Long-term and short-term ECs

[fluffers32]

I'm planning on applying this cycle and wanted to know if it would be fine to include 2 new short-term EC activities (hospice volunteering and homeless shelter volunteering) I want to do this April-May? Most of my other ECs are pretty long-term (at least >1 year) minus shadowing, but I'm just worried if it might look bad to include 1-2 month volunteer positions right before applying

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[Mr.Smile12]

I'm planning on applying this cycle and wanted to know if it would be fine to include 2 new short-term EC activities (hospice volunteering and homeless shelter volunteering) I want to do this April-May? Most of my other ECs are pretty long-term (at least >1 year) minus shadowing, but I'm just worried if it might look bad to include 1-2 month volunteer positions right before applying

The answer: it depends. What were your long-term experiences?

 

[fluffers32]

The answer: it depends. What were your long-term experiences

Dry lab research (2.5 years), crisis text line counselor (2.5 years), patient transport volunteer (1 year), virtual tutoring for homeless children (1 year)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Dry lab research (2.5 years), crisis text line counselor (2.5 years), patient transport volunteer (1 year), virtual tutoring for homeless children (1 year)

Contingent on a WAMC profile, I think it depends. I think it's better than nothing, but as I say, any activity with fewer than 50 hours at submission on the primary application gets easily disregarded by me. Can you be more specific with hours for these activities?

 

[fluffers32]

Contingent on a WAMC profile, I think it depends. I think it's better than nothing, but as I say, any activity with fewer than 50 hours at submission on the primary application gets easily disregarded by me. Can you be more specific with hours for these activities?

Sure, dry lab research (900 hours), crisis text line counselor (300 hours), patient transport volunteer (180 hours), virtual tutoring (35 hours, the hours are pretty few for this activity but it's a ~1hr weekly commitment with one student for this organization)

I'm mostly trying to do some more volunteering April-May because I realize I don't have any in-person volunteering apart from my patient transport volunteer position

 

[AJS59]

Sure, dry lab research (900 hours), crisis text line counselor (300 hours), patient transport volunteer (180 hours), virtual tutoring (35 hours, the hours are pretty few for this activity but it's a ~1hr weekly commitment with one student for this organization)

I'm mostly trying to do some more volunteering April-May because I realize I don't have any in-person volunteering apart from my patient transport volunteer position

I'd say go for it; your application at least won't be hurt by doing this and the more hours you can get listed, the better. Ideally you'd carry them over to the application cycle if possible but I understand some things change.

I would recommend maybe focusing in more on the homeless shelter volunteering — you have adequate hours for patient transport, so the more nonclinical hours you can get, the better

 

[fluffers32]

I'd say go for it; your application at least won't be hurt by doing this and the more hours you can get listed, the better. Ideally you'd carry them over to the application cycle if possible but I understand some things change.

I would recommend maybe focusing in more on the homeless shelter volunteering — you have adequate hours for patient transport, so the more nonclinical hours you can get, the better

Thank you for the advice! I was worried that my patient transport volunteer hours were a little on the lower side which is why I also wanted to try some hospice volunteering. But I will definitely try getting more non-clinical volunteering

 

[burneracc]

I had 2 volunteer activities on my app that only had about 60 hours each (though they were not my only activities)! And have had a fairly successful cycle. Not sure if they helped or harmed me, but as long as they are not your only volunteer experiences, I dont see any harm in including them.