Minimal Volunteering, does internship help the cause?

[HeronsBeak]

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Hi all,

I've gotten accepted to my public health internship this summer, will be doing a breast cancer risk assessment program with Morroccan Physicians from here, assessing records etc. I have only volunteered for this semester with a local clinic(14 hours) and some odd and end hours with my premed orgs~10 more. I will be starting habitat for humanity soon, maybe 40 hours by app time. Also hoping to shadow a DO anesthesiologist in the area. Will these combined experiences be enough? It's all recent due to my late choice of career, but does the 300+hour internship help the low clinical/non clinical hours? Am I screwed? 27, 3.5cum 3.4 sci.

Thanks

 

[TriagePreMed]

No, you've shown no commitment whatsoever to volunteering. It's rather obvious you're just trying to check off a box. While this program may help, it's barely a first step. 40 hours in an application is, in my opinion, insufficient for any candidate.

 

[NurWollen]

No, you've shown no commitment whatsoever to volunteering. It's rather obvious you're just trying to check off a box. While this program may help, it's barely a first step. 40 hours in an application is, in my opinion, insufficient for any candidate.

I had less that 70 clinical hrs. and got two acceptances, turned down two interviews, and decided not to turn in many more secondaries once I had an acceptance.

OP, keep working on what you've been doing, get as many hours as you can. Take each opportunity seriously and learn as much as you can from each. If you can talk about your experiences with sincerity in interviews, you'll be fine. Do as much as you can, and you'll be in good shape to get in this cycle, assuming you have decent stats.

PS... shadow a DO family practice doc if you can, I think that was a nice little icing on my app that helped me out.

 

[hallowmann]

I had less that 70 clinical hrs. and got two acceptances, turned down two interviews, and decided not to turn in many more secondaries once I had an acceptance.

OP, keep working on what you've been doing, get as many hours as you can. Take each opportunity seriously and learn as much as you can from each. If you can talk about your experiences with sincerity in interviews, you'll be fine. Do as much as you can, and you'll be in good shape to get in this cycle, assuming you have decent stats.

PS... shadow a DO family practice doc if you can, I think that was a nice little icing on my app that helped me out.

I have to agree with NurWollen here. You aren't screwed. Obviously it would be better to have more hours, but as long as you can talk about each with sincerity you should be fine. Your stats are solid, so just keep working on the ECs.

 

[AlabamaPop]

Hi all,

I've gotten accepted to my public health internship this summer, will be doing a breast cancer risk assessment program with Morroccan Physicians from here, assessing records etc. I have only volunteered for this semester with a local clinic(14 hours) and some odd and end hours with my premed orgs~10 more. I will be starting habitat for humanity soon, maybe 40 hours by app time. Also hoping to shadow a DO anesthesiologist in the area. Will these combined experiences be enough? It's all recent due to my late choice of career, but does the 300+hour internship help the low clinical/non clinical hours? Am I screwed? 27, 3.5cum 3.4 sci.

Thanks

You are doing a great job. ADCOMS are not dumb. They know 95% of students do volunteering for the sake of filling up their boxes on the application regardless if they end up enjoying the activity or not. Not all 18,000 premeds who apply are Saint Mary Sunshines. It's the reality of it. You just know how to play your cards right in this game - Darwin-style.

As long as you have SOMETHING you're fine!!! You're GPA and MCAT is are great. If you've also had employment history whether medically related or not, it will help because it will show you were not a couch potato and remained active in some shape or form.

Don't get discouraged by any negative premed gunners on SDN. You do what you need to do with the time that is given to you and learn how to sell it to the schools.

MOST IMPORTANT: Even if its just 40 hours in something, you need to explain WHAT YOU LEARNED FROM IT AND HOW IT IMPACTS YOUR DECISION TO BE A PHYSICIAN AND/OR MADE YOU A BETTER PERSON TO HELPING OTHERS.

 

[HalfListic]

You'll be just fine and your internship sounds great.

Keep on keepin on

 

[TriagePreMed]

I had less that 70 clinical hrs. and got two acceptances, turned down two interviews, and decided not to turn in many more secondaries once I had an acceptance.

70 Clinical hours. Was this spread out over time? Did you have strong shadowing experience? How about community/non-clinical volunteering?

Someone said adcom are not dumb and know you're filling out a box. Assuming that's true, I don't think adcom appreciate someone doing stuff last minute. If you're going to fake it, at least do it well.

 

[hallowmann]

70 Clinical hours. Was this spread out over time? Did you have strong shadowing experience? How about community/non-clinical volunteering?

Someone said adcom are not dumb and know you're filling out a box. Assuming that's true, I don't think adcom appreciate someone doing stuff last minute. If you're going to fake it, at least do it well.

Yeah, but the issue is that he didn't make the decision to switch to medicine until late. Of course its better for him to have a long history of volunteering, but given the situation he won't be ignored just because of that.

It'll probably be an issue he'll have to sell in the interview though. Explaining why given this recent change he knows medicine is for him, how valuable his few hours were to shaping his decision and life, etc.

 

[AlabamaPop]

Yeah, but the issue is that he didn't make the decision to switch to medicine until late. Of course its better for him to have a long history of volunteering, but given the situation he won't be ignored just because of that.

It'll probably be an issue he'll have to sell in the interview though. Explaining why given this recent change he knows medicine is for him, how valuable his few hours were to shaping his decision and life, etc.

👍 👍 👍 👍

 

[survivordo]

you're going to be fine. As long as you can sound interested and speak well of your experiences during your interview you will be fine.

Survivor DO

 

[HeronsBeak]

Okay, thanks everyone, I appreciate the words of encouragement. While I have few hours, the experiences I do have we're fairly transformative, as they were what solidified what I wanted to do, and I already have a solid foundation for a personal statement from them. It's easy to feel underprepared when on SDN comparing to everyone else here, glad to know there are people like me that got in.

 

[Mountaineer12]

Maybe you could volunteer in the fall while applying/interviewing so if your lack of volunteering comes up, you could say that your currently involved in such and such volunteering activity that is important to you because... Just a thought.

 

[TriagePreMed]

Yeah, but the issue is that he didn't make the decision to switch to medicine until late. Of course its better for him to have a long history of volunteering, but given the situation he won't be ignored just because of that.

It'll probably be an issue he'll have to sell in the interview though. Explaining why given this recent change he knows medicine is for him, how valuable his few hours were to shaping his decision and life, etc.

Ok. We will have to wait and see. I see a strong lack of clinical volunteering and shadowing which would make me wonder how he is sure he wants to be a doctor. 40 hours is simply not enough. I hope the op updates at the end of the cycle.

 

[Goro]

It's the type of thing that may not prevent an interview, but could prevent an acceptance. You do need to show us you want to be around sick and injured people for the next 30-40 years, and filling out forms and asking questions to people doesn't do it for me.

Why should we accept you if we got someone similar but who did 100+ EC hrs in a hospital, plus a summer camp for cancer kids?

Hi all,

I've gotten accepted to my public health internship this summer, will be doing a breast cancer risk assessment program with Morroccan Physicians from here, assessing records etc. I have only volunteered for this semester with a local clinic(14 hours) and some odd and end hours with my premed orgs~10 more. I will be starting habitat for humanity soon, maybe 40 hours by app time. Also hoping to shadow a DO anesthesiologist in the area. Will these combined experiences be enough? It's all recent due to my late choice of career, but does the 300+hour internship help the low clinical/non clinical hours? Am I screwed? 27, 3.5cum 3.4 sci.

Thanks