Hardly any volunteer experience

Started by drtroy
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
D

drtroy

Full Member
10+ Year Member
5+ Year Member
15+ Year Member
Hey guys I am 35 years old and am a junior in undergrad. When I went back to college I had a full time job and a part time job and have not had much time to do any volunteer work. Is this really going to hurt me when I go to get into medical school? Surely the admissions people can understand if you really don't have the time to do it because of financial reasons. I have tried to find places in my area to volunteer but none that will let me on the weekends or they will not work around my schedule. This past summer I quit my part time job and was able to get some shadowing time in and a little bit of volunteering in but not much, so am I screwed or what?
 
It's not a dealbreaker, as it's not a requirement to apply. However, the vast majority of the applicants you'll be competing against will have volunteer experience, much of it extensive, and that includes the nontrads. I feel your pain, as it's not easy to fit so many requirements into a 24-hour day. But the bar is set by your competition. I would pull out a copy of the MSAR and look at the schools you're targeting. It includes information on the % of matriculants have volunteer service/medically-related work/research/etc. Those numbers, combined with average incoming stats, will give you an idea of what the schools consider important.

drtroy said:
Hey guys I am 35 years old and am a junior in undergrad. When I went back to college I had a full time job and a part time job and have not had much time to do any volunteer work. Is this really going to hurt me when I go to get into medical school? Surely the admissions people can understand if you really don't have the time to do it because of financial reasons. I have tried to find places in my area to volunteer but none that will let me on the weekends or they will not work around my schedule. This past summer I quit my part time job and was able to get some shadowing time in and a little bit of volunteering in but not much, so am I screwed or what?
Click to expand...
 
on SDN the general rule is volunteering is very important even if it is only 2 hours a day. but i talked to my dream med school and asked how to be more competitive, and i even asked about volunteering and they didn't say much. so.....fwiw.
 
I understand your pain... my first time applying (I am a reapplicant) I had like 30 hours of clinical experience and that was it....

This time I have over 300... I wish I would have looked for a free clinic 4 years ago when I started this pre-med journey....

http://freeclinics.us/

try looking here and see if you can find some nearby clinics that take volunteers
 
I agree it's pretty tough to find time to volunteer. When I decided to go to med school I knew that I was going to have to do everything I possibly could to make myself as competitive as possible the first time I applied, because I was an older applicant. Hospitals are usually a good place to start volunteering. Just one 4 hour shift a week will net you 100 hours of volunteering in 6 months. That's what I did. I don't remember being asked to quantify my volunteer experience at any interviews, but I could be wrong.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.