enough volunteering?

[arcane63]

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I'm a non-trad: have a BS in Comp Sci and work full time. Took pre-reqs at community college while working full-time. I have had a really hard time trying to get into a hospital around here to volunteer. I've applied to 3 near me and only heard back from one. The volunteer director at the one I heard back from is impossible to get a hold of and I still haven't started (finished all of my vaccinations/orientation in October!).

If I start volunteering in January and take the MCAT in April, is that enough experience? Like 4 hours a week? I plan on doing more after the MCAT, but I work full time and am studying also. I know it's probably not enough time between January and April but what about by the time interviews roll around?

I really don't want to wait another year - I'm 29 as it is.

 

[circulus vitios]

There's a spreadsheet floating around SDN that listed the average volunteering hours for each school. The average was somewhere between 50 and 60 hours.

I think your plan should work, but what do I know? Get ready for the overachieving SDN pre-meds to recommend at least 250 hours or something ridiculous.

 

[RevMD]

There's a spreadsheet floating around SDN that listed the average volunteering hours for each school. The average was somewhere between 50 and 60 hours.

I think your plan should work, but what do I know? Get ready for the overachieving SDN pre-meds to recommend at least 250 hours or something ridiculous.

Wow, and I thought 105 hours of hospital internship hours last summer was still not enough. Just to be safe, I decided to continue the internship once a week this coming sem and hopefully pull in another 100 hours. Those adcoms better appreciate this as good clinical experience.

Also, the number of hours accumulated will only matter up to the point you submit your AMCAS. Anything after that is just something you get to talk about when you go for an interview. But, you plan should be sufficient compared to the average.

 

[oaklandguy]

You will see this a million times on these forums...

Volunteering isn't about hours necessarily as much as it is about showing a commitment.

Volunteering for 3 months doesn't show a commitment. Volunteering for a year or two does IMO.

If you want to volunteer at places other than a hospital; I recommend a free-clinic, a hospice, or a nursing home.

Med-schools can tell when you B.S. something, and I personally feel that volunteering for only 3 months is a student volunteering just to have it on their application more so than volunteering for the idea of volunteering or to help their community.

Not every single student has volunteering either. It is not a necessity.

Do what you want to do. I am just stating the reality of your situation.

 

[FloatOn]

People always say quality over quantity, and I agree with this to an extent. I volunteered two semesters at the same place, and it wasn't until the second semester there that it became really meaningful, so at least ~35 hours for me at the same place. I mean, you can't always expect to connect to what you're doing immediately.

I think you should be fine, though, given that the other parts of your application are strong. Do you have shadowing experience? Any other type of clinical exposure? I think that if you're not confident with yourself as an applicant, wait and only apply when you are.

 

[insane]

I agree with the poster who mentioned that volunteering is about commitment, rather than hours, the student with 2 hours a week for 3 years IMO looks a lot better than the student with 6 hours a week 15 hours a week for 6 months. I think the whole point of volunteering is to show a long term dedication, or commitment.

 

[siliso]

It won't be what keeps you out of medical school. Do what you can do.

 

[circulus vitios]

Med-schools can tell when you B.S. something, and I personally feel that volunteering for only 3 months is a student volunteering just to have it on their application more so than volunteering for the idea of volunteering or to help their community.

The entire application process is a bull**** parade. For most pre-meds, volunteering is a useless waste of time spent doing administrative or janitorial duties (unpaid, of course.)

 

[arcane63]

Well I waited around too long and now there are no test dates in Chicago left for April or May. I know people say that people drop out. I was thinking about taking it in June or July (I'll have more experience by then too). Why am I reading all of these posts that say have everything done by June? Why are there even later test dates if they are truly "too late"?

 

[Morsetlis]

The entire application process is a bull**** parade. For most pre-meds, volunteering is a useless waste of time spent doing administrative or janitorial duties (unpaid, of course.)

BUT IT SETS YOU APART!

 

[apumic]

The entire application process is a bull**** parade. For most pre-meds, volunteering is a useless waste of time spent doing administrative or janitorial duties (unpaid, of course.)

^Not IME. Sure, if that's what you accept, you may end up doing that sort of thing but I have yet to take such a position. If I'm going to volunteer, I want to actually contribute something to the team, be challenged, and learn. It's largely what you're willing to accept. I got offered a volunteer position at one clinic shuffling eligibility papers (a necessary task but not one I'd enjoy or likely learn much from, having worked in case management as an actual full-time job) and said, "Thanks, but not thanks; let me know when a clinical position opens." They contacted me not a month later about a position doing clinical work but by then I'd already started at another place doing intake and initial assessments as well as PRN interpreting (I speak Spanish fluently). Previous to this, I volunteered at a psych ward for about a year working directly w/ pts and assisting in behavior mod as well as milieu management. Prior to that, I volunteered for 3 years peer counseling students. Those, IMO, were all very valuable experiences that have taught me a lot about myself, about others, about leadership, and so forth. I don't see them as burdensome volunteer positions b/c I loved every moment of each one. They were most definitely not an "useless waste of time doing janitorial and administrative duties." I think what you get out of each position has largely to do w/ what you put into it as well as how hard you're willing to work to find the right type of volunteer experience. You don't have to settle for crap jobs if you don't want to.


Btw... were you referring to the spreadsheet below? IIRC, it lists % of students w/ volunteer experience, not average amounts, per school. It does, however, have a calculator to help determine how this might effect your chances at each school using data from a survey the AAMC published last year.