Community Service and Research

[Lisztomania287]

Hello! It's my first time actually posting here!

I'm a second year pre-med, undergraduate student at a large research university and I am in need of some advice regarding what extracurricular path to take!

So far, I've been getting myself involved in whatever that interested me and now I am the president of a dancing club, a volunteer of the university hospital (promoted to an internship position at the hospital volunteer center for the next school year), and an employed student supervisor at the university television studio (part time job making videos for the school).

I've been involved in those activities for the past two years and my GPA has been pretty good so now I think I can manage another extracurricular activity! I would enjoy doing bunch of more things but I know that I can't handle too much so now I am stuck between the two: community service or research?

I've never done research before and I would love to get some experience in a psychology or neurology lab. However, there are a few community service programs working with less privileged population in the city that I am interested in joining! I enjoy human interaction more so I'm leaning towards the community service but research sounds interesting too.

I'm weak on both areas for med school app and since both of them require a long term time commitment, I thought I should ask for some advice here! For personal development and the application, which one would you recommend and why?

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[Catalystik]

Hello! It's my first time actually posting here!

I'm a second year pre-med, undergraduate student at a large research university and I am in need of some advice regarding what extracurricular path to take!

So far, I've been getting myself involved in whatever that interested me and now I am the president of a dancing club, a volunteer of the university hospital (promoted to an internship position at the hospital volunteer center for the next school year), and an employed student supervisor at the university television studio (part time job making videos for the school).

I've been involved in those activities for the past two years and my GPA has been pretty good so now I think I can manage another extracurricular activity! I would enjoy doing bunch of more things but I know that I can't handle too much so now I am stuck between the two: community service or research?

I've never done research before and I would love to get some experience in a psychology or neurology lab. However, there are a few community service programs working with less privileged population in the city that I am interested in joining! I enjoy human interaction more so I'm leaning towards the community service but research sounds interesting too.

I'm weak on both areas for med school app and since both of them require a long term time commitment, I thought I should ask for some advice here! For personal development and the application, which one would you recommend and why?

For your personal development, do what appeals to you most.

For your application, be strategic and go with research for 1-3+ terms (depending on what type of schools you want to target), to have a broader appeal, as you do have a clinical volunteer position that will have excellent longevity by the time you apply. However, nonmedical community service to those in need seems to be increasingly appreciated and will be specifically looked for by some schools. Can you fit in an intense time commitment to something this coming summer and over school breaks, or alternatively during the academic year for just an hour a week, or 4 hours a month, along with a research gig? Or alternatively, plan on a gap year and delay your application until after you complete senior year and make everything stronger.

 

[NeuResurgens]

Your biggest gap is research, since you already have clinical volunteering. You might try and get a basic job in a lab group to see what your interest in the subject is. If you end up not liking it all that much, you can switch into community service instead.

 

[Lisztomania287]

@Catalystik , It seems like more people are recommending doing both research and non-medical community service. However, do the number of hours done per week for both research and community service matter significantly? I was planning to get myself involved in approximately 12-15 hour per week research but in order to do both, I'll probably have to limit my research time to 10 hours per week or less.

From reading a good deal of SDN posts, it seems like many people think 10 hours is not enough to be fully involved in the "real research" process.

In addition, does it matter if the community service is non-medical or medical? I am thinking about either a program that provides medical attention to homeless population or another organization that tutors illiterate children. Both are appealing to me.

I'm planning to intensely involve myself into either research or community (or possibly both) this summer.

Thank you everyone for your advice!

 

[tiedyeddog]

@Catalystik , It seems like more people are recommending doing both research and non-medical community service. However, do the number of hours done per week for both research and community service matter significantly? I was planning to get myself involved in approximately 12-15 hour per week research but in order to do both, I'll probably have to limit my research time to 10 hours per week or less.

From reading a good deal of SDN posts, it seems like many people think 10 hours is not enough to be fully involved in the "real research" process.

In addition, does it matter if the community service is non-medical or medical? I am thinking about either a program that provides medical attention to homeless population or another organization that tutors illiterate children. Both are appealing to me.

I'm planning to intensely involve myself into either research or community (or possibly both) this summer.

Thank you everyone for your advice!

Eh, 10 hours or less of research might be OK, it kind of depends what your role is in the lab. Are you going to independently plan a project and do it with ten hours a week? No.

Also, the volunteering doesn't necessarily have to be medical. Adcoms like all types of community service but it being medical can't hurt.

 

[Catalystik]

@Catalystik , It seems like more people are recommending doing both research and non-medical community service. However, do the number of hours done per week for both research and community service matter significantly? I was planning to get myself involved in approximately 12-15 hour per week research but in order to do both, I'll probably have to limit my research time to 10 hours per week or less.

From reading a good deal of SDN posts, it seems like many people think 10 hours is not enough to be fully involved in the "real research" process.

Longevity in an activity is more important than than hours per week.

In addition, does it matter if the community service is non-medical or medical? I am thinking about either a program that provides medical attention to homeless population or another organization that tutors illiterate children. Both are appealing to me.

As you apparently will have plenty of active clinical experience through the university hospital, to develop an application with broader appeal to more schools, adding nonmedical community service is a good goal. An activity that includes Teaching/Tutoring covers two categories on the application with less time involvement.

I'm planning to intensely involve myself into either research or community (or possibly both) this summer.

"Intense" summer involvement in research would be 30-40 hours per week, maybe more. During the school year, 5-10 hours per week, with less during midterms and finals weeks is common. Unless you're planning to target selective, research-oriented med schools, you don't need more than this, and a year of involvement is about the average, meaning that many have 1 semester only. Developing and completing an independent project in less than a year's time is highly unlikely, considering you need to gain experience and the Principal Investigator's trust first.