alternative spring break or shadowing?

[lebron]

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I just got an email that says i made it off the waitlist for an alternative spring break program through my school in philadelphia basically distributing food to food banks and stuff like that. its not too expensive ($200) either.

Before i found out about this, I was planning on shadowing an ER doctor over sprnig break who i had shadowed around 24 hours during winter break. I was really excited to shadow this doctor again because it was awesome and i could get an LOR from him, but Im wondering if this other program would be a better experience, even though it just sounds like i'll be just sorting food around. fyi, i dont have any really non medical communtiy service and on the other hand, this is the only doctor that i have shadowed and would like to shadow him some more. Im kinda at a toss up here.

Does any one with prior experiences have any advice for me? I have to let them know by thursday.

 

[ksmi117]

I've been on three different Alternative Service Break trips. And they are absolutely amazing!!! I highly highly recommend them. Two of them involved working in a soup kitchen type thing; we cooked and delivered food in low-income residents of the area. I'd say go on the trip. It's a week long service project. Not many people do that. I think it shows real commitment to serving your community. The shadowing can be rescheduled but this can't. Go for it! 😀

 

[fizzle]

I just got an email that says i made it off the waitlist for an alternative spring break program through my school in philadelphia basically distributing food to food banks and stuff like that. its not too expensive ($200) either.

Before i found out about this, I was planning on shadowing an ER doctor over sprnig break who i had shadowed around 24 hours during winter break. I was really excited to shadow this doctor again because it was awesome and i could get an LOR from him, but Im wondering if this other program would be a better experience, even though it just sounds like i'll be just sorting food around. fyi, i dont have any really non medical communtiy service and on the other hand, this is the only doctor that i have shadowed and would like to shadow him some more. Im kinda at a toss up here.

Does any one with prior experiences have any advice for me? I have to let them know by thursday.

Judging from what you've told us, go on the alternative spring break. You've already shadowed this doctor during a break, and frankly, you're not going to get much more out of the experience in an additional week. I'm of the thought that shadowing is only useful in moderation--you only need enough to see what the field is like. No point in stacking up hours of shadowing. Plus, what could a shadowed doctor write in a LOR? "This student showed up on time and watched all the operations and procedures with a diligent eye." He/she can't really speak to your capabilities (assuming that you followed the role of the shadow and didn't get involved in operations), and it sounds like it would turn out to be more of a character reference than anything about your capabilities (which is not very useful to adcoms).

 

[rocketbooster]

or you can go on a real spring break trip with your friends and have a blast. why should you spend your spring break volunteering? you have 51 other weeks in the year, especially during the summer, to volunteer. I guess this is just my opinion because I volunteer several days every week. I want my spring break just for selfish reasons haha.

but if that doesn't convince you, then just ask yourself this: what would Lebron do for spring break?

 

[ksmi117]

or you can go on a real spring break trip with your friends and have a blast. why should you spend your spring break volunteering? you have 51 other weeks in the year, especially during the summer, to volunteer.

but if that doesn't convince you, then just ask yourself this: what would Lebron do for spring break?

You make it sound like volunteering isn't fun. I highly doubt the entire trip morning to night would be volunteering in the same place. The places that get ASB's to go understand that we give up our breaks to help, so they are pretty lenient about working times. For example, I've been to the beach, been sightseeing around Chicago, been to see Wicked, etc., all during my ASB trips. Aside from the beach, I probably wouldn't have done the others without the trip. Plus, you get to go on a trip with a lot of other students like you and make new friends. I wouldn't trade the experiences I've had through ASB for anything.

 

[Bacchus]

or you can go on a real spring break trip with your friends and have a blast. why should you spend your spring break volunteering? you have 51 other weeks in the year, especially during the summer, to volunteer. I guess this is just my opinion because I volunteer several days every week. I want my spring break just for selfish reasons haha.

but if that doesn't convince you, then just ask yourself this: what would Lebron do for spring break?

Read the front page article I wrote about alternative spring break. You can have fun and volunteer time at the same time.

 

[fewcherpeedsdoc]

if you can't reschedule that shadowing of the doc, then i would do the community service thing. shadowing in the ER over night is pretty awesome. i was able to do trauma surgery and cool accidents come in. getting a solid LOR from a physician is important. do you think you can get one at the comm serv event from someone important? if not, i would just do the ER shadowing and pick up some comm serv near by. its a win win that way cuz you'll save 200 bucks which is two secondary applications or three primaries. hahaha

 

[rocketbooster]

You make it sound like volunteering isn't fun. I highly doubt the entire trip morning to night would be volunteering in the same place. The places that get ASB's to go understand that we give up our breaks to help, so they are pretty lenient about working times. For example, I've been to the beach, been sightseeing around Chicago, been to see Wicked, etc., all during my ASB trips. Aside from the beach, I probably wouldn't have done the others without the trip. Plus, you get to go on a trip with a lot of other students like you and make new friends. I wouldn't trade the experiences I've had through ASB for anything.

oh I love volunteering. it's a huge part of my life and i really enjoy it. just as with work, you should enjoy what you do but you still deserve a break. that's what spring break is for. that one week you can relax.

in response to bacchus, I didn't know you had time to do your own thing, too. that's pretty cool then because you get to travel through volunteering. personally, I don't know if I would do the trip if it was just for a week. when I volunteer, I really like to do something longterm and stay involved longterm. It's definitely a start to do it for a week, but if I were you, I would continue to help the ppl you'll be helping after this program is finished. the program lasts a week, but you can still make contacts outside of the program for future work. if you don't keep up with it later, then you might as well call this a vacation.

oh and to keep this relevant to the question at hand...yes, definitely do the trip. you can SHADOW anytime. the doctor will still be there when you return, and you only need so much clinical exposure through shadowing anyways. plenty of time to do that when you get back.

 

[Bacchus]

I did return to the Waveland area, actually in a followup trip.

 

[RoyBasch]

I just got an email that says i made it off the waitlist for an alternative spring break program through my school in philadelphia basically distributing food to food banks and stuff like that. its not too expensive ($200) either.

Before i found out about this, I was planning on shadowing an ER doctor over sprnig break who i had shadowed around 24 hours during winter break. I was really excited to shadow this doctor again because it was awesome and i could get an LOR from him, but Im wondering if this other program would be a better experience, even though it just sounds like i'll be just sorting food around. fyi, i dont have any really non medical communtiy service and on the other hand, this is the only doctor that i have shadowed and would like to shadow him some more. Im kinda at a toss up here.

Does any one with prior experiences have any advice for me? I have to let them know by thursday.

I did an ASB and it was one of my favourite experiences from undergrad. I also talked about the experience at some interviews and wrote about it in a secondary essay. I would say it boils down to how much clinical experience you have, if you feel you don't have enough and you can get in some quality shadowing like at least 30-40+ hours, then maybe do that.
-Roy

 

[DoctorDeMan]

I just got an email that says i made it off the waitlist for an alternative spring break program through my school in philadelphia basically distributing food to food banks and stuff like that. its not too expensive ($200) either.

Before i found out about this, I was planning on shadowing an ER doctor over sprnig break who i had shadowed around 24 hours during winter break. I was really excited to shadow this doctor again because it was awesome and i could get an LOR from him, but Im wondering if this other program would be a better experience, even though it just sounds like i'll be just sorting food around. fyi, i dont have any really non medical communtiy service and on the other hand, this is the only doctor that i have shadowed and would like to shadow him some more. Im kinda at a toss up here.

Does any one with prior experiences have any advice for me? I have to let them know by thursday.

I would do the spring break trip and then shadow the week or weekend after. You should be able to do both before application time even if the 24 hours is in the form of 3-4hrs over 6-8 weeks.

 

[Bacchus]

My friend did this ASB. If its the one sponsored by Campus Philly definitely do it. She had a lot of fun and did some neat projects around the city.