Finding time to Volunteer

[Happensinvegas]

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I am a junior in college, planning on applying to MD schools this summer. I have a pretty solid resume so far (3.77 GPA w/ MCAT practices around 508-511).

My weakest part though, is definitely volunteering. I have done a lot of work in my time, but nearly none of it is pure volunteering. While in college I have been working 20+ hours a week in a research lab for credit, as well as taking the standard course load at my university during the semester.

During the summer I work 60-70 hours per week, over 6-7 days (I have my time cards to prove it) to pay for school.

This semester (and likely next semester as well) my weekly schedule looks like this:

Monday - Friday:
Class/Lab 8am-6pm.
Dinner 6:15-7pm
Homework/Studying 7-12 or 1 am

Saturday:
Me day. Football game, go for a run, do my laundry (it's the only day I can actually do this), cook meals for the rest of the week, go to the grocery store, see friends

Sunday:
Homework / Studying / Reading all day.
Committee Meetings for 2-3 hours during the day.
Religious Services in the morning

I have an immense amount of school work. This semester I have 150-300 pages to read per night in addition to web-assign things, with the occasional paper due.

I know most of you suggest that I use my Saturdays to volunteer, however I don't know if mentally I am able to take on that load. Saturday is frankly the only day I have to relax, give myself a mental break, and do errands that I have no time to do during the week. I think my head would explode if I didn't have a day off to recover.

I have 3 questions:
1) Do you all have any suggestions on how to get more volunteer hours in some how in this schedule
2) Do you think that if I got my boss to write a LoR stating that I do in fact work 60-70 hours 6-7 days a week over the summer that AdComs would excuse my lack of volunteer hours, due to my necessity to work this much.
3) How many volunteer hours are "normal" for an applicant? I have about 30-50 hours under my belt for various things I have done here-and-there, (take tickets at football games, hand out flyers for events, register ppl to vote) but it's nothing consistent and nothing very impressive.

 

[Ismet]

How much clinical exposure do you have?

What are these "committee meetings" on Sundays? Is that time you could be volunteering?

 

[Happensinvegas]

How much clinical exposure do you have?

What are these "committee meetings" on Sundays? Is that time you could be volunteering?

I have about 60 hours shadowing experience with 4 different doctors
I have about 400 hours of hands-on clinical experience via an internship I did (for academic credit)
I have 0 clinical volunteering from college
I have ~80 clinical volunteering from Senior year of High School

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I have 3 questions:
1) Do you all have any suggestions on how to get more volunteer hours in some how in this schedule

Sacrifice your free time. That's why it's called altruism.

2) Do you think that if I got my boss to write a LoR stating that I do in fact work 60-70 hours 6-7 days a week over the summer that AdComs would excuse my lack of volunteer hours, due to my necessity to work this much.

I work 70-80 hours a week, sometimes 7 days a week, including 1-2 duty days per week where I'm at work for 24-36 hours. I have several hundred volunteer hours. I just started a new volunteer gig that I coordinated between my command and Meals on Wheels. Just make it happen.

3) How many volunteer hours are "normal" for an applicant? I have about 30-50 hours under my belt for various things I have done here-and-there, (take tickets at football games, hand out flyers for events, register ppl to vote) but it's nothing consistent and nothing very impressive.

I'm not sure what normal is, but I have several hundred volunteer hours (non-clinical), despite being active duty military and being married with two kids.

 

[Wiggly Tuff Da Ruff]

I like what Matthew9Thirty said, he's a go-getter XD

I know of several people that volunteers on weekends for hospitals. Is it possible to squeeze out 4 hours of time to volunteer at a hospital? It's only 4 hours a week and the hours add up 🙂 That's over 200 hours in just a year!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

I like what Matthew9Thirty said, he's a go-getter XD

I know of several people that volunteers on weekends for hospitals. Is it possible to squeeze out 4 hours of time to volunteer at a hospital? It's only 4 hours a week and the hours add up 🙂 That's over 200 hours in just a year!

By the way, the vast majority of my volunteer hours have been on weekends. Just saying.

 

[theonlytycrane]

what's "me" day? That could be volunteer day.

 

[Happensinvegas]

I like what Matthew9Thirty said, he's a go-getter XD

I know of several people that volunteers on weekends for hospitals. Is it possible to squeeze out 4 hours of time to volunteer at a hospital? It's only 4 hours a week and the hours add up 🙂 That's over 200 hours in just a year!

It actually is not possible to at my school. My school is a large public school with thousands of premeds. The two hospitals at my university are obviously filled to the brim with volunteer applicants. As such, the program requires first and foremost an application in which only about 1/3 of the people get in. The program, secondly, requires a minimum of 10 hours per week volunteer time, a minimum of 5 must be Mon-Fri. That really does not work at all with my class / lab schedule. Clinical volunteering is nearly out of the question for me in this regard. I don't have a car on campus either so I can't drive over to hospitals/clinics farther away. Most of my volunteering will have to be from clubs or NGOs

 

[raf1ki]

You guys are insane. If a candidate has a 3.7, research, good LORs, leadership, and shadowing, do they need volunteering just to get in to med school? What percent of matriculants have volunteering?

 

[Happensinvegas]

what's "me" day? That could be volunteer day.

Me day is getting all my crap done that I don't have time to do during the week. Errands, appointments, exercise, and taking a breather from a hectic week in which I am actively moving/working from 8am-midnight

 

[LivMoore]

3 or 4 hours every Saturday.

 

[Sardinia]

I have ~80 clinical volunteering from Senior year of High School

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not laughing at you. Just laughing at what this game turns people into.

 

[CastleG8]

Nothing wrong with a Gap year. You seem to be doing great in my opinion. I feel like such a slacker compared to you folks.

 

[NonTrad16]

You guys are insane. If a candidate has a 3.7, research, good LORs, leadership, and shadowing, do they need volunteering just to get in to med school? What percent of matriculants have volunteering?

Most, from what I see. For example BU, EVMS, Hofstra have >70% of accepted students with non-clinical volunteering.

I have 3 questions:
1) Do you all have any suggestions on how to get more volunteer hours in some how in this schedule
2) Do you think that if I got my boss to write a LoR stating that I do in fact work 60-70 hours 6-7 days a week over the summer that AdComs would excuse my lack of volunteer hours, due to my necessity to work this much.
3) How many volunteer hours are "normal" for an applicant? I have about 30-50 hours under my belt for various things I have done here-and-there, (take tickets at football games, hand out flyers for events, register ppl to vote) but it's nothing consistent and nothing very impressive.

1) Do something in your me day (sorry), replace another activity (research?), or... cut back on something else to enable time.
2) No.
3) Something, for consistent times, is important. I applied last year with a 3.5 and an MCAT a few points above the OP's expectation, and I didn't get any II's. When asked, every school that offered advice pointed out my lack of 'community service' (despite >100 hours of clinical volunteering, ~40 shadowing, tons of research, etc.). This year, with community service (basically same GPA, same MCAT), I have 4 II's.

Please, do something. Anything. Do it for a few months at least, or a year. 2 hours a week, or once a month for a day/afternoon. Find time. Be creative. There is habitat for humanity, soup kitchens, meals on wheels, etc. You're involved with the church: so ask them! They likely do something for the community, and would let you get involved when you're free. Additionally, they could know you as a member, and provide an even better reference (if asked). Seriously. Find something you can enjoy, you can learn from, and will improve your application.You'd do yourself a disservice if you think they will make an exception for you. As a non-trad, I'm currently working ~30 hours a week (reduced from full time to allow time), volunteering at 3 places, and taking two courses. You gotta do what you gotta do. Make the best of it, but do it.

 

[Michael_Scott]

I spent my weekends volunteering....mostly saturday's and any other time I could find, especially in the summer.....
you have to be dedicated to all facets of medicine, not just the academics....after all "helping others" is the true reason for the pursuit.

 

[Ismet]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Not laughing at you. Just laughing at what this game turns people into.

I had 500 hours clinical volunteering from high school and I wasn't playing a game. I didn't even know what the MCAT was until college, let alone the boxes that needed to be checked. I thought I wanted to be a doctor and I had no family or family friends in medicine, so I shadowed some docs and ended up volunteering as a patient transporter. It didn't go on my AMCAS work/activities but I did briefly discuss a patient encounter I had in high school in my PS.

Some people just like doing things 😛

 

[CastleG8]

I had 500 hours clinical volunteering from high school and I wasn't playing a game. I didn't even know what the MCAT was until college, let alone the boxes that needed to be checked. I thought I wanted to be a doctor and I had no family or family friends in medicine, so I shadowed some docs and ended up volunteering as a patient transporter.

Some people just like doing things 😛

Patient Transport is my current gig. While I sit at my patient transport desk waiting for the phone to ring, I see the elevator door open up and a sea of red-shirt volunteer high school kids spill out. I look outside and see the rich-kid school district bus heading down the road away from the hospital. They do this during school hours. I never heard of this sort of thing when I was a kid. I didn't even know what the SAT was when I was in high school.

 

[raf1ki]

I'd like to hear adcoms weigh in on the value of "altruism" versus the value of "personal growth." Not that one necessarily excludes the other, but what ever happened to putting your personal oxygen mask on before helping to apply your neighbors? If a candidate is spending their extracurricular time productively, does it really matter that they weren't at the soup kitchen?

 

[theBriefing]

Can you make your "me day" a "1/2 me" day?

Most people, and particularly when pursuing medicine, will find it challenging to maintain the luxury of a whole day without work.

 

[NonTrad16]

I'd like to hear adcoms weigh in on the value of "altruism" versus the value of "personal growth." Not that one necessarily excludes the other, but what ever happened to putting your personal oxygen mask on before helping to apply your neighbors? If a candidate is spending their extracurricular time productively, does it really matter that they weren't at the soup kitchen?

Not an adcom, but...

The OP would be a bit above average in terms of raw stats if accepted (and they get the 509ish on their MCAT). That said, 60% of applicants don't matriculate anywhere. And nearly 80% of accepted students have non clinical volunteering. The OP doesn't really have anything extraordinary in the listed app, and I really don't think it would be hard for an adcom member to find someone similar who made time to serve others in some capacity.

Maybe they could get in somewhere. That said, if you have a self-recognized deficiency and choose not to address it before applying... I can tell you: reapplying sucks.

 

[hellocakes]

You really can't sacrifice 3-4 hours of your Saturday to go volunteer? Medical school is full of sacrifices and if you're struggling to do it now, who knows how you will adapt in medical school.


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[mimelim]

10 hours of class a day, 5+ hours of studying a day? Sounds like you are being incredibly inefficient and/or have time management issues.

If I can volunteer at Habitat for Humanity a couple times a month as a vascular surgery resident, you should be able to find time as a pre-med.

Edit: I missed the whole "I don't work on Saturdays" thing. Maybe it is being in residency for the last 5 years... But, seriously? Hint: Medical training typically takes some sacrifice.

 

[candbgirl]

I'd like to hear adcoms weigh in on the value of "altruism" versus the value of "personal growth." Not that one necessarily excludes the other, but what ever happened to putting your personal oxygen mask on before helping to apply your neighbors? If a candidate is spending their extracurricular time productively, does it really matter that they weren't at the soup kitchen?

I'm not an ADCOM but I think one is the result of the other. I don't think it's a "versus" thing. OP is still in the "me" phase of personal growth. He even says that. I think that only when he experiences enough personal growth will he be able to move from activities focusing on himself to activities focusing on helping others. Life only gets more complicated and choices are always being made. OP is looking for someone willing to tell him he doesn't need what everyone else finds time to do. I'm not sure he's going to get many people who will tell him that.


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[Doctor-S]

I contribute about 10 "volunteer" hours to two different non-profit community organizations every month.

Like @mimelim, I enjoy helping others and I enjoy helping others "outside" of my own professional schedule.

Some of students join me at the same time to gain extra "tidbits" of clinical information, as well as a few extra hours of supervision - and presumably, because they enjoy "helping others," too. Some of my busiest colleagues do the same thing - so I am not unique at all.

Yes ... I still consider altruism to be as equally important as personal growth although I do not "overextend" myself in the same manner that I did when I was an undergraduate student who (like many of you) was fixated on "perfect" GPAs and perfect MCAT scores. Just saying ... life gets better. 🙂

More importantly ... every time I provide some type of voluntary care and assistance to another, it always reminds me *how much* I truly love my life, as well as my chosen profession(s)!

 

[ace_inhibitor111]

The problem isn't your "Me" day, the problem is your class schedule. Mon-Fri 8am-6pm?! Are you taking 40+ credit hours? Volunteer in between classes or something. Keep the "Me" day, free time is important. I also think it's a unfair to compare OP's situation to a non-trad with a family. Anyone with a family or long-term SO knows its mentally easier to work 60+ hours a week and go without sleep when you have someone else you care about depending on you.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

The problem isn't your "Me" day, the problem is your class schedule. Mon-Fri 8am-6pm?! Are you taking 40+ credit hours? Volunteer in between classes or something. Keep the "Me" day, free time is important. I also think it's a unfair to compare OP's situation to a non-trad with a family. Anyone with a family or long-term SO knows its mentally easier to work 60+ hours a week and go without sleep when you have someone else you care about depending on you.

Uh do you have a family? It was way less mentally taxing to work 70-80 hours a week when I didn't have two kids and a wife to support.

 

[Gibbward]

Soup kitchen volunteering is awesome! Get 2-3 hrs for your app and then get a free meal out of it too! Plus I love the people I volunteer with and the community the soup kitchen I go to serves.

 

[Wiggly Tuff Da Ruff]

Uh do you have a family? It was way less mentally taxing to work 70-80 hours a week when I didn't have two kids and a wife to support.

Yea seriously. WHAT it's mentally easier to have more responsibility?! Nah, bruh. More responsibility = more emphasis on your success = more stress because others will suffer with you if you fail.

Maybe OP can squeeze his "me-day" into mini-sessions of me-hours in between classes. Do laundry while eating lunch, go grocery shopping while pokemon-go so it's gaming and doing chores at the same time. Save that giant block of saturday or half-saturday to do the 5 hour or 10 hour volunteering. If OP really wants to volunteer for his community, he will figure out a way!

Edit: OP you have great stats, if you're really busy hopefully adcoms will understand. We're all human and not working machines after all 🙂

 

[Pusheen]

I agree that the problem is your class schedule. I took 18-20 units many semesters with lots of time consuming labs and I never was in class from 8am to 6pm EVERY DAY. I'm assuming you're including your research time in that estimate, but it still seems like too much time. See if you can get homework done between classes and make sure you're not wasting any time during the day. I think you can carve out either an evening or an afternoon to do 3-4 hours of volunteering a week. Me time is important, but it might have to be cut down to half a day instead of a full day. For me, Friday afternoon-evening was me time, and I worked the entire weekends

Oh also, be sure to put all your work activities on your AMCAS, even if they have to all go under one entry. I think it's important to highlight why you had so little free time over the summer and will demonstrate your work ethic

 

[Lost In Transcription]

I am a junior in college, planning on applying to MD schools this summer. I have a pretty solid resume so far (3.77 GPA w/ MCAT practices around 508-511).

My weakest part though, is definitely volunteering. I have done a lot of work in my time, but nearly none of it is pure volunteering. While in college I have been working 20+ hours a week in a research lab for credit, as well as taking the standard course load at my university during the semester.

During the summer I work 60-70 hours per week, over 6-7 days (I have my time cards to prove it) to pay for school.

This semester (and likely next semester as well) my weekly schedule looks like this:

Monday - Friday:
Class/Lab 8am-6pm.
Dinner 6:15-7pm
Homework/Studying 7-12 or 1 am

Saturday:
Me day. Football game, go for a run, do my laundry (it's the only day I can actually do this), cook meals for the rest of the week, go to the grocery store, see friends

Sunday:
Homework / Studying / Reading all day.
Committee Meetings for 2-3 hours during the day.
Religious Services in the morning

I have an immense amount of school work. This semester I have 150-300 pages to read per night in addition to web-assign things, with the occasional paper due.

I know most of you suggest that I use my Saturdays to volunteer, however I don't know if mentally I am able to take on that load. Saturday is frankly the only day I have to relax, give myself a mental break, and do errands that I have no time to do during the week. I think my head would explode if I didn't have a day off to recover.

I have 3 questions:
1) Do you all have any suggestions on how to get more volunteer hours in some how in this schedule
2) Do you think that if I got my boss to write a LoR stating that I do in fact work 60-70 hours 6-7 days a week over the summer that AdComs would excuse my lack of volunteer hours, due to my necessity to work this much.
3) How many volunteer hours are "normal" for an applicant? I have about 30-50 hours under my belt for various things I have done here-and-there, (take tickets at football games, hand out flyers for events, register ppl to vote) but it's nothing consistent and nothing very impressive.

I don't think you can skip out on the volunteering. They want to know that community service is a priority to you because your career as a physician will stem from this desire.

I was in a similar situation in school. And am now as a very busy full time researcher.

Honestly doing it on the weekend is just as painful for me for the mental relaxation reasons. I feel like it is better to do it very late or early during the week. Get those hours at a midnight ER shift or early morning Labor deliv shift etc.

Try to fit in nonclinical volunt with school clubs and events.

 

[Verity]

Everyone has pretty much said what I'm thinking.

OP, I do agree that "me" time is ultra important. If not allowed time to decompress, I don't function properly. Reading a book, going on a hike, painting, whatever your down-time hobby is, are all very important. However, you're probably overloading yourself too much if you need an entire day. If you find somewhere to volunteer that you truly enjoy, it can be part of your down time, while still having plenty of hours in the day to be alone or relax, too.

20+ hours in the lab on top of your other commitments seems excessive, especially if you're not being paid and it's taking away from other activities you should be doing, and draining you so much. Are you close to publication? Conference? Or is this 20+ hours standard? You may want to look into lessening your hours. Additionally, you could speak with your PI about bringing another qualified student to the project. Having two sets of hands and two minds on a project often makes for better results, and less stress... perhaps some more enjoyment, too? I've found that projects I collaborate on turn out much better for both me and the end result. If you wanted to go PhD, I'd definitely say follow your own project start to finish on your own to show you know what you're getting into, and it's still good to have that experience, but collaboration in the lab may be a good solution for you.

Lastly, if you're taking a regular load of credit hours, but studying 5-6 hours each night and reading 150-300 pages each night along with studying all day Sunday, perhaps evaluate your study strategy. That strikes me as highly excessive for a standard undergraduate credit load (plus, how many textbooks do you HAVE? those numbers have you reading 11250-22500 pages/semester...) Sometimes, reading the textbook isn't the best way to learn new material. Perhaps talk to previous students who have succeeded in the classes you're taking, and figure out how they studied? Yes, there are some courses/professors that make reading the textbook necessary, but that's not usually the case with all courses.

 

[Lost In Transcription]

Everyone has pretty much said what I'm thinking.

OP, I do agree that "me" time is ultra important. If not allowed time to decompress, I don't function properly. Reading a book, going on a hike, painting, whatever your down-time hobby is, are all very important. However, you're probably overloading yourself too much if you need an entire day. If you find somewhere to volunteer that you truly enjoy, it can be part of your down time, while still having plenty of hours in the day to be alone or relax, too.

20+ hours in the lab on top of your other commitments seems excessive, especially if you're not being paid and it's taking away from other activities you should be doing, and draining you so much. Are you close to publication? Conference? Or is this 20+ hours standard? You may want to look into lessening your hours. Additionally, you could speak with your PI about bringing another qualified student to the project. Having two sets of hands and two minds on a project often makes for better results, and less stress... perhaps some more enjoyment, too? I've found that projects I collaborate on turn out much better for both me and the end result. If you wanted to go PhD, I'd definitely say follow your own project start to finish on your own to show you know what you're getting into, and it's still good to have that experience, but collaboration in the lab may be a good solution for you.

Lastly, if you're taking a regular load of credit hours, but studying 5-6 hours each night and reading 150-300 pages each night along with studying all day Sunday, perhaps evaluate your study strategy. That strikes me as highly excessive for a standard undergraduate credit load (plus, how many textbooks do you HAVE? those numbers have you reading 11250-22500 pages/semester...) Sometimes, reading the textbook isn't the best way to learn new material. Perhaps talk to previous students who have succeeded in the classes you're taking, and figure out how they studied? Yes, there are some courses/professors that make reading the textbook necessary, but that's not usually the case with all courses.

I agree about lessening research unless near pub/conference/applying mstp. I also agree collaboration.

I would argue that the UG load described is not as unusual as it seems. My major required the same workload.

 

[deleted647690]

This semester I have 150-300 pages to read per night in addition to web-assign things, with the occasional paper due..

This isn't possible haha

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This isn't possible haha

It's possible, it just sucks. I think that's probably an exaggeration though. Even in my poly sci and graduate English courses, we didn't read that much every night. Felt like it though.

 

[LizzyM]

The non-profit for which I volunteer just asked me to estimate my hours for our annual report. I itemized meetings, service activities, media campaigns, etc and came up with 225 hours this year. It can be done, even holding a full-time job and raising a family if you are creative in finding something that moves you. If you are not under an obligation to support yourself and you don't have dependents, then it should be all the easier to find time to get involved in a good cause.

 

[pandamic]

For my church, I volunteer in the nursery every week during the first service and then attend the second service worship. Would something like this be possible for you to do?

Also, if you do something like volunteering in an animal shelter on Saturday mornings, it would get you volunteer hours and it is fun/relaxing.

 

[Wiggly Tuff Da Ruff]

Sounds like Saturdays would be the perfect day. I actually consider my time volunteering at a local hospital "me time". I have a great time, love interacting with patients, and it's usually the highlight of my week.

Agreed!