Limited Volunteer/EC activities

[VickFan]

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have any of u guys made it to med school w/ limited (or none) volunteer work or extra curricular activities?

im a sophomore and i havent started volunteer work yet... but i plan to. but w/ a year and half under the belt, im not sure if that would be sufficient for med school.

as for EC activities, im in a few (3-4) but only consistantly active in 1 of them.

is this bad?

 

[secretasianman]

have any of u guys made it to med school w/ limited (or none) volunteer work or extra curricular activities?

im a sophomore and i havent started volunteer work yet... but i plan to. but w/ a year and half under the belt, im not sure if that would be sufficient for med school.

as for EC activities, im in a few (3-4) but only consistantly active in 1 of them.

is this bad?

i started doing stuff during spring quarter of my sophomore year, so i have ~2 years of volunteering, and 2 years of research. as long as your show what you do isnt sporadic, i think u'll be set.

 

[bewitched1081]

it also matters how much of a commitment you make. for example, someone could say that they volunteered at a hospital for four years but have 150 hours, while another person could have volunteered for a year and have 300 hours.

 

[secretasianman]

it also matters how much of a commitment you make. for example, someone could say that they volunteered at a hospital for four years but have 150 hours, while another person could have volunteered for a year and have 300 hours.

yes definitely. they usually ask for hours/wk and what date to date for activities, if you're curious. but u have a long time to go 😛.

 

[fever5]

In my opinion, two things you must accomplish with volunteering

1) demonstrate a commitment (like already mentioned)
2) use is to gain an insight into the medical world.

For example I volunteer in an ER (for 2 years now). In this time I have gained much experience with patients of all types (geriatrics, pediatrics, psych patients, etc) In the interview when you are asked certain questions like "why do you want to be come a doctor?" or "how would you deal with patient X who is acting Y?", from volunteer experience you will be able to answer these questions, or at least have a framework to do so.

In summary, try to get a medical volunteer spot, that exposes you to as much of the medical world as possible, that way you have many personal experiences to draw from! My strategy was to always related questions back to my experiences to show that I am well rounded (and can support my answers)

 

[roja]

The above post is very sound. I would say also that the more important thing about volunteering si that you gain some insight into medicine and that you get something meaningful out of it.

You don't have to be a traditional and volunteer in an ER. As long as your experience is valuable to you. That you can discuss something that had an impact foryou.

for example, one of the most impressive premeds I interviewed was a guy who volunteered at a cancer hospital. He didn't do much 'medical' and didn't get pimped. He just followed a primary adn hung out with patients. But he was impacted by a man with cancer and sat and talked to this patient. He told me how much this affected him, gave him an insight outside of the science of medicine. He wasn't pissed that he didn't scrub in or do anything cool. He was just gaining insight into patient care and lives... I gave him a great recommendation/eval