Looking for guidance in planning extracurriculars

[magician7772222]

I'm a college freshman and I'm interested in going pre-med. Is a good outline for my EC's? In the US in Florida.

Current Goals:
80-100 Hours of shadowing
150-200 Hours of Clinical Volunteering
150-200 Hours of Non-clinical volunteering (Probably at a soup kitchen, church or museum, I'm not sure which to pick.)
~100Hours of research

Are my hour goals too low? Should I be striving for more clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours and how many research hours should I be striving for?

I'm also going to be spending this upcoming summer in Ukraine in a very remote and rural village setting where I have the opportunity to either do clinical or non-clinical volunteering for a good amount of hours. Which form of volunteering should I do in this situation? I was originally going to go for clinical in Ukraine but I was having second thoughts and thinking of going for non-clinical volunteering helping the impoverished community. This is a village which my family has lived in for generations by the way if that matters and not a random one I chose.

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[MyOdyssey]

I'm a college freshman and I'm interested in going pre-med. Is a good outline for my EC's? In the US in Florida.

Current Goals:
80-100 Hours of shadowing
150-200 Hours of Clinical Volunteering
150-200 Hours of Non-clinical volunteering (Probably at a soup kitchen, church or museum, I'm not sure which to pick.)
~100Hours of research

Are my hour goals too low? Should I be striving for more clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours and how many research hours should I be striving for?

I'm also going to be spending this upcoming summer in Ukraine in a very remote and rural village setting where I have the opportunity to either do clinical or non-clinical volunteering for a good amount of hours. Which form of volunteering should I do in this situation? I was originally going to go for clinical in Ukraine but I was having second thoughts and thinking of going for non-clinical volunteering helping the impoverished community. This is a village which my family has lived in for generations by the way if that matters and not a random one I chose.

Those are OK goals for a basic application. Just as important are to set goals for GPA/MCAT.

I would focus on nonclinical volunteering in the Ukraine. Doing clinical work without credentials may raise red flags.

 

[candbgirl]

I'm a college freshman and I'm interested in going pre-med. Is a good outline for my EC's? In the US in Florida.

Current Goals:
80-100 Hours of shadowing
150-200 Hours of Clinical Volunteering
150-200 Hours of Non-clinical volunteering (Probably at a soup kitchen, church or museum, I'm not sure which to pick.)
~100Hours of research

Are my hour goals too low? Should I be striving for more clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours and how many research hours should I be striving for?

I'm also going to be spending this upcoming summer in Ukraine in a very remote and rural village setting where I have the opportunity to either do clinical or non-clinical volunteering for a good amount of hours. Which form of volunteering should I do in this situation? I was originally going to go for clinical in Ukraine but I was having second thoughts and thinking of going for non-clinical volunteering helping the impoverished community. This is a village which my family has lived in for generations by the way if that matters and not a random one I chose.

You seem to be box checking with your list of ECs. And, with the exception of shadowing, you are on the low end of numbers. Find activities that you are passionate about . What are you going to do when you hit 150 hours? Quit? Do what you are comfortable with and interested in.
As to your Ukraine trip- your ECs should be done in America.. The clinical experience should be face to face with patients. Your nonclinical volunteering should be focused on the unserved/underserved in your community right here in the USA. So do what you want to do in the Ukraine but think about not counting it as ECs. You can use the travel experience I’m not sure about clinical/nonclinical designations.
You only need 50 hours of shadowing and should be in thevUS too. As to research,if you are only allowing 100 hours to research, why even bother.
Good luck as you move forward.

 

[magician7772222]

You seem to be box checking with your list of ECs. And, with the exception of shadowing, you are on the low end of numbers. Find activities that you are passionate about . What are you going to do when you hit 150 hours? Quit? Do what you are comfortable with and interested in.
As to your Ukraine trip- your ECs should be done in America.. The clinical experience should be face to face with patients. Your nonclinical volunteering should be focused on the unserved/underserved in your community right here in the USA. So do what you want to do in the Ukraine but think about not counting it as ECs. You can use the travel experience I’m not sure about clinical/nonclinical designations.
You only need 50 hours of shadowing and should be in thevUS too. As to research,if you are only allowing 100 hours to research, why even bother.
Good luck as you move forward.

Oh, I didn't mean for it to come off as box checking. I'm just very new to this stuff being a freshman and I'm looking for general guidance but I want to make sure I find something that interests me. These hour goals are more of like something I can look at decide that once I've reached them I'm good in that category and maybe switch my focus to another extracurricular while continuing that one at a slower pace. What would be a good amount hour wise for clinical and non-clinical volunteering? And as for research I really have no idea how many hours I should be looking at. If 100 is far too low what would be a more reasonable goal?

 

[candbgirl]

Oh, I didn't mean for it to come off as box checking. I'm just very new to this stuff being a freshman and I'm looking for general guidance but I want to make sure I find something that interests me. These hour goals are more of like something I can look at decide that once I've reached them I'm good in that category and maybe switch my focus to another extracurricular while continuing that one at a slower pace. What would be a good amount hour wise for clinical and non-clinical volunteering? And as for research I really have no idea how many hours I should be looking at. If 100 is far too low what would be a more reasonable goal?

Are you even interested in research? Maybe look around campus and see if there are any research opportunities available. If something pops up apply and see what happens. Some people have hundreds of hours and some have thousands of hours. You are only a freshman. So you don’t have to do it all at once. The main thing for this year is learning time management. Your grades have to come first. So focus on adjusting to college and getting a good base in in your classes. Try going to your premed advisor and see if they have any programs you can take part in. Things will fall together. You have at least 3 years before you apply and probably more. So get your footing and find stuff you like to do. Med schools aren’t looking for robots. You might want to shadow a primary care doc and see if you really want to be a doctor. And then gradually expand. Also spend time reading the WAMC Threads and see what other premed students are doing to build their applications.

 

[MyOdyssey]

You seem to be box checking with your list of ECs. And, with the exception of shadowing, you are on the low end of numbers. Find activities that you are passionate about . What are you going to do when you hit 150 hours? Quit? Do what you are comfortable with and interested in.
As to your Ukraine trip- your ECs should be done in America.. The clinical experience should be face to face with patients. Your nonclinical volunteering should be focused on the unserved/underserved in your community right here in the USA. So do what you want to do in the Ukraine but think about not counting it as ECs. You can use the travel experience I’m not sure about clinical/nonclinical designations.
You only need 50 hours of shadowing and should be in thevUS too. As to research,if you are only allowing 100 hours to research, why even bother.
Good luck as you move forward.

Medical schools are impressed by volunteering related to helping the needy abroad. Time spent in the Peace Corp, for example, Is very highly respected. Peace Corp volunteers make a 27 month commitment and face many hardships and challenges and take on critical work.

Are you committing to real work in the Ukraine or is it more of a summer vacation with relatives during which you’ll spend a few hours on volunteering that you’ll never follow up on once you return to the US?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Have you even met the prehealth advisors on your campus yet?

 

[candbgirl]

Medical schools are impressed by volunteering related to helping the needy abroad. Time spent in the Peace Corp, for example, Is very highly respected. Peace Corp volunteers make a 27 month commitment and face many hardships and challenges and take on critical work.

Are you committing to real work in the Ukraine or is it more of a summer vacation with relatives during which you’ll spend a few hours on volunteering that you’ll never follow up on once you return to the US?

Peace Corps is a wonderful and impressive thing to include on any application. But I too wondered if this was a vacation/reunion with family and these activities are time fillers. OP do you have a developed plan with funding(if needed) of how and what you are going to do to help these people? Something , that no matter how small the project, will impact the people you are serving. A good start would be to find an agency that is already working in that area and see if they have a place for you to help. But remember, you also need service to the unserved/underserved in the US too.

 

[magician7772222]

Are you even interested in research? Maybe look around campus and see if there are any research opportunities available. If something pops up apply and see what happens. Some people have hundreds of hours and some have thousands of hours. You are only a freshman. So you don’t have to do it all at once. The main thing for this year is learning time management. Your grades have to come first. So focus on adjusting to college and getting a good base in in your classes. Try going to your premed advisor and see if they have any programs you can take part in. Things will fall together. You have at least 3 years before you apply and probably more. So get your footing and find stuff you like to do. Med schools aren’t looking for robots. You might want to shadow a primary care doc and see if you really want to be a doctor. And then gradually expand. Also spend time reading the WAMC Threads and see what other premed students are doing to build their applications.

I'm not really sure of what research would consist of. I'm really interested in doing some type of humanities research but I'd rather do something that's more beneficial to my application and save the humanities stuff for my own personal time.

 

[magician7772222]

Have you even met the prehealth advisors on your campus yet?

I have but they haven't been nearly as helpful as asking around online.

 

[magician7772222]

Peace Corps is a wonderful and impressive thing to include on any application. But I too wondered if this was a vacation/reunion with family and these activities are time fillers. OP do you have a developed plan with funding(if needed) of how and what you are going to do to help these people? Something , that no matter how small the project, will impact the people you are serving. A good start would be to find an agency that is already working in that area and see if they have a place for you to help. But remember, you also need service to the unserved/underserved in the US too.

This isn't peace corps, I would be visiting family but since I'd be staying the whole summer I'd have a lot of down time and I was thinking of getting involved with one of the local organizations. Since its such a small and rural area there are local organizations from larger cities near by that do a lot of volunteer work with orphans and the like there.