Keeping track of volunteering hours

[bigM6029]

I volunteer at a private clinic a couple of times a month. I am keeping track of my hours myself but there is not sign in sheet or anything since i am the only volunteer there and the only reason i got the volunteer position is because i shadowed the doctor. When listing the number of hours on my app, how would adcom confirm that i volunteered x number of hours? Through word of mouth?


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[CyrilFiggis]

Through honesty. If you say you volunteered 972 hours in 6 months an AdCom may get skeptical and want to confirm. Thats why you need to list a contact for each activity. No school I interviewed or was accepted to ever confirmed my hours.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Just be honest and realistic about it. I have hundreds of hours, but they are over a few years and with multiple organizations. If you volunteer regularly, you can average how many hours per week and multiply by the number of weeks to get a good round estimate. That's what I do.

 

[aldol16]

With regard to keeping track, I never really kept track of the hours - I thought this was a bit neurotic and I volunteered because I enjoyed it, not because I needed so many hours. I always see pre-meds looking at their watches/phones while volunteering to keep track of their "1 hour a week" because their world will implode if they go fifteen minutes over. Just get a good sense of how many hours a week you volunteer and then multiply that over the time of your experience to get the rough number of hours you volunteered.

Most likely, nobody is going to check that you volunteered the amount of hours you said and even if they do, many volunteer supervisors don't actually know the exact number for each volunteer so as long as it's in the right range, it's not a problem. If you say you volunteered for 1000 hours but have absolutely nothing to say about your experience, some people might get curious and your supervisor, while maybe unable to tell the difference between 200 and 250 hours, will definitely be able to tell the difference between 200 and 1000 hours.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

With regard to keeping track, I never really kept track of the hours - I thought this was a bit neurotic and I volunteered because I enjoyed it, not because I needed so many hours. I always see pre-meds looking at their watches/phones while volunteering to keep track of their "1 hour a week" because their world will implode if they go fifteen minutes over. Just get a good sense of how many hours a week you volunteer and then multiply that over the time of your experience to get the rough number of hours you volunteered.

Most likely, nobody is going to check that you volunteered the amount of hours you said and even if they do, many volunteer supervisors don't actually know the exact number for each volunteer so as long as it's in the right range, it's not a problem. If you say you volunteered for 1000 hours but have absolutely nothing to say about your experience, some people might get curious and your supervisor, while maybe unable to tell the difference between 200 and 250 hours, will definitely be able to tell the difference between 200 and 1000 hours.

There's a big difference between being generally aware of yourself and your activities and checking your phone constantly to make sure you accrue enough hours. I know generally how many hours I volunteered doing stuff even when I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to med school simply because I have a decent memory and am not oblivious.

 

[aldol16]

There's a big difference between being generally aware of yourself and your activities and checking your phone constantly to make sure you accrue enough hours. I know generally how many hours I volunteered doing stuff even when I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to med school simply because I have a decent memory and am not oblivious.

Never said there wasn't. Are you saying that you entered "432.5 hours" for an experience on AMCAS or did you think back and say "Oh, I volunteered about once a week for 2 hours each and I did this for a year so I had about 104 hours"?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Never said there wasn't. Are you saying that you entered "432.5 hours" for an experience on AMCAS or did you think back and say "Oh, I volunteered about once a week for 2 hours each and I did this for a year so I had about 104 hours"?

If you read my first post, I said I had nice round estimates that are fairly accurate because I have a good idea of hour many hours per week and for how many weeks I volunteered.

 

[aldol16]

If you read my first post, I said I had nice round estimates that are fairly accurate because I have a good idea of hour many hours per week and for how many weeks I volunteered.

Good. If you look at my first post, I said to get a good sense of how many hours you work per week and then multiply that over the period of time you volunteer to get a number.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Good. If you look at my first post, I said to get a good sense of how many hours you work per week and then multiply that over the period of time you volunteer to get a number.

Yes. I think we are agreeing with each other argumentatively.

 

[Turkishking]

I keep track of my volunteering hours. I've been volunteering since the summer of 2015, and I ask for letters from the hospital(s), and put them in a special folder. I will open this special folder up when I apply.

I'm not sure how this is neurotic.. It's pretty accurate.

 

[Dagrimsta1]

I keep track of my volunteering hours. I've been volunteering since the summer of 2015, and I ask for letters from the hospital(s), and put them in a special folder. I will open this special folder up when I apply.

I'm not sure how this is neurotic.. It's pretty accurate.

This is a awesome way to keep a level head when actually applying. Take it from someone who scrambled last minute for everything. Do things in advance. Power to you

 

[libahli]

My best method (recently) has been to keep a google sheet with a tab for each activity. Make columns for the date and time spent with a summation at the bottom. Super easy and accessible at any time from your phone/tablet/computer - just download the app and it'll sync up in real time so you can access it anywhere.