International Medical Mission-Worth it?

[DJ BOLO]

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Before my interviews I am thinking of going to Africa for 1.5 months and working in non-profit hospital (I have all the arrangements set up). My question is, will this look good for medical schools? I am not doing this just to get into med school, I really want to go (really).

I want to know what people who have gone on medical missions have got out of the experience and how their interviewers reacted to their experiences. This is what one SDN mentor had to say:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=5250812&postcount=150

This is one person's thoughts and I want to see what students have to say about their experiences. I am not excited about spending too much cash money on an experience that ADCOMs will see as pointless. Any thoughts?

 

[TheRealMD]

If you have to ask, it's questionable already. And adcoms will really investigate about it because going to a foreign country to "stand out" has been overused so many times to people's detriment if they didn't have anything realistic to show for it.

 

[Sir Buckethead]

"I am not doing this just to get into med school, I really want to go (really)."

Then do it and dont worry about how it will look.

Might I ask where?

 

[Depakote]

Before my interviews I am thinking of going to Africa for 1.5 months and working in non-profit hospital (I have all the arrangements set up). My question is, will this look good for medical schools? I am not doing this just to get into med school, I really want to go (really).

I want to know what people who have gone on medical missions have got out of the experience and how their interviewers reacted to their experiences. This is what one SDN mentor had to say:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=5250812&postcount=150

This is one person's thoughts and I want to see what students have to say about their experiences. I am not excited about spending too much cash money on an experience that ADCOMs will see as pointless. Any thoughts?

I tend to agree with the mentor's post that it will not blow the adcoms away...

however, having been on two medical missions myself, I can say that they were both very personally enriching exeriences. As stated by the mentor, you won't (shouldn't) be doing much other than taking personal histories or assisting someone that actually knows what they're doing, but the value of the experience is the cultural and service impact. You will be exposed to worlds you would never know and get some cultural exposure that most pre-meds have been very sheltered from. These people undoubtedly need help and you can give it to them... you will feel great for having done it and you'll learn something. Plus, it will be an interesting topic of conversation, just not a unique one.

Now if you're looking for something purely for your application, go volunteer in a clinic in an underserved area. You'll be making an impact closer to home and it wont cost you an arm and a leg.

 

[riceman04]

Before my interviews I am thinking of going to Africa for 1.5 months and working in non-profit hospital (I have all the arrangements set up). My question is, will this look good for medical schools? I am not doing this just to get into med school, I really want to go (really).

I want to know what people who have gone on medical missions have got out of the experience and how their interviewers reacted to their experiences. This is what one SDN mentor had to say:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=5250812&postcount=150

This is one person's thoughts and I want to see what students have to say about their experiences. I am not excited about spending too much cash money on an experience that ADCOMs will see as pointless. Any thoughts?

Then what do you mean by..."worth it?"

👎thumbdown👎thumbdown👎

 

[jae9970]

if you really want to go, then you should go

the experience couldn't hurt, it'll only help

it may be true that these days, the number of applicants with such experience has drastically increased, but still, it's nowhere near the majority

i guess it also depends on how much you are willing to spend, in money and time, too

earlier this summer, i had a chance to participate in a week-long trip to Dominican republic for some work, and it only would have cost me about 400 dollars.. i definitely would have gone, but my passport expired and it was in the process of being renewed so i was stuck..

 

[nskittles57]

If you see it as possibly blowing too much money and it being "pointless" then don't go....the people in Africa don't want your help if you are just going to put it on a resume or have something to talk about in and Interview.

I was in Nigeria for a month and I plan on someday (hopefully!) practicing medicine in developing countries so my trip was definitely not "pointless".

Go for yourself, not for medical school...I find it pretty disgusting you would even ask this question (people in Africa are people, not resume builders)

 

[Phillyborn]

I think international experiences (both medical and non-medical) can be done either really well or really badly. Living in a foreign country and assimilating yourself to the culture is very different from a semester long vacation, and a lot of it has to do with you as a person. While there is less risk of seeing your medical mission as a vacation in a traditional sense (say if you were to go to coastal Australia), it is still very easy to see it as a ‘premed vacation’, looking at these poor people through your sympathetic, premed eyes and standing back in awe of all of the good you are doing them. While, from my experiences, you are more than likely just perpetuating pre-established stereotypes on both your part and theirs (to you, the poor, helpless Africans) (to them, the intelligent non-Africans who they must rely on for help or try to copy if they ever want to get all of the material things you flaunt around). Obviously my vote is not to go. 1 ½ months is not a very long time to be in a foreign country, as by the time the initial wonder of it all wears off, you will already be excited to go home. This leaves one of the major benefits of traveling abroad, in my eyes at least, of adapting to new surroundings and learning to function in a new society pretty much impotent. Much like the adcom member stated, if you are going into the experience realizing that it is basically medical tourism and that all you can do is soak things up, you may be ok (albeit if you realize that 1 ½ months in a country with little background will most likely not allow you to soak up much of what is really going on). So if you’re dead set on going, please go into it with realistic expectations (it is very unlikely that you will do any good for anyone other than yourself while you are there). However, if you have 1 ½ months kill and a bunch of money burning a hole in your pocket, go volunteer at a nursing home and anonymsly sign a check to a worthwhile charity. That is much more admirable in my eyes than doing something largely for yourself (ie. your suggested trip).

 

[badasshairday]

Do it because you want to do it, don't do let anyone tell you not to do it if you are doing it for the right reasons. People will tell you that adcoms won't swoon over it because you have premeds going on these trips just to put it on their application. If you are the type of person that is doing it because they really genuinely want to do it, I am sure your experience will stand out. It all depends on how you take the experience.

I feel that everyone in a developed country like the US should volunteer in developing countries or poor inner city areas. It really changes your perspective on what is important in life.

I myself went to India last year for a medical mission. I am Indian, so I have my roots their which made me want to help my people. I had already made plans to visit family that I haven't seen for many years, so i figured volunteering in poorer areas of the country would also be a good thing to do. Also I raised the money by getting donations, which was well over a thousand dollars to help fund the mission so it wasn't my own money that was funding it. I took other donations like eye glasses and sun glasses (this was an eye clinic). The most important part of my experience is that I learned a lot and my perspective on many things changed greatly.

You probably have your own reasons as to why you want to go. I just want to let you know that when you go to another country, language could become an issue. You may want to help do certain things but cannnot communicate. This could severly hinder you to just sit on the sidelines and make you feel like you aren't doing crap. For me, I was lucky because I could speak the language.