Double counting volunteer hours?

[snowstorm23]

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Hey Everyone, quick question. So I am in an honors society which requires 12 hours of community service a semester. I already volunteer weekly but the problem is that the leader of the organization is saying that whatever hours of service I do as part of the requirement of the honors society cannot be used on my medical school application. Does this seem right? Shouldn't basically everything be able to go onto your application?

Thanks!

 

[PreciousHamburgers]

Yeah, it's still volunteering. Who are they to say that? Are they going to see your application?

 

[CLE216]

I agree, it's your application. Put what you want on it

 

[nOchemallday]

If all you do for the honors society is 12 hours of volunteering a semester, then those 12 hours should be listed towards the honors society. If you do other things with the honors society including, but not limited to, leadership roles, organizing events, participating in committee-esque hearings, then use the hours that you participate in those events towards the honors society and the hours volunteering towards a catch-all volunteering category. The point is it's untruthful to say that you've spent 12 hours working for the honors society and 12 hours volunteering if all you did for the honors society was volunteer. Alternatively, if you think appropriate, just split the total hours down the middle: half to honors society, half to volunteering. The only person who will ever know that you're beefing up your numbers is yourself, but if you get caught in an interview "double-dipping" about what you did for your 12 hrs/sem at honors society and 12 hrs/sem at volunteering and they turn out to be the same exact thing, it'll be pretty obvious you bent the truth on your AMCAS.

tl;dr Utilize them ethics and good judgement