- Joined
- May 6, 2018
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 16
Sorry for asking so many questions recently; I'm applying next year and it hit me that I'm applying in a year (hopefully)!! (Also sorry this post is kinda long)
I'm going to save y'all the story, but basically I had to take on a huge responsibility in my family, which basically took up my sophomore year to adjust to that, my job, a club I really enjoy, and research (on top of classes).
Freshman year, I volunteered at a hospital from January to August, getting 116 hours. Then I had to become my mom's caretaker and decided to stop volunteering because the school semester was starting again. I was scared I wouldn't be able to handle it all. I wanted to restart volunteering at a hospital and volunteering in a soup kitchen my second semester of sophomore year because I figured out how to balance it all, when my boss asked me if I'd like to do research in her lab, which I accepted because I had been considering doing research with/instead of medicine. So, I began doing research for ~10+ hours a week, held a part-time job, was my mom's caretaker, and I took on a project with my club. My time was slim and I wasn't able to dedicate time to volunteering, because I needed the weekends to study and catch up.
Anyway, now it's summer and I started volunteering in a new hospital, and I'm starting volunteering in a soup kitchen, where I expect to give at least 4 hours a week. I'm confident I can sustain all my activities for the rest of the year because I structured my class schedule *perfectly.* Furthermore, my research has hit a wall and if my PI and I can't workout a new project, I might quit research after only ~7 months... which looks very sketchy. Now my concern is that I overall look like I'm uncommitted to my community and my projects, and that I just did things to check off boxes.
How do I convey to adcoms that I wasn't just checking boxes? I can talk passionately about my activities in an interview, but if they just look at my ECs, I'm worried they wouldn't give me a chance.
I'm going to save y'all the story, but basically I had to take on a huge responsibility in my family, which basically took up my sophomore year to adjust to that, my job, a club I really enjoy, and research (on top of classes).
Freshman year, I volunteered at a hospital from January to August, getting 116 hours. Then I had to become my mom's caretaker and decided to stop volunteering because the school semester was starting again. I was scared I wouldn't be able to handle it all. I wanted to restart volunteering at a hospital and volunteering in a soup kitchen my second semester of sophomore year because I figured out how to balance it all, when my boss asked me if I'd like to do research in her lab, which I accepted because I had been considering doing research with/instead of medicine. So, I began doing research for ~10+ hours a week, held a part-time job, was my mom's caretaker, and I took on a project with my club. My time was slim and I wasn't able to dedicate time to volunteering, because I needed the weekends to study and catch up.
Anyway, now it's summer and I started volunteering in a new hospital, and I'm starting volunteering in a soup kitchen, where I expect to give at least 4 hours a week. I'm confident I can sustain all my activities for the rest of the year because I structured my class schedule *perfectly.* Furthermore, my research has hit a wall and if my PI and I can't workout a new project, I might quit research after only ~7 months... which looks very sketchy. Now my concern is that I overall look like I'm uncommitted to my community and my projects, and that I just did things to check off boxes.
How do I convey to adcoms that I wasn't just checking boxes? I can talk passionately about my activities in an interview, but if they just look at my ECs, I'm worried they wouldn't give me a chance.
