community service and research

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nycNerd

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I am aware that most med school applicants have a considerable amount of research and community service on their applications. Many have even done volunteer programs abroad that sound very interesting and also very impressive to adcoms.

Although these opportunities are technically available to almost everyone, it is really difficult for some of us to take advantage of them, both financially and logically. Volunteer programs abroad are very expensive (at least the ones I've looked into), and often require a time commitment that many of us do not have.

I need to work in order to have money to live off of, and therefore I have limited time available. I volunteer 4 hours a week at a hospital, take 18 credits, and work 30 hrs/wk. I would like to get involved in research on campus, but most undergraduate research positions are unpaid. Will adcoms understand my situation or am I expected to do more?

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Find a paying research job. If you look hard enough, you will find one.

But from I've gathered from this site, the top things you need are the grades, the scores, and exposure to clinical setting. If you have those three, you are set. Everything else is icing on the cake.
 
Find a paying research job. If you look hard enough, you will find one.

But from I've gathered from this site, the top things you need are the grades, the scores, and exposure to clinical setting. If you have those three, you are set. Everything else is icing on the cake.

yummmmm........ icing.
 
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There are quite a few jobs that combine clinical or research with pay. I'd look into either a paying research position or something like an EMT. Also, many hospitals have entry level jobs like medical billing/translator etc. And then there are summer internships like NIH where you can do research.

There are also a few programs overseas that are very cheap (i.e. free) although they usually have some kind of time commitment, i.e. 1 or 2 months. I would look into those. Sometimes your school pre-med organization can even sponsor you. AMSA lists a few of the opportunities on their website. I went to Mexico for 20 dollars for a clinical experience, but I'm from a southwest state.
 
The volunteering you do is really fine in terms of community service. While I can't comment on how many people have volunteering/other experiences outside of the US, not everyone can do it. I (along with several friends from college) did a few hours a week at a local hospital like you. I guess the legnth of time (in terms of how many months/years, not hours per week) that you do it for is important though...the more time, the better.
 
if you have a summer free and enough time, you can try working at a pharmaceutical company for a summer internship. that way you get research experience (and in my case, about $5k) which can help out for the volunteering abroad.
 
let me tell you, research = get you jobs/grad schools. volunteer = get you into med school. i don't think i had one job application affected by the lack of volunteering
 
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