Honestly? Give it a semester and get into the groove of college life. Get used to the responsibilities thereof, and incrementally add more as you develop your time management skills. Your grades and MCAT are the most important factors for medical school admissions, so prepare yourself accordingly and build momentum. The rest will follow naturally from that core mentality. When you do start volunteering, it’s not like it will take up a massive portion of your time if you do it right. I volunteered at a hospital once per week for 5 hours every Friday for 2 years, and some of that time I spent volunteering was actually time I had to study as well. That was good enough. Don’t do it half-way though, because there are valuable experiences to be had here. The shadowing can easily happen over your summers. Get at least 50 hours and I honestly think that’s plenty. Other volunteering? Please do it if it sounds interesting and is worth your time, in your eyes. You don’t want to come across as disingenuous when writing your essays or doing interviews once the time comes because all you had was padding. Just remember if you keep this in mind, your time management skills will start to blossom based on your inherent drive to do these things, and not do them because you “have to” to get into medical school.
