Medical Mission Trips

[Zobo135]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering how to approach talking about medical mission trips on my "Experiences" for the AACOMAS application. I went to Costa Rica for a week to volunteer. I know there is this idea of "rich" kids going to a 3rd world country to look good on their application. I am not rich by any means whatsoever. I was able to pay for this trip because of my financial aid refund from my school. I just wanted an idea of how to talk about this trip without sounding privileged. On top of that, I currently work as a medical assistant so I do have more clinical experience than just this trip.

Thank you everyone

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[Doctor-In-Training99]

First of all, I'm so jealous! Costa Rica sounds like an amazing experience. I never got to do a medical mission trip, but one of my schools asked if I did during an interview. I would maybe put it on my list of experiences, and talk about it either in the personal statement or secondary essay. Say why you did it. Why Costa Rica? What were you hoping to learn? What was unexpected about the trip? How will it shape you as a physician? I think that would show your intent because I definitely understand what you're saying.

I hope this helps

 

[Goro]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering how to approach talking about medical mission trips on my "Experiences" for the AACOMAS application. I went to Costa Rica for a week to volunteer. I know there is this idea of "rich" kids going to a 3rd world country to look good on their application. I am not rich by any means whatsoever. I was able to pay for this trip because of my financial aid refund from my school. I just wanted an idea of how to talk about this trip without sounding privileged. On top of that, I currently work as a medical assistant so I do have more clinical experience than just this trip.

Thank you everyone

Talk about what you learned, but expect that most Adcom members reading this will think "medical tourism". And yes, we know know poor people are in the developing world, as compared to here.

 

[XRZAX]

Talk about things that a typical volunteer with no clinical skills could not do.

 

[nimbus]

Talk about what you actually did and what you learned.

 

[SLC]

Yep, talk about how it’s gonna make you a better doc.

I did a trip too, but it was via the military (as a civilian volunteer); participating in a joint readiness exercise with the host countries (Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea); and it was for 4 months, not a week. I’m now on a list of volunteers that may be called upon in the event of a major humanitarian crisis like the 2004 Christmas Day tsunami (which required civilian cooperation with the military to properly respond to, and was the inspiration for the program I did).

I talked about sustainable healthcare, learning personal discipline from the Navy service members I served with, and about my desire to develop skills that would be valuable should I be called upon in the future.

Gonna have to dig deep and talk about what you really learned. If it wasn’t much, it may be better to downplay that aspect of your app.