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It matters a lot for any single school. If you devote 3 hours a week for 6 months for volunteering you will be somewhat fine for research heavy schools, such as Stanford if you have significant research experience. But you better accumulate those 150 hours of community service.
 
Do you mind sharing your zip code or general geographic area? I could suggest some particular sites that connect volunteers with volunteer opportunities but it would help to know your general location.

PM me if you don't want to share that information publicly.
 
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I was surprised at how much it mattered at those schools!! I was so concerned about my research hours but in my interviews at T20s no one ever mentioned any of my research except my gap year job. We mostly talked about my volunteer experiences. This was especially true at UCSF because they have a very social justice-oriented mission.
 
KendallJennerSniperLady69 said:
I think my stats make me competitive for T20 schools (3.95/525) with most things "checked-off" except for underserved volunteering...

I'm still looking for opportunities, but at this rate, I may only get to be a volunteer for like 6 months or less before I submit primary applications...

For T20 schools, namely UCLA/UCSF, how much does underserved volunteering matter? Will I be at a significant disadvantage at these schools if I don't have any underserved volunteer experience?

Let's say I do find a volunteer position: will 6 months of volunteering actually end up mattering? Will any "projected hours" be taken seriously?

I will be applying next cycle, and am currently in a gap-year.
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It matters a LOT from what I have seen from successful SDNers.
 
mass-premed66 said:
I was surprised at how much it mattered at those schools!! I was so concerned about my research hours but in my interviews at T20s no one ever mentioned any of my research except my gap year job. We mostly talked about my volunteer experiences. This was especially true at UCSF because they have a very social justice-oriented mission.
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+1
I am doing an AmeriCorps service year at a health center and have spent WAY more time talking about that and crisis counseling than my research (which I have done a lot of).
 
KendallJennerSniperLady69 said:
So just for clarification, I have about 600 hours of clinical volunteering (100 of that may or may not be nonclinical).

My question is strictly about volunteering for UNDERSERVED populations. I have had contact with people from underserved populations in my clinical experiences, but I would not say that I have extensive volunteer experience with volunteering to help underserved populations.
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Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.
 
KendallJennerSniperLady69 said:
As a someone who studied neuroscience and is trying to also see how I can address current problems in healthcare (to the best of my very little ability lol), do you think volunteering to help recovering addicts/individuals or families fighting against addiction can count as underserved volunteering? If so, that sounds like something I'd like to get involved in, but it also seems like a restricted population, as I haven't found any opportunities related to that yet.

Thank you for taking the time to reply!
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In Westchester County, NY or Grosse Point, M<I? No. Too many privileged addicts.

Harlem or Bed-Stuy, or Watts? Then you're you're talking underserved.
 
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UCSF cares a lot about volunteering with the underserved; most of my classmates and applicants I interviewed had significant volunteer experiences with underserved populations, whether clinical or non-clinical. That’s not to say that an otherwise strong app would be turned down, but it would be a significant weakness in your application if missing.
 
differentiating said:
UCSF cares a lot about volunteering with the underserved; most of my classmates and applicants I interviewed had significant volunteer experiences with underserved populations, whether clinical or non-clinical. That’s not to say that an otherwise strong app would be turned down, but it would be a significant weakness in your application if missing.
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For a traditional applicant, how many hours is minimum for UCSF?
 
EdgeTrimmer said:
For a traditional applicant, how many hours is minimum for UCSF?
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It’s less about “minimums” and more about how you can talk about the experience. Longitudinal commitments are always a plus as well. But I wouldn’t aim for a particular number of hours.
 
differentiating said:
It’s less about “minimums” and more about how you can talk about the experience. Longitudinal commitments are always a plus as well. But I wouldn’t aim for a particular number of hours.
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I understand but I heard should aim for 150 hours of clinical volunteering and I wondering if UCSF expects more than that.
 
EdgeTrimmer said:
I understand but I heard should aim for 150 hours of clinical volunteering and I wondering if UCSF expects more than that.
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For a school of UCSF's class, you should have > 200.

SDNers who made it into the really Top Schools seem to have hundreds, if not even 1000s of hours in the ECs, and I don't mean research or shadowing.
 
Goro said:
For a school of UCSF's class, you should have > 200.

SDNers who made it into the really Top Schools seem to have hundreds, if not even 1000s of hours in the ECs, and I don't mean research or shadowing.
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Yes to this. Just looked up my primary, I have about 550 hours of volunteering (clinical and otherwise) in addition to research hours, work, and athletics.
 
I'd encourage anyone looking for ways to volunteer with underserved populations to check out your local county health system. They should have many different centers that provide services and resources to populations that may fit more specific interests--homeless & marginally housed, women & children, LGBT centers, teens & adolescents, recovering addicts, etc.
 
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Goro said:
Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you. And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.
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Does volunteering with animals (humane society, animal shelter, adoption service, etc.) count as working with the underserved though?
 
glassshark said:
Does volunteering with animals (humane society, animal shelter, adoption service, etc.) count as working with the underserved though?
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yes, if you want to be a vet. If you aspire to a career helping people, volunteer to help people who need help they can't afford to pay for.
 
LizzyM said:
yes, if you want to be a vet. If you aspire to a career helping people, volunteer to help people who need help they can't afford to pay for.
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That's what I thought. Just seeing humane society on Goro's list had me scratching my head a bit. Still valuable volunteering experience, though, I'm sure.
 
glassshark said:
That's what I thought. Just seeing humane society on Goro's list had me scratching my head a bit. Still valuable volunteering experience, though, I'm sure.
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Goro and I are in different orbits.
 
glassshark said:
Does volunteering with animals (humane society, animal shelter, adoption service, etc.) count as working with the underserved though?
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Underserved? No. Display of altruism? Yes. Can it it be your sole volunteering endeavor? Of course not.
 
glassshark said:
Does volunteering with animals (humane society, animal shelter, adoption service, etc.) count as working with the underserved though?
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To add to @Goro's comment ... volunteering with a humane society shows "kindness, compassion and human-ness" (and less robotic box-check churning, hoping some "thing" will make your volunteer ECs "look good" on your application).

Pre-med box checkers are a dime-a-dozen. We already know that.

Goro was simply providing a short list of general "volunteer" activities. You will meet-listen-counsel-and-even console underserved people from every demographic imaginable at a humane society. It won't be your primary or sole pre-med "human clinical" volunteer EC, but it still gets "altruistic" credit from me. 😎
 
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