seeing altruistic behavior on an app.

Is this really a question that needs to be asked?

To each his own. Whatever you do to help others is great. I never said that there is only one thing that should be done to help others.

All I said was: Doctors should want to help people.

Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
 
What baffles me most about volunteer work is why the participants feel they are "helping the community" when they push patients around the hospital in wheelchairs or deliver specimens to the lab. Or, in the homeless case, preparing food at a shelter, for instance. Is your contribution really doing anything? Let's be honest about that. That's why I don't understand why med schools "value" these experiences so much. What useful things are the applicants really getting out of them?

Clinical experiences (such as observing doctors or working as a volunteer history taker, etc.) I feel are very valuable, because you're actually doing something relevant to your future career and gaining experience, but I feel that answering phones at a clinic or folding linens in the ER is a) a load of crap and b) very doubtful that people really "enjoy" this.

I wish adcoms would eliminate the volunteering requirement altogether and not penalize you if you don't have it. If they did eliminate it, how many of you would still volunteer?
 
Would somebody please get this guy some meds?

Seriously!
 
Originally posted by NemoFish
What baffles me most about volunteer work is why the participants feel they are "helping the community" when they push patients around the hospital in wheelchairs or deliver specimens to the lab. Or, in the homeless case, preparing food at a shelter, for instance. Is your contribution really doing anything? Let's be honest about that. That's why I don't understand why med schools "value" these experiences so much. What useful things are the applicants really getting out of them?

Clinical experiences (such as observing doctors or working as a volunteer history taker, etc.) I feel are very valuable, because you're actually doing something relevant to your future career and gaining experience, but I feel that answering phones at a clinic or folding linens in the ER is a) a load of crap and b) very doubtful that people really "enjoy" this.

I wish adcoms would eliminate the volunteering requirement altogether and not penalize you if you don't have it. If they did eliminate it, how many of you would still volunteer?
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Your making alot of assumptions about what people do for volunteer work. The activities you mentioned would get rather dull very quickly and if I were an adcom I would completely feel that someone who did those things were just trying to make their resume and themselves feel good. But there are lot of truely helpful activities that people do that are far more rewarding. Tutoring children, working with the disabled, helping at free clinics, etc.
 
Originally posted by JKDMed
Like any of you really enjoy your community service. If so, I challenge you to dump your future 150k+ salaries and join "Doctor's Without Borders" or some other international aid organization to practice during the extent of your career.

Any takers?

Didn't think so. I spend my community time doing other things, such as working with the youth at my church. The secret is to do things you enjoy and find a way to weave that in, not do something you dislike because someone told you to do it.
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Actually that is what I plan to do, after military service. Just by going back to residency I'm surrendering 150K+. I see your point JKDMed, but I don't think you should blanket accuse everyone of not enjoying community service just because you dislike certain types of volunteer work.
 
Originally posted by NemoFish
What baffles me most about volunteer work is why the participants feel they are "helping the community" when they push patients around the hospital in wheelchairs or deliver specimens to the lab. Or, in the homeless case, preparing food at a shelter, for instance. Is your contribution really doing anything? Let's be honest about that. That's why I don't understand why med schools "value" these experiences so much. What useful things are the applicants really getting out of them?
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If you don't know the answers to those questions, then it doesn't really matter.
 
Tutoring children who would otherwise be out on the streets afterschool learning god knows what is very helpful and rewarding.
 
Originally posted by Megalofyia
Your making alot of assumptions about what people do for volunteer work. The activities you mentioned would get rather dull very quickly and if I were an adcom I would completely feel that someone who did those things were just trying to make their resume and themselves feel good. But there are lot of truely helpful activities that people do that are far more rewarding. Tutoring children, working with the disabled, helping at free clinics, etc.
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totally agree with this. when i think of "volunteer/community service" i don't automatically think of soup kitchens or roaming around a hospital.

i think there are 2 distinct things to look at: clinical experience (not necessarily voluntary), and demonstration of leadership, especially within a community. I didn't have ongoing, consistent volunteer activities like be at soup kitchen for 4 hrs/week or tutor for free, etc. Like a previous poster mentioned, I found things I enjoyed and weaved them in. In my case, I like to work on project type things so I found projects that fit the scope (and time I was willing to put in).

for what it's worth, i don't think it's the sheer quantity of what you do - it's quality, and demonstration of leadership, and that you like being with people - all kinds of people.
 
Obviously you're not doing the right kinds of volunteering if you feel this way. Sure a lot of people do it for the resume, but a lot of people also enjoy it. There is definitely a selfish benefit, but most people do volunteering out of the combination of resume padding and a genuine interest in a specific charity or group. I agree that most people dont volunteer out of truly altruistic purposes, this is a fact for 99% of people. However, you can at least volunteer for something you enjoy. And who knows, if youre lucky, you might get your selfish reward of a rec or EC, and also enjoy actually helping people.

There's nothing wrong in enjoying an activity and benefiting personally from it. In fact, that is perhaps ideal, because everybody wins, so to speak.

So dont hate on volunteering or service in general, but realize that you might be doing the wrong activity if you hate it so categorically. There is bound to be something out there that piques your interest, you just have to find it. There's nothing wrong with wanting a benefit to doing something, that is human nature, especially in the US, but there's also nothing wrong with having fun doing what you're doing and actually helping people out.
 
i have volunteered 1000s of hours in the past 5 years. when i get accepted, im going to quit ALMOST everything. ill still give like 5-10 hours/wk instead of 40-60 (yes, im being serious, i volunteer that much).

does that mean i did it only for my application? no, i need some time to rest and get out there and really care about myself for the first time. i need to socialize and have fun before med school starts. in fact i already have an acceptance, but i still give 40-60 per week at various places in different parts of the city (i drive around, im losing lots of money from this, gas and could have a job); heck im even starting a new org at school before i leave....do i need to be doing any of this anymore....no, i did my interviews, everything is in already, now i just wait, but im still at it. i like it; i am committed and cant stop. so, point is, its okay to quit once you get in or once you get into your first choice, cause you need the time off to live a little (well, if you havent already like me). and anyone that does this for their app is a loser. im on the board for an org and the other board members dont do anything, im left responsible; obviously i can tell they did it for their app while i did it cause i like it (and yes that will help my app, i cant deny that). you really shouldnt be in this whole thing if you dont like it (service, science) to begin with? i know many one med student who doesnt even like science???? why would you? i guess maybe money, a steady job, pretige??

thoughts?
 
I agree with what JKDMed and NemoFish have said, and really they do make some valid points. However, I really do think it is POSSIBLE to enjoy helping others voluntarily. Personally, I thought I WASN'T going to enjoy the volunteer activites I got involved with, but I found that I really love doing what I'm doing right now. Will I continue volunteering in med school (God willing- I get there)? Maybe. Maybe not. But I'm not going to think that I just put the volunteer activities I did on my application if I didn't feel passionate about them. I think that it is important that you do things only because you want to do them. If you enjoy tudoring kids, or feeding the homeless, God thanks you. I enjoy teaching music lessons voluntarily to under-privledged children, but I hate filing medical forms at the hospital. I stopped doing it. Do what you want.

But I think it's unfair to argue that NO ONE finds enjoyment in it, so just be careful.
 
I agree that med schools want to see "leadership in the community" but what does that mean?

How is anyone supposed to get that from volunteering? In my volunteer community service position, I cook up food for the homeless and I hate every second of it. How do you find leadership in that?
 
You should have opened your own soup kitchen:managed all the cooking, the volunteers, the people who came into the kitchen, all the ordering etc...
THAT would have shown leadership.
 
I actually get way more out of volunteering than I do from most of the other things I have to do to get into medical school (like studying minutia until my brains drip out of my nose and ears). And all of my volunteering (and paid work) has been with the homeless. However, that's the patient population I feel the most comfortable around. I feel inspired by what I do, and it makes the rest of the crap I have to do easier on me.

If you hate what you're doing, do something else. Go to a volunteer registry or website, and pick something that will inspire you. If you like plastic surgery and derm, volunteer your time to agencies that provide reconstructive or burn surgery to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. Or if you're interested in derm, work in a burn unit or shadow a derm oncologist for a while.

I think the point of volunteering is that no matter what you do in medicine, there are going to be downsides to you're chosen profession. Med schools can teach you disease pathology and surgery, but they really can't teach you how to deal with the emotions of a child who is profoundly disfigured, if you chose plastics or derm. Nor can they teach you to give a damn about the people whose lives will ultimately be in your hands. They want to see that you're ready and willing to handle these "soft" skills on your own.

Just my opinion,

Nanon
 
i just came back a few minutes ago...

and i just had to read this thread...i couldnt even get past the first page.

look bro i dont know whats wrong with you...but damn.

having experienced being homeless myself thanks for showing that you dont give a crap about the people that need some help.

after we got settled...ive been helping out feeding the homeless since high school.

i love teaching kids, which is why i helped team teach a 3rd grade class last year.

i like to help out my fellow koreans so i volunteer my time for students and others who come here either temporarily or permanently and get them situated to the area and culture...

i volunteered hella hours at childrens hospital up north and when i graduated and moved back down to LA...i still drove up every month to do a shift, kit with the kids, and enjoy the weekend up there.

and yet you would call all this stuff "crap" ....unbelievable...
 
Originally posted by NemoFish
I just wanted to add that I don't know anyone in med school who does this sort of volunteering, residency programs don't care about it, and most pre-meds I know drop all their volunteering the moment they're accepted, which is what I plan to do.
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Actually, I know plenty of people in med school who have continued to do community service. Personally speaking, I actually increased my volunteering commitments after I got accepted to med school. Med schools don't know about it though b/c I didn't send update letters to any of them. But I don't give a damn because I enjoy volunteering at a soup kitchen for the homeless.

As for the reasons why altruistic activities are important, there are 40 million people who are uninsured in this country. The issue of access to health care is a severe problem for poor and minority populations. Adcoms obviously have an interest in producing a future generation of doctors who will try to rectify this problem. We don't need any more doctors who will go to med school, residency and then take care of rich people in suburbia.

Originally posted by NemoFish
I just think that med schools should appreciate the other EC's people do just as much that don't involve the homeless, such as starting a business, working on a campus newspaper, etc. Yes, there's no real altruism at work in these activities, but they're important just the same.
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Starting a business is as important as serving the homeless? Medicine is a profession that involves SERVICE to people. Starting a business or working on a campus newspaper has nothing to do w/ serving people. Those maybe interesting ECs (which adcoms will certainly note) but they have nothing to do with the service component of medicine.
 
Sheesh, you (the OP) have quite the cynical view of the world.

In college, I started volunteering the first week of freshman year--worked with Habitat and tutored elementary school kids. Three years later as I'm still pursuing those volunteer activities, I decide I want to go to medical school. So while, taking all my pre med reqs and studying for the MCAT, I was in charge of raising the money to build four houses (one in the States and 3 in Guatemala).

So second semester of my senior year, I alternated my Saturdays by either taking practice MCATs or leading the volunteers at the construction site all day. Did I do this because of my application? No! I started these projects even before I knew I wanted to go to medical school! I did them because I truly like helping people. Particularly getting my hands dirty and hauling up shingles to the top of a roof! 😀

I hope I can continue working with Habitat throughout my life as well as volunteering my future medical skills. I've thought about Doctors without Borders, but I frankly don't know if I could practice effectively in the crossfire of civil war. Abject poverty, I can deal with. Being afraid of having my head blown off, I don't think I'm that selfless.
 
Originally posted by spaz
NemoFish....If you really don't like it, you shouldn't do it.
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Yeah, it would be a wonderful thing to see your happy smiling face if I were in the hospital.


🙄

Hopefully, you're not serious.
 
Originally posted by jlee9531
i just came back a few minutes ago...

and i just had to read this thread...i couldnt even get past the first page.

look bro i dont know whats wrong with you...but damn.

having experienced being homeless myself thanks for showing that you dont give a crap about the people that need some help.

after we got settled...ive been helping out feeding the homeless since high school.

i love teaching kids, which is why i helped team teach a 3rd grade class last year.

i like to help out my fellow koreans so i volunteer my time for students and others who come here either temporarily or permanently and get them situated to the area and culture...

i volunteered hella hours at childrens hospital up north and when i graduated and moved back down to LA...i still drove up every month to do a shift, kit with the kids, and enjoy the weekend up there.

and yet you would call all this stuff "crap" ....unbelievable...
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Exactly. Volunteering is suppose to be about someone else's needs besides yours. You volunteer because the thing you get back from it can't be measured in "contact hours".

A terminally ill patient may never be coherent enough to say thank-you. The idea that you were there should be fulfilling enough. It's selfish to do good deeds just to get noticed, remember? 😕

What are you going to do after becoming a physician- take your $$$ and live in a mansion on the hill while other people in need stand by your feet begging bread? Or will you just be one of those doctors who pats himself on the back and become satisfied and complacent because you're some hot-shot doctor who knows his "stuff"? Some rich people simply pay other people to do good deeds in their name. I don't want to be one of those people.

Have you ever done a menial task just because a person was in need and needed someone to help them? Have you ever cleaned the feces and urine of an elderly person while they kept apologizing to you because they felt ashamed and embarassed? Have you ever looked in the eyes of a termially ill patient and reassured them that you would be back to see them "just because"? I guess I could go on, but I won't....

Maybe it was unusual, but in my house everybody volunteered in the community. It was a given as soon as you could walk and talk, you would be doing something. It's not about "you" I was taught, it was all about "them". My mother told us to check our attitudes at the door. We were cleaning old folk's houses while our friends played in the summertime. We visited old people that other kids in the neighborhood taunted and said they wouldn't go near them because they smelled bad.

My siblings and I would come home from school and find some our clothes missing. We knew then that there had been a fire somewhere "down the road". That's just life, the more you get, the more you should help.

I realize now that I didn't lose too much of my childhood after all.
The only thing I regret is that I didn't appreciate those moments more.
 
I hate it when trolls ruin the rest of my day. Thanks, NemoFish. 😡

Volunteering requires a lot of self-commitment and sincerity. Don't do it just because you want to "look good".

I can't believe that some future doctors have this kind of attitude. That's really sad 🙁
 
I'm glad to see that there is a lot of support for the non-ridiculous side of this argument.

I think the rest of you are just saying your crap for shock value. I guarantee you that you wouldn't be saying any of this **** to the ADCOMs.

However I do agree that quality is more important than quantity, and I do agree that health care related volunteering is very important, but there is no way in hell that I'm going to believe that no one enjoys helping the homeless. I'm becoming a doctor to help sick people (regardless of their income), and feeding the homeless would be a good way to become acclimated to potential patients.
 
Lotsa people in this thread have eloquently explained the benefits of volunteer work, so this is just my 2 cents. I'm grateful to NemoFish for raising the topic; hopefully s/he will gain some insight as a result.

I suspect that medical schools are trying to encourage more selflessness and generosity in future doctors. The stereotype has been the driven, competitive, cynical cutthroat sabotage-the-other-guy's-experiment kind of creeps that turned me off to medicine years ago when I was in school. It's a good idea, but of course some people will cynically exploit the best laid plans for their own ends and simply do their 4 hours a week at a hospital for resume padding. Too bad but one hopes they'll at least develop a little humility, if nothing else.

Another thing is that a lot of young premeds have little to talk about; they went straight through school, perhaps taking summer school courses, and applied to med schools. If they did some work at a hospital along the way, volunteer or otherwise, the adcom has something to talk to them about other than the tired old routine "Q: why do you want to study medicine"--"A: I've always wanted to heal people."

Volunteering at a local hospital has a lot of advantages even if you are not into giving of yourself. First, you can understand more about health care--you can ask everyone lots of questions ("How do you like your field? Would you choose nursing again? Is there a future in radiology? Did you enjoy being a resident here?" etc.). It's a way to gain a bit of insider's understanding. It will help you understand healthcare from the peon's point of view. You'll be around patients, some with serious pain, suffering, and disfigurement; you'll be around death. You might like to know if you can stomach this kind of work.
 
Originally posted by pboothe
I'm glad to see that there is a lot of support for the non-rediculous side of this argument.

Dude, it's spelled ridiculous
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Troll or not, I'm coming down on the side of Nemofish on this one. I absolutely detest working for free and I am not particualrly keen on saving the world through my volunteer hours. I served in the military, I pay taxes, and I frequently give winos a couple of bucks so they can buy some cheap liquour. What more do you want?

The "volunteer" thingy was the one thing that almost made me not apply to medical school. I sucked it up, got registered as an EMT, and did just enough volunteer hours on an ambulance (which I did enjoy, by the way) to honestly put on my application "volunteered as an EMT." (And also enough hours to realize that paramedics are some of the most underpaid, underappreciated, professionals in the country.)

I'm not against volunteering, I'm just a against the self-righteousness involved with a lot of it, especially as it applies to medical school applications. It's almost as if some people are bragging.

I think that in medical school, as many of you will find, it is only necessary to be professional. You will be treating plenty of people for free, your courtesy to them will make them feel respected, and there will be no functional difference in patient care between the guy who's in it primarily for the money and the guy who feels a "calling."
 
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