I exaggerated my EC's on AMCAS and I got called on it.

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Psai said:
In theory I could be a ceo but I'm not
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So, wait. I'm trying to understand this.

I work at a food pantry, once a week, for around four hours a session. I started in late May.

Right now, I have around 70 hours. But, if I were to apply next year, on 15 June, I would have 220 hours.

But, by the time I would (hopefully) be matriculating, I would have 460 hours.

So, what would I put down? 220, or 460?
 
Conflagration said:
So, wait. I'm trying to understand this.

I work at a food pantry, once a week, for around four hours a session. I started in late May.

Right now, I have around 70 hours. But, if I were to apply next year, on 15 June, I would have 220 hours.

But, by the time I would (hopefully) be matriculating, I would have 460 hours.

So, what would I put down? 220, or 460?
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you can separate your hours based on the time-frame.

e.g. dates X (start)-Y (amcas submission) already completed: 220 hours; dates Y (AMCAS submission)-Z (matriculation): 460 hours. Of course, you would adjust your hours based on your projected schedule etc.
 
Conflagration said:
So, wait. I'm trying to understand this.

I work at a food pantry, once a week, for around four hours a session. I started in late May.

Right now, I have around 70 hours. But, if I were to apply next year, on 15 June, I would have 220 hours.

But, by the time I would (hopefully) be matriculating, I would have 460 hours.

So, what would I put down? 220, or 460?
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Putting down 460 is fine. I put down 2000 hours for a job that I hadn't even started yet when i submitted. Just make sure the date it ends was a year from now.
 
wasteofspace323 said:
Putting down 460 is fine. I put down 2000 hours for a job that I hadn't even started yet when i submitted. Just make sure the date it ends was a year from now.
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Interesting. Was pretty certain AMCAS didn't let you enter activities that hadn't been started by the time of submission (but there are of course ways around that I suppose).
 
ImmunoLove said:
Interesting. Was pretty certain AMCAS didn't let you enter activities that hadn't been started by the time of submission (but there are of course ways around that I suppose).
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I just used my hire date as my start date. It's a bit inaccurate but who cares.
 
Conflagration said:
I believe that you can extrapolate into the future about that kind of stuff, but it sounded like he had wrote it down as though the hours were already completed. And the lack of good info for the contact is really not helping his case. And trying to get 150 hours done from now until matriculation time, although not impossible, would be a pain in the ass if he can't move things around in his schedule to accommodate that. (Since it'd be 45 weeks from now until the middle of August 2016, he'd need more than 3 hours a week. It could be done if he has the time.)

OP, that could be your saving grace. Own that the 250 was an expected number and that you're working on it, let your volunteer coordinator know that you're coming back to help out some more, and give them his/her number. You may be able to bail out of this SNAFU, but seriously- don't entertain this kind of crap ever again. This was a very clear warning shot and you might have already done some self-screwing; don't talk the talk unless you can walk the walk.

That might be your only hope, OP. Truthfully, what you did was BS and you should know that you deserved the ass-ripping. But it won't be BS if you're going to work the hours. Good luck to you, and know that next time, you might not be so lucky.
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I'd rather get flagged by AMCAS then go back to that hell hole and volunteer more.

Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
 
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METTA WORLD PEACE said:
F'uck that... I'd rather get flagged by AMCAS then go back to that hell hole and volunteer more.

Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
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That's bull**** but I believe it.
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
F'uck that... I'd rather get flagged by AMCAS then go back to that hell hole and volunteer more.

Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
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I don't know what else to tell you, dude. You're going to be up a creek if you're flagged, because that kind of **** isn't taken lightly. You might potentially screw yourself for life. I mean, you're running out of options- you either bite the bullet and grind it out or you have that flag follow you.

What didn't you like about it? I mean, maybe you could choose a different time slot if it was a particular band of volunteers, work in a different ward within the hospital if the coordinator's the problem. There's some creative options to this. But if you just aren't going to do it because it's inconvenient, then it's good that you're bailing out before you started taking out grad school loans. Is the inconvenience really worth screwing yourself?
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
F'uck that... I'd rather get flagged by AMCAS then go back to that hell hole and volunteer more.

Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
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Actually, s/he's right. And I can only assume you're a troll then. Also, AMCAS can do an investigation whether or not you withdraw your application, and it will follow you.
 
Conflagration said:
I don't know what else to tell you, dude. You're going to be up a creek if you're flagged, because that kind of **** isn't taken lightly. You might potentially screw yourself for life. I mean, you're running out of options- you either bite the bullet and grind it out or you have that flag follow you.

What didn't you like about it? I mean, maybe you could choose a different time slot if it was a particular band of volunteers, work in a different ward within the hospital if the coordinator's the problem. There's some creative options to this. But if you just aren't going to do it because it's inconvenient, then it's good that you're bailing out before you started taking out grad school loans. Is the inconvenience really worth screwing yourself?
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What didn't I like about it?? Seriously???? How about everything. I hated stocking the supply carts. I hated cleaning patient rooms. I hated getting in everyone's way. I hated wearing that stupid green smock that let everyone in the hospital know that I was working for free.

I'd rather have both of my nutz get run over by a steamroller than spend one more hour doing that ****.
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
What didn't I like about it?? Seriously???? How about everything. I hated stocking the supply carts. I hated cleaning patient rooms. I hated getting in everyone's way. I hated wearing that stupid green smock that let everyone in the hospital know that I was working for free.

I'd rather have both of my nutz get run over by a steamroller than spend one more hour doing that ****.
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There's nothing wrong with any of those sentiments and I understand entirely.
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
What didn't I like about it?? Seriously???? How about everything. I hated stocking the supply carts. I hated cleaning patient rooms. I hated getting in everyone's way. I hated wearing that stupid green smock that let everyone in the hospital know that I was working for free.

I'd rather have both of my nutz get run over by a steamroller than spend one more hour doing that ****.
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I hate to be a dick, but you're going to be doing a lot of things that show that you're at the bottom of the totem pole. It's temporary, and from what I've heard, you're subject to similar treatment as a med student and as an intern. I'm sorry that you feel that way, but you signed up for it when you claimed you had volunteered for 150 more hours than you actually did.

And @ImmunoLove, I'm a girl. ^^
 
Conflagration said:
I hate to be a dick, but you're going to be doing a lot of things that show that you're at the bottom of the totem pole. It's temporary, and from what I've heard, you're subject to similar treatment as a med student and as an intern. I'm sorry that you feel that way, but you signed up for it when you claimed you had volunteered for 150 more hours than you actually did.

And @ImmunoLove, I'm a girl. ^^
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Me too! I was just erring on the side of caution with the s/he, lest I elicit a PC-fueled deluge... 🙂

EDIT: Just checked out your MDApps. History of Statistics? You Nerd! (and that I mean as a compliment... but statistics... I just don't get it. Calculus, on the other hand, is awesome. Don't get me wrong, I can do my stats--I have to, being a researcher and all-- but it is not the best part of my day, though I suspect SPSS has something to do with it...).
 
Man, if you have so much issue being a little bit in the way as a volunteer, you're going to feel like a superdouche when you have clinical encounters where you are, more or less, actively bothering patients, nurses, and physicians just to get experience.
 
jonnythan said:
Man, if you have so much issue being a little bit in the way as a volunteer, you're going to feel like a superdouche when you have clinical encounters where you are, more or less, actively bothering patients, nurses, and physicians just to get experience.
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wat
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
F'uck that... I'd rather get flagged by AMCAS then go back to that hell hole and volunteer more.

Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
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Why did you bypass the forum censors? That violates the forum rules.
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
wat
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Do you know much about medical school or how it works? I can only speak for my own school, but here 1st and 2nd year students are assigned to 4th year students to go into patient rooms and perform histories and physicals. It's an imposition on the patient, because they've already been seen by residents and attendings and nothing you do will help them in any way. You're literally there to just practice on them, while being escorted by a 4th year who really has better things to do. The same thing more or less happens in 3rd and 4th year; you follow people around and get in the way and practice things on patients who often have no interest in you being there.
 
U Wot M8 said:
Eleven pages lol?? Let me guess most of this thread has been premeds banging on about how critical volunteering is to becoming a selfless physician and how they learned the true meaning of altruism through passing out biscuits and tea

When in fact probably 80%+ of premeds do volunteering to check a box. Lol
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I probably would never have gotten around to it if not for that box-checking, yeah, but I also refused to take a position until I found one that was actually meaningful to me (in a children's hospital, despite that it required a lot more hoops to jump through).
It was also the quickest and easiest way for me to see the inside of a hospital and start to get a sense of whether it would be a good fit for me.

So did I have some selfish motivations? Absolutely. And that's not a bad thing. I think the world would be in a lot better place if we stopped pretending that helping others is only worthwhile when you get absolutely nothing in return. If more places started focusing on promoting what I call 'selfish altruism', aka setups that are mutually beneficial to all parties involved, everyone wins. If warm fuzzies are enough for some people (and they're certainly a HUGE benefit, don't get me wrong), that's great...but if we still need more volunteering/donations, maybe step 1 should be to stop judging everyone who admits to having some external motivations for participating...help is help.
 
Ahhh, nothing like the smell of entitlement in the morning!

Do try and restrain your inner troll.

METTA WORLD PEACE said:
Plus, even though I only volunteered about a hundred hours, I hated being there so much that it felt more like 250+ hours, so I don't see any wrongdoing on my part.
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I suppose that you'll really enjoy deimpacting impacted stools then.


METTA WORLD PEACE said:
What didn't I like about it?? Seriously???? How about everything. I hated stocking the supply carts. I hated cleaning patient rooms. I hated getting in everyone's way. I hated wearing that stupid green smock that let everyone in the hospital know that I was working for free.

I'd rather have both of my nutz get run over by a steamroller than spend one more hour doing that ****.
Click to expand...
 
METTA WORLD PEACE said:
What didn't I like about it?? Seriously???? How about everything. I hated stocking the supply carts. I hated cleaning patient rooms. I hated getting in everyone's way. I hated wearing that stupid green smock that let everyone in the hospital know that I was working for free.

I'd rather have both of my nutz get run over by a steamroller than spend one more hour doing that ****.
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I realize a lot of it can suck. But we all had to go through it. Even though I absolutely despised 95% of my clinical volunteering (minus the few good moments of patient contact), I absolutely LOVED my non-clinical volunteering. It was fun and people loved having me. Sadly, it was very sporadic, so I had to piggyback it on top of clinical volunteering. So seriously try to find something you might actually enjoy, even if it's sporadic. Just because these typical pre-med volunteer traps suck doesn't mean other things will.

If you are limited by distance or if other hospitals are already full of eager pre-med volunteers, then I would suggest trying to utilize as much of that time as you can to do the following:

1. Study
2. Read the internet on your phone, tablet, computer, or etc.
3. Shadow (though since you've applied, you're already done with this I'm guessing) Note: Shadowing during volunteer shifts is actually common, and is a fantastic way to kill two birds with one stone, since you're double dipping into both shadow and volunteer hours.

But PLEASE only do the above as long as you're not asked to do anything. Depending on the location, pre-meds are often invisible to staff, and you can get away doing nothing while racking up hours. But don't be a jackass when people are asking you to help. No one is asking you to put forth any effort beyond doing only what is asked (if you're asked to do anything at all), so just go ahead and do this. You have a long way to go until you're an attending physician, and like people said, you'll have to deal with a lot of crap that you either won't want to, or feel that is below you.
 
Psai said:
Why would you say that? I could say I intend to complete a million hours
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From the AMCAS Instruction Manual:

"
Experience Dates
Include the start and end dates for each experience. Some Experience Types, such as Awards, Presentations/Posters and Publications, require only one date. Medical schools want information about experiences you have begun prior to application submission; therefore, your start date must be no later than the current month. Similarly, medical schools ask that the experience end date coincide with the start of medical school. Even if the experience will be ongoing, the latest end date is August of the current application cycle. If you participated in an experience more than once, check Yes next to the “Repeated?” field for that particular entry. You may enter up to three additional date ranges.

Total Hours
Enter the total number of hours that you completed (or expect to complete) related to this experience during the date range that you indicated. If this is a repeated experience, include only the number of hours completed for that specific date range. If you have a non-traditional schedule, you may explain in the Experience Description field.

"

Underline mine.
 
Goro said:
I suppose that you'll really enjoy deimpacting impacted stools then.
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As a former pianist, I have freakishly long, skinny, agile fingers... Surmise it to say I've seen my way around many a disimpaction. Let's just say I start off by suggesting we both engage in some deep, relaxing breaths. Oh yeah, it's awesome being me. Admit it. You're jealous.
 
ImmunoLove said:
Interesting. Was pretty certain AMCAS didn't let you enter activities that hadn't been started by the time of submission (but there are of course ways around that I suppose).
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Simply clarify current weekly hours (write in current total hours).
 
jl lin said:
Simply clarify current weekly hours (write in current total hours).
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Sadly I've already submitted. But I did what you've suggested above (as is often the case with nurses, they are usually right and one ought to follow their insight! Rock on @ji Lin!)
 
EverStriving said:
From the AMCAS Instruction Manual:

"
Experience Dates
Include the start and end dates for each experience. Some Experience Types, such as Awards, Presentations/Posters and Publications, require only one date. Medical schools want information about experiences you have begun prior to application submission; therefore, your start date must be no later than the current month. Similarly, medical schools ask that the experience end date coincide with the start of medical school. Even if the experience will be ongoing, the latest end date is August of the current application cycle. If you participated in an experience more than once, check Yes next to the “Repeated?” field for that particular entry. You may enter up to three additional date ranges.

Total Hours
Enter the total number of hours that you completed (or expect to complete) related to this experience during the date range that you indicated. If this is a repeated experience, include only the number of hours completed for that specific date range. If you have a non-traditional schedule, you may explain in the Experience Description field.

"

Underline mine.
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Wtf...so basically you can put anything down.
 
jonnythan said:
Do you know much about medical school or how it works? I can only speak for my own school, but here 1st and 2nd year students are assigned to 4th year students to go into patient rooms and perform histories and physicals. It's an imposition on the patient, because they've already been seen by residents and attendings and nothing you do will help them in any way. You're literally there to just practice on them, while being escorted by a 4th year who really has better things to do. The same thing more or less happens in 3rd and 4th year; you follow people around and get in the way and practice things on patients who often have no interest in you being there.
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If he feels like he's an imposition at the beginning of medical school, he'll get over it eventually. Many people feel that way at the beginning.
 
ImmunoLove said:
Interesting. Was pretty certain AMCAS didn't let you enter activities that hadn't been started by the time of submission (but there are of course ways around that I suppose).
Click to expand...

That changed a couple cycles ago. Now future plans can be listed on the application with an estimate of total hours.
 
ImmunoLove said:
Sadly I've already submitted. But I did what you've suggested above (as is often the case with nurses, they are usually right and one ought to follow their insight! Rock on @ji Lin!)
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LOL Thx. Depends though. Some of us work in very controlling (AR) areas. I'm more of a person that evaluates the person in the suit/title over the suit/title the person is wearing. 🙂 But yeah, sometimes nurses get a bad wrap, and it really all depends. Then again, I have seen some not-so-hot people w/ any number of suits/titles in HC that are sadly less than good/excellent at what they do--and some that are just unbelievably stupid or careless. The worst is when pride is the dominant force that leads to bad decisions/outcomes. Stupid may or may not be helped. Pride over doing the right thing, that's the most disheartening thing to see in HC. Actually, it's devastating and demoralizing to watch.

Good luck to you, and for peace of mind, remember that all in healthcare and medicine does not rise and fall on the forums here. Sometimes people are just about sadly buffing their egos by putting someone else down. I feel a bit badly for the OP--if he was not trolling that is. But if he is for real; hopefully the lesson was worth it.

Also, re: OP and his hate for the time he put into the volunteer setting, if after going the extra mile, being diligent, and having an amazing attitude, you still can't make clinical in-roads to get close to what's going on and get some good experiences, than do as I believe Lizzy said. Start exploring other volunteer options.
 
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jl lin said:
LOL Thx. Depends though. Some of us work in very controlling (AR) areas. I'm more of a person that evaluates the person in the suit/title over the suit/title the person is wearing. 🙂 But yeah, sometimes nurses get a bad wrap, and it really all depends. Then again, I have seen some not-so-hot people w/ any number of suits/titles in HC that are sadly less than good/excellent at what they do--and some that are just unbelievably stupid or careless. The worst is when pride is the dominant force that leads to bad decisions/outcomes. Stupid may or may not be helped. Pride over doing the right thing, that's the most disheartening thing to see in HC. Actually, it's devastating and demoralizing to watch.

Good luck to you, and for peace of mind, remember that all in healthcare and medicine does not rise and fall on the forums here. Sometimes people are just about sadly buffing their egos by putting someone else down. I feel a bit badly for the OP--if he was not trolling that is. But if he is for real; hopefully the lesson was worth it.

Also, if after going the extra mile, being diligent, and having an amazing attitude, you still can't make clinical in-roads to get close to what's going on and get some good experiences, than do as I believe Lizzy said. Start exploring other volunteer options.
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I think you're right. But in all honesty, I was smart enough early on to appreciate the nurses' insight, and you've proven the same here. SDN is a strange and biased community, and I take it with a grain of salt, frankly, as it's not particularly open to unusual background (like my own). Being in the clinic grounds me, though, and I like to think the adcoms ultimately select for something beyond what's encapsulated here (that is, though what's here is valuable, it might also be limited).
 
Dral said:
Someone who has no problem doing this type of thing is the same type of future resident who, when asked, tells their attending they listened to the pt's lungs that AM and all was ok when they really didn't do it...and next thing you know, said pt ends up in the ICU with PNA that could have been caught sooner.

This is why it's such a big deal to adcoms...and AAMC for that matter.
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Thank you! Also, putting myself in his patient's shoes... I wouldn't want to be his patient.
 
LizzyM said:
That changed a couple cycles ago. Now future plans can be listed on the application with an estimate of total hours.
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Huh. Well I'm an idiot... No surprise there... Damn, I could have name-dropped too...(I kid, but no really...)
 
Conflagration said:
Age/sex/location. Haven't seen that since AOL Messenger.
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Well that makes more sense. Almost answered "nope but I'm fluent in three others".

On that note, Seems to my like they should add orientation and a few other things to that list. Maybe a survey (I'm being glib). Funny I don't remember that on AOL, and I was up to all kind of nonsense, too.
 
ImmunoLove said:
Who? If it's me. I'm delighted. Nothing wrong with getting lucky! 😉 <and actually I'm a relatively cute girl, and I think this>
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IL, I am certain I'd be quite lucky. I'm an quite attractive person as well, but I'm taken--and as frustrating as men can be, I tend to prefer them in certain matters. 😉
 
jl lin said:
Apparently us. LOL
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Yeah, truthfully I'm not sure how the whole thing happened...I didn't think we were "get a room" worthy when that comment was posted, but maybe we just have amazing game, so good that even we don't know it.
 
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