A really dumb question

[tennisball80]

So, now I am very interested in SDN and I go on here every day. If I become a mod in like 2 or 3 years when I stay long enough, can I put that down on my medical school admission application ?

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[Bacchus]

You can do anything you want but it has to happen first to report it.

 

[Thrombomodulin]

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[tennisball80]

Does it count as extracurricular activies or volunteer activies ?

Do I need to record the hours on SDN when I am a mod ?

Sorry if those questions are too dumb.

 

[Thrombomodulin]

.

 

[tennisball80]

I don't think the adcoms want to know how many hours I am on SDN!

Seriously, I have no idea.

Damn, it's going to be nice if it's quivalent to volunteer hours in a hospital and the hours spending on SDN.

 

[Depakote]

If I was as involved a few years ago as I am now, I would have put it on...

I don't think it would have been much more than a footnote to most adcoms, but it's definitely important to me. I wouldn't think of it in terms of adding up the hours but in terms of how meaningful the activity is to you.

 

[Az1698]

How do you become a mod?

 

[Depakote]

How do you become a mod?

Typically you must be active in a specific forum for ~6+ months. The staff of that forum recognizes you as being a helpful poster, we'll then go through our internal nomination process. All goes well, we'll contact you and make an offer.

 

[Caesar]

I spend ~6 hours / week in a hospital, ~2 hours / week doing club leadership stuff, ~10 hours / month shadowing and well over 14 hours/week on SDN. Will I put it? Probably, not because it is impressive but because I enjoy it and spend a significant amount of time doing this.

 

[docB]

Damn, it's going to be nice if it's quivalent to volunteer hours in a hospital and the hours spending on SDN.

It's not. I think that SDN is a great EC to put down however many adcoms won't know what it is. Here's my advice: If you like SDN and think it's useful to you then get as involved as you like. But don't neglect hospital volunteer hours and other more traditional ECs.

The real value of SDN is not in doing it so you can list it (although I'm a big proponent of claiming it as an activity). The value of SDN is in getting advice, bouncing ideas off of others who are going through what you are or have been through it, and comisserating with colleagues.

 

[bananaface]

If you can explain to the Adcom how your experience on staff supports your application, then by all means include it. If you can't, then don't. That goes for anything, though.

 

[HumidBeing]

It's not a dumb question. Most people don't become mods, even if they've been around for a year or more. We recruit new ones the way that Depakote described when we have vacancies to fill.

Even as a mods, not all of the time we spend on here is "work". So, claiming all of the time we spend here as volunteer time wouldn't be truthful. If I were to list modding as one of my activities, I would probably drastically understate the amount of time that I put into it, and would emphasize the parts that go on behind the scenes, because that's where I think that I've gained the most beneficial experience.

 

[tennisball80]

Thanks for all of your replies.

I appreciate all of your comments.

 

[Caesar]

It's not a dumb question. Most people don't become mods, even if they've been around for a year or more. We recruit new ones the way that Depakote described when we have vacancies to fill.

Even as a mods, not all of the time we spend on here is "work". So, claiming all of the time we spend here as volunteer time wouldn't be truthful. If I were to list modding as one of my activities, I would probably drastically understate the amount of time that I put into it, and would emphasize the parts that go on behind the scenes, because that's where I think that I've gained the most beneficial experience.

You mean the cooler isn't an Ec?!!?! haha. I totally agree with what you said.

 

[Law2Doc]

I don't think it would have been much more than a footnote to most adcoms, ...

Yeah, I don't think most folks put it on, but I suppose you could. I'd have concerns that you basically open up your entire posting history to the admissions folks. Nobody needs to give that much insight to the adcoms, particularly since some posts may contain bad grammar, or catch you in a bad mood etc -- unless you are doing all your posts with admissions in mind, you run a big risk. So yeah, there are better yield ECs to spend your time with. You do SDN for the fun of it, not for what it gets you.

 

[tennisball80]

You do SDN for the fun of it, not for what it gets you.

Yea definitely !