How to not come off as a disingenuous box-checker?

[AllDaWEI]

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Interesting. I wouldn't say it's *wrong* to not want to volunteer, but it doesn't really make sense to me. I'm a non-trad and have been involved with some kind of volunteering since high school, way before I had any idea I wanted to do medicine. It seems like.... one of the main reasons people go into medicine is to help people, so why would someone not want to start helping people right now? The reason it became a box to check in the first place is that medicine attracts altruistic people who tend to have done volunteering. The alternative to box-checking is to have a genuine motivation to do those things. Otherwise.... check those boxes, I guess, but realize where they come from and that they weren't just pulled out of some adcom's butt to punish premeds. 😀

Also, I don't think volunteering necessarily has to be clinical. You need clinical experiences to show adcoms (and yourself) that you know what you're getting into, but that could be from shadowing or something else.... there are SO MANY ways to volunteer, I'm convinced that everyone can find meaningful experiences if they look for them.

I think it great that you have been volunteering since high school and found things that were meaningful. 🙂 It is getting harder to find people like you. Everywhere you look, you see people on SDN always asking what volunteer activity will look good or how much they should do. This definitely shows "box-checker" that OP was asking about.

What I also think about are the "real" volunteers at the hospital. There are the older folks who are volunteering because they GENUINELY WANT TO BE THERE. I was always able to sense that when I was there. I think that you are right about pre-meds wanting to help people. But is this the right time? The older hospital volunteers are usually retired and are financially stable. Students are the opposite. Sometimes I see people who have THOUSANDS of hours volunteering, and think to myself how much money they may have earned if they did clinical work instead. Maybe as doctors these students will volunteer, or maybe when they retire they will have time. But right now, pre-meds struggle to juggleso many things. Did you read that thread bashing research PhDs because the OP has no time to do anything? Notice he/she said they "have to" volunteer.

Look, these pr-meds are ready to embark on a year sacrificing so much of their lives for the purpose of helping people. Is it so bad if they choose not to do so much volunteering? Funny thing is that the activity lists you read on SDN have way more volunteer activities than te adult who volunteers in the hospital because they WANT to be there. Now who is the more altruistic one? The adult or the "box-checker"?

 

[gettheleadout]

I think most of the pre-meds that "hate" their experiences probably would not have volunteered in the first place. If hypothetically volunteering had no impact on the application, how many pre-meds would still volunteer so much? What I find interesting is if pre-med here says they don't volunteer, SDN members will simply tell them to find a good experience. But what if they don't want to volunteer?

Is it wrong for someone to not want to do it? In college, I knew people who would help out woth special event here and there. But they never volunteered to such extent. Would you judge your non-pre-med friends for never having volunteered before?

And there you have the "box-checkers". They do what they need to do because when you have close to 90% of matriculants having volunteered, then what else can someone do other than checking those boxes?

I honestly don't think non-clinical volunteering is "required," and I wouldn't judge anyone for not wanting to volunteer. If one already has or can get clinical experience without volunteering as well, that's great. Clinical volunteering is a means to hopefully get a good exposure to the environment, patients, etc. and non-clinical volunteering is something that I don't see a place for in the application unless it's something you actually think makes you a better person, significantly helps others, or makes you happy.

 

[hmockingbird]

I always saw non-clinical volunteering's place or purpose as showing you have a life/interests outside of medicine. Of course that could be accomplished by other non-clinical activities, doesn't have to be volunteering.

I started volunteering at the hospital but hated it because we weren't allowed to do much at all. I honestly did more when I shadowed than when I volunteered. I wanted to do something with patient contact but it seemed like I was always in the way. I eventually switched to central supply - got transferred to them a few times and I liked the people and learned a lot about supplies. That's what I wrote about on my AMCAS for the most part. So I don't know if the person who says most of what they do is read during their shifts is trolling, some hospitals just aren't necessarily a conducive environment to volunteers. And let's face it, there's not much you CAN do. I don't think we were even allowed to do simple housekeeping duties because... they paid people to do that.

Anyway, I like volunteering and have been ever since I can remember (I was a Girl Scout - service is a big component of that) so I started volunteering somewhere else, and I liked that more. I now volunteer at a grief support center for kids and I feel like I have more of an impact on people than I ever could have volunteering at the hospital.

I kind-of saw shadowing as box-checking too (similar situation, parents are doctor and nurse, plus I had a lot of medical problems as a kid - I kind-of grew up around hospitals) but I figured since I *like* hospitals and doctors I might as well enjoy it. Probably the biggest thing I learned was more about the business side of medicine, since I did a lot of shadowing with a department head and she would explain a lot of her "extra" duties to me. It was fun even though it wasn't a wildly new experience and I think I'll keep shadowing in med school (with specialties I might be interested in).