is there a certain number of volunteer hours that make it recognizable ?

[medchica]

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My advisor told me that if you don't have a significant amount of hours than its pretty pointless to volunteer. True ? Does it make a difference where you volunteer at besides the hospital of course ?

 

[Isoprop]

Quality matters over quantity. There is no magic number of min volunteer hours. As long as you get something meaningful out of it, you are fine.

That being said, you can't really learn much from 5 hours of volunteering. So keep that in mind as well.

 

[oaklandguy]

My advisor told me that if you don't have a significant amount of hours than its pretty pointless to volunteer. True ? Does it make a difference where you volunteer at besides the hospital of course ?

There is a search function in this forum, please learn how to use it.

However, I am nice enough to answer your questions.

#1 It is not pointless to volunteer unless you don't want to volunteer, don't feel obligated to volunteer because there are people with 0 volunteer hours who get into medical schools. Volunteer somewhere you enjoy or feel the need to volunteer at.

#2 It is more important to volunteer over a long period of time, and accumulate 150 hours over a year rather than 100 hours over 2-3 months.

#3 Don't volunteer at the gift shop. I mean you technically could, but volunteering w/ patient interaction is more preferred from what I have experienced: i.e. emergency room, hospice, free clinic, ambulance volunteer work etc. These will get you solid patient interaction and may count as clinical experience.

 

[MT2MD]

I am volunteering in the ICU right now, I will probably have 100 hrs over 6 months. The volunteers told me that they won't verify yours hours if you don't do over 100 hrs.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

About 182 would be my guess. Any less than that is weak sauce.

 

[bravofleet4]

duration matters a lot. The primary app requires you to list the date it started and ended. Therefore, don't try to cram in alot of hours within a couple months and think that the adcom committee will think that means you're able to stick with one thing and follow it through. They're looking for commitments that last longer than a year. That's what really matters over the number of hours.

 

[Catalystik]

Adcomms like to see nonmedical volunteering too. It shows you are involved in the community and care about people. I agree it is good to have a volunteer experience that lasts 1.5-2.0 year or more, but a lot of applicants have short community activities too. It's fine to list all these in one space, naming the space Short-Term Community Service. In the narrative you can list dates, name of organization, total hours, whether it be 1-8 or 40, and what you did. It doesn't need documentation.

So you could have something like: helped at a health fair handing out brochures on good diet=4 hours. Assisted new students on move-in day=6 hours. Usher at charity concertX4 hours for three events=12 hours. Ran in race for the Cure, raised $200=3 hours. Alternative spring break, built homes in S. Texas for migrant workers=40 hours. Taught religious education 1 hour/week for 40 weeks=40 hours. And so on. Give a grand total at the end. Obviously you wouldn't do this at all if the total is 2 hours. But over three years these things can build up into a nice grand total.