LOR from physician friend/roommate and counting stipend experience as volunteering?

[Stingray180]

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Hi all,

I have two questions and would love input from folks familiar with the admissions process.

1. I'm a non-trad student who had a previous career in a very remote and under-resourced area. While there, I became friends/roommates with a doctor in the local hospital, ended up shadowing him (among others) in the hospital, and ultimately finalized my decision to pursue medicine so that I could help folks in similar communities. Is it ok for me to use my friend/roommate who I shadowed several times for a letter of rec? He really inspired me to pursue medicine and knows me very well, but I wasn't sure if there were any professional ethics issues with a former roommate/friend writing a letter for me.

2. I lived and taught in a non-profit program with a primary mission of providing environmental/science education to underserved communities/schools for several months. I received a living stipend of $400/per week in addition to room and board with 6 others in a hostel-like living situation with shared maintenance/cooking duties aboard a boat. I was drawn to the activity because it seemed like a great opportunity to serve the community in a field I am passionate about, but was wondering if it could appropriate to count it towards non-clinical volunteering given the small stipend and service orientation.

Thanks for your guidance!

 

[chilly_md]

1. Physician letters mean very little to nearly all MD schools in the US. There is not much to say, and even if very positive, it is known that the context is typically a student who shadowed them and thus cannot be evaluated in any real way like a professor at a college could.

2. I suspect it will be fine, but you will want some more traditional non-clinical volunteering unrelated to teaching such as at a homeless shelter or food bank.

 

[LunaOri]

I wouldn’t consider #2 to be volunteering, since you received room, board, and stipend.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

#1 sounds fine as long as it's not your ONLY experience with physicians.
#2 feels okay. Is it with Americorps? Are you also doing things like finding/digging wells for clean water?

 

[Catalystik]

1. I'm a non-trad student who had a previous career in a very remote and under-resourced area. While there, I became friends/roommates with a doctor in the local hospital, ended up shadowing him (among others) in the hospital, and ultimately finalized my decision to pursue medicine so that I could help folks in similar communities. Is it ok for me to use my friend/roommate who I shadowed several times for a letter of rec? He really inspired me to pursue medicine and knows me very well, but I wasn't sure if there were any professional ethics issues with a former roommate/friend writing a letter for me.

2. I lived and taught in a non-profit program with a primary mission of providing environmental/science education to underserved communities/schools for several months. I received a living stipend of $400/per week in addition to room and board with 6 others in a hostel-like living situation with shared maintenance/cooking duties aboard a boat. I was drawn to the activity because it seemed like a great opportunity to serve the community in a field I am passionate about, but was wondering if it could appropriate to count it towards non-clinical volunteering given the small stipend and service orientation.

Yes and yes.

 

[Stingray180]

#1 sounds fine as long as it's not your ONLY experience with physicians.
#2 feels okay. Is it with Americorps? Are you also doing things like finding/digging wells for clean water?

Thanks for the reply! It was not with Americorps and I definitely wasn't digging wells for clean water. It was more education focused on an old-school sailboat boat owned and operated by a small non-profit. Basically, we as crew/educators maintained (cleaned/sanded/painted/changed oil/fixed/rust-busted/etc.) the boat on "off days" and brought kids from the community (focusing on schools that wouldn't normally be able to afford field trips or experiences like sailing) aboard for field trips where we taught environmental science, and marine ecology for three hour trips. It was pretty cool because the boat was well known in the community (it sticks out like a sore thumb!) and we would often have people come up to us to tell us about how they took their first boat ride on it when they were younger/it inspired them to pursue a degree in science.

Would this still fit in with your idea of community service?

 

[AJS59]

Thanks for the reply! It was not with Americorps and I definitely wasn't digging wells for clean water. It was more education focused on an old-school sailboat boat owned and operated by a small non-profit. Basically, we as crew/educators maintained (cleaned/sanded/painted/changed oil/fixed/rust-busted/etc.) the boat on "off days" and brought kids from the community (focusing on schools that wouldn't normally be able to afford field trips or experiences like sailing) aboard for field trips where we taught environmental science, and marine ecology for three hour trips. It was pretty cool because the boat was well known in the community (it sticks out like a sore thumb!) and we would often have people come up to us to tell us about how they took their first boat ride on it when they were younger/it inspired them to pursue a degree in science.

Would this still fit in with your idea of community service?

It's cool and unique and absolutely worth listing, but most definitions of service oriented work are focused on direct service to others, not education

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thanks for the reply! It was not with Americorps and I definitely wasn't digging wells for clean water. It was more education focused on an old-school sailboat boat owned and operated by a small non-profit. Basically, we as crew/educators maintained (cleaned/sanded/painted/changed oil/fixed/rust-busted/etc.) the boat on "off days" and brought kids from the community (focusing on schools that wouldn't normally be able to afford field trips or experiences like sailing) aboard for field trips where we taught environmental science, and marine ecology for three hour trips. It was pretty cool because the boat was well known in the community (it sticks out like a sore thumb!) and we would often have people come up to us to tell us about how they took their first boat ride on it when they were younger/it inspired them to pursue a degree in science.

Would this still fit in with your idea of community service?

Not really. It's sounds more like working on a research vessel or a museum (STEM promotion is an academic competency).

 

[LizzyM]

You could be on the safe side by calling it "employment, non-clinical". Educating kids, unless they are in extreme circumstances (unhoused, institutionalized, incarcerated, etc) falls more under teaching/tutoring or straight up employment than volunteerism/community service.