Community Service

[AntiviralsRule]

All you successful pharmacy school applicants out there, if you could help answer these questions, I (and probably many others) would be eternally grateful...

What kind of community activities did you list on your applications? Were most of these activities long-term, short-term or a combination? Is it better to emphasize QUALITY rather than quantity? For example, should I list the 1-2 volunteer jobs I worked longest at, did the most hours at, and leave off very short-term things (like AIDS Walk organizing etc)?

And what specific activities did you do (aside from pharmacy experience)?

Thx!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[brasilia01]

I think long term volunteering looks better. Looks like you have been diligent at it instead of just doing some 1 day service project. I would list all your volunteering though. The more the better.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

I think long term volunteering looks better. Looks like you have been diligent at it instead of just doing some 1 day service project. I would list all your volunteering though. The more the better.

I would list all your volunteer activities, quality is more important but if you did the volunteering might as well mention it to go along with your long term ones! I listed my long term and short term, from coaching to blood drives to humane society work.

 

[omnione]

For PharmCAS schools, they'll receive your application all at once. Your community service will be crammed in the middle of said application somewhere.

So, I would list your long-term ones first, and add in the more important and health care pertinant ones to fill up the space. Volunteering at a soup kitchen for one hour on one day three years ago is not one example of a space filler.

With a huge applicant pool, I doubt adcoms have the time to scrutinize the quality and relevance of each activity. From what I've heard, a school may spend about 5-15 minutes on you (though each adcom member could possibly review applications at home or something). The adcoms questions are "is this person active in the community?" and "how consistent is this person active in the community".

 

[jmkraus]

I didn't have a lot of community service to list on my application, but one organization I did volunteer with was the American Cancer Society's Road to Recovery Program. Your job is to drive patients without transportation to and from their treatment appointments. It's a great way to get community service if you have a sporadic school or work schedule that doesn't allow you to consistantly volunteer a certain number of hours per week or month. They basically post a schedule of patients, their appt. times, where they live, where their appt. is, and how long the appt. lasts, and you sign up to help whenever you can. And if you don't have enough time to wait during the appt., you can just sign up to only take the patient to the appt or back home without waiting. Here is the website if you're interested: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/COM/c..._to_Recovery_Service_Program.asp?sitearea=COM

Also, I agree with the others that you should list everything you can on your application. I think pharmcas lets you list 10 in order of importance, so the more the better.

 

[StringTheorist]

i didnt volunteer at all in college, but i put down i volunteered as a candy striper for 4 years down when i was in high school. thats all i put as far as community service goes. i put i was involved in the pre-pharm society, the filipino student association, the student honors organization, and the gay straight alliance as far as organizations are concrened.

 

[ForcedEntry]

I would guess that most non-traditional students don't have the required free time to dedicate themselves to a long-term volunteer program. I know I don't. I think the key is to just be involved when time permits.

My EC's were seasonal and always occurred on the weekends.

March of Dimes
Habitat for Humanity
Toys for Tots

 

[AntiviralsRule]

Thanks for the tips everyone And good point, ForcedEntry. I don't exactly have tons of free time with a full-time job, two science classes etc. I'll try to volunteer when I can.

 

[akamplace]

this is a great website to find some volunteer work too.

www.volunteernetwork.com

I think the more the merrier, I listed all my healthcare vol work first, then the others going all the way back to highschool.