Pick the one that is most meaningful to you. If you can put in 5 hours a week every other week for 2 years doing something you truly enjoy, that will be FAR more impactful to you application than doing multiple things for short durations/not meaningful.
If someone has both does the rushed stuff devalue the long term stuff?
On that note, I have several different organizations that I volunteered with for a semester or a year (100 hours each). My goal was to experience as many different underserved populations as possible to be able to understand and help them in the future (Prison populations, psych ward patients, middle school students in poor neighborhoods, etc). I was planning on using all of these experiences in my personal statement to describe all I’ve learned from various populations. Would you still look down on this?
I had both on my app. Well, the rushed stuff wasn’t so much rushed for me, as it was stuff that came up right before I applied that had not been opportunities before that time. I think the important thing here is being able to explain why your activity was very recent or of short duration.
I only had 1 non-clinical activity (tutoring in underserved schools) that spanned 3 years for reference. I feel like 1-2 experiences are plenty when you have to balance everything else in life... but my ECs were cookie cutter if I'm going to be honest. This cycle still worked out well for me though.
