How Will Medical School Confirm Your Volunteering Hours

[omegaz]

How do they know you're not lying? Do hospitals keep track?

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[MilkmanAl]

To be perfectly honest, I doubt schools bother checking, most of the time. They probably spot check applicants and would be more likely to investigate if you listed an outrageous amount of hours or claimed unusual activities or something. I don't recommend lying about your volunteerism, obviously, but you probably wouldn't get busted for some minor fibs.

 

[passionformed]

To be perfectly honest, I doubt schools bother checking, most of the time. They probably spot check applicants and would be more likely to investigate if you listed an outrageous amount of hours or claimed unusual activities or something. I don't recommend lying about your volunteerism, obviously, but you probably wouldn't get busted for some minor fibs.

That said, make sure you are as accurate as possible. Writing an extra hour per week will not make a difference, and it will put you at a risk if they do call and ask.

The very last thing I would want my doctor to have would be lack of integrity.

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

How do they know you're not lying? Do hospitals keep track?

Adcoms weren't born yesterday. They WILL verify your hours and the number of emesis bins you stocked in the ED. I think some even employ retired FBI agents to do this.

Don't even think about this outlandish trick.

 

[NewYorker9]

These schools receive thousands of applications and interview hundreds of applicants, so I don't think they verify every single activity or every single hour of volunteering. That being said, don't lie. I think the general rule is that it's not about the number of hours you put in but what you get out of said hours.

 

[TangoDown]

Adcoms weren't born yesterday. They WILL verify your hours and the number of emesis bins you stocked in the ED. I think some even employ retired FBI agents to do this.

Don't even think about this outlandish trick.

They also send CIA agents into your house dressed as ninjas to extract data from your computer and cellphone while you sleep.

 

[UrbanRiver]

Don't be lazy. Do the work and tell the truth.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using SDN Mobile

 

[obscurehero]

lol, a thread like this pops up every year.

Sure, if you're dishonest its probably unlikely anyone will find out. However, I'd hope you'd be the kind of person that'd always wonder if lying got you into medical school. Not that I'd wish self-doubt on someone, but that if you did lie, you deserve to reap the benefits that that entails.

Be honest. Do the work. Don't be lazy.

 

[goofball]

They're really busy people, and I doubt they check references for all activities except the really suspicious or ambitious ones.

Also, if you do an activity in a foreign country, there's even less chance of them checking. International calling is annoying, and afterwards they'll have to deal with a guy who might not even speak English.


Instead, be ready to talk intelligently about your activities at interviews. If you don't, their authenticity will be called into question!

 

[GoSpursGo]

It's one of those huge risk/low reward kind of things--if someone finds out you willfully lied it's probably game over, and nobody is really going to care about a difference in 50 hours of volunteer work anyways. In fact, nobody actually cares about the actual number of hours anyways once you hit some arbitrary minimum. Nobody's going to check to see if you have exactly 300 hours of volunteer hours, but they WILL ask you what you got out of those hours, and the more time you actually spent there the more experiences you'll be able to draw on to make you answer, so the better your answer will be.

 

[syoung]

They also send CIA agents into your house dressed as ninjas to extract data from your computer and cellphone while you sleep.

Adcoms weren't born yesterday. They WILL verify your hours and the number of emesis bins you stocked in the ED. I think some even employ retired FBI agents to do this.

Don't even think about this outlandish trick.

Pretty sure this is Truth. They were even kind enough to send me a letter verifying the # of hours I volunteered.

 

[chillaxbro]

I've had interviewers call my place of volunteering
It could happen son don't get caught

 

[JohnFe]

I took pictures every time I volunteer.

 

[Planes2Doc]

It's one of those huge risk/low reward kind of things--if someone finds out you willfully lied it's probably game over, and nobody is really going to care about a difference in 50 hours of volunteer work anyways. In fact, nobody actually cares about the actual number of hours anyways once you hit some arbitrary minimum. Nobody's going to check to see if you have exactly 300 hours of volunteer hours, but they WILL ask you what you got out of those hours, and the more time you actually spent there the more experiences you'll be able to draw on to make you answer, so the better your answer will be.

Yeah I pretty much agree with this. I think it's highly unlikely that ADCOMs will call to verify anything, unless there is something fishy going on. I remember reading a thread and LizzyM said that once she had an applicant who put the contact off of an outdated website who quit a long time ago, and since LizzyM knew who this person actually was, she knew the student was lying! 😱

There's definitely a difference between embellishing hours versus outright fabricating experiences. Interestingly, with the former, even the most honest applicants are technically guilty of "lying" if they don't put the exact number of hours. One or two hours off is still technically a lie. I think the hours is more like speeding though. There's nothing official about how much you can technically embellish without getting in trouble, but it's well known that this is an accepted practice, even here on SDN. The issue though is where you draw the line. But as GoSpursGo said, once you reach that arbitrary number, it probably won't matter too much. So try to be as close as possible, or if you volunteered at a site with lots of volunteers, they probably have a computer system that logs your hours. It took me a couple minutes and one phone call to get an exact number. There's no excuse to not have it.

Fabricating ECs can be very risky. They payoff is technically good if you don't get caught, since you have an acceptance and didn't have to do the time. But if you're caught, you are blacklisted and will never have a chance at getting into a US school ever again. It's most definitely not worth it.

I honestly wish ADCOMs would randomly call volunteer sites, which they probably already do. This would deter people from lying.

I took pictures every time I volunteer.

HIPAA? This can be an enormous issue if you show ADCOMs pictures or put them on Facebook or any social networking site. If they are on any website, remove them now. There can be very serious consequences if this is a clinical setting. If it's not clinical, then it's fine.

Sorry not trying to be rude. I'm just looking out for you. HIPAA is taken incredibly seriously. It's no joke.

 

[trs88]

All this talk has me a little worried now. The hospital I volunteer at has an extremely unprofessional volunteer coordinator. She has done a lot of misplacing of my paperwork and at one point accused me of not showing up for months and threatened to remove from from volunteering. The log book was right there and had all of my times on it, not once had I missed a date or been late. A few weeks ago, my sheet that had over 130+ hours listed is now missing and in its place was a blank one. I'm afraid that when I list the hours and location with contact number, that she will tell them that she's never heard of me or that I only had 10 hours or something equally ridiculous.

 

[sazerac]

I did an Americorps volunteer project. One school made me send them a JPG of my Americorps web account with the verification that I completed the contract.

I suppose I could have photoshopped that if I was really dishonest.

 

[JohnFe]

HIPAA? This can be an enormous issue if you show ADCOMs pictures or put them on Facebook or any social networking site. If they are on any website, remove them now. There can be very serious consequences if this is a clinical setting. If it's not clinical, then it's fine.

Sorry not trying to be rude. I'm just looking out for you. HIPAA is taken incredibly seriously. It's no joke.

No, this is for non-clinical volunteer. Like relief goods, blood drive, etc. It is just me and other volunteers along with the banner (Red Cross etc).

From what I recall, when I volunteered at a hospital. They keep track of my hours. I have to sign in to a computer and track my hours.

Just don't lie. In any field, integrity is important.

 

[Ohyeah]

It's one of those huge risk/low reward kind of things--if someone finds out you willfully lied it's probably game over, and nobody is really going to care about a difference in 50 hours of volunteer work anyways. In fact, nobody actually cares about the actual number of hours anyways once you hit some arbitrary minimum. Nobody's going to check to see if you have exactly 300 hours of volunteer hours, but they WILL ask you what you got out of those hours, and the more time you actually spent there the more experiences you'll be able to draw on to make you answer, so the better your answer will be.

I agree. For most things, there isn't so much scrutiny that you have to be accurate to the hour. Estimate to the best of your ability and try not to lie. The potential benefit is so small that it's not worth the risk.

 

[dinnydindin]

The medical school I applied to (KCUMB) called a clinic where I shadowed at to make sure I was not making anything up!

so they do call to confirm but Its only obvious if you have like 500 hours volunteering in 6 months

 

[HopefulSlav]

They also send CIA agents into your house dressed as ninjas to extract data from your computer and cellphone while you sleep.

That's the NSA. And they don't have to enter your house.

 

[LaughingMan]

Yeah definitely not worth it to lie.

I think LizzyM said before that often times the big ECs can be verified through letters of rec.

Just do it to the best of your knowledge and always lean on the side with caution and you should be fine.

I volunteered in 2008 at a Hospital, and I can't recall if I had 25 or 35 hours. Thus I'm just gonna put 25 hours,

 

[VictorAlpha]

They also send CIA agents into your house dressed as ninjas to extract data from your computer and cellphone while you sleep.

...you hear that?

I hope you're all clearing your HDDs before you hit the hay. 🙂