No Traditional Volunteering, Does It Matter?

[conradical]

I have a fairly good application but one of my MAJOR holes is volunteer work. I have 3.9 gpa, 3.8 science gpa. I have been a senator twice for my school's student government, I am currently vice president for the largest biological sciences club on campus and I will be president next year and I am currently launching a mentorship program for underclassmen biology majors. I have have done summer research at UNC Chapel Hill and am currently doing research on my school's campus. I have worked as a summer counselor for a program designed to expose minorities to health professions. With all that being said, I have zero volunteer work outside of my university and I am wondering if I should go into panic mode and cram volunteer hours. Or if I should continue to mentor and support those inside my university. I am really conflicted and would love some feed back!

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[boogiecousins94]

Is this zero nonclincial or zero volunteering all together including clinical?

 

[Goro]

What are you going to say when asked how you know you are suited for a life of caring for the sick and suffering? “That you just know”? Imagine how that will go over!

This is not the application of a person who dearly wants to be a physician. It is the application of someone who wants to be a doctor as long as it is convenient.

From the wise LizzyM: I am always reminded of a certain frequent poster of a few years ago. He was adamant about not volunteering as he did not want to give his services for free and he was busy and helping others was inconvenient. He matriculated to a medical school and lasted less than one year. He's now in school to become an accountant.

Here's the deal: You need to show AdComs that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altruistic, humanistic side. We need to know that you're going to like being around sick or injured people for the next 40 years.

Here's another way of looking at it: would you buy a new car without test driving it? Buy a new suit or dress without trying it on??

We're also not looking for merely for good medical students, we're looking for people who will make good doctors, and 4.0 GPA robots are a dime-a-dozen.

I've seen plenty of posts here from high GPA/high MCAT candidates who were rejected because they had little patient contact experience.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.


Service need not be "unique". If you can alleviate suffering in your community through service to the poor, homeless, illiterate, fatherless, etc, you are meeting an otherwise unmet need and learning more about the lives of the people (or types of people) who will someday be your patients. Check out your local houses of worship for volunteer opportunities. The key thing is service to others less fortunate than you.

And get off campus and out of your comfort zone!

Examples include: Habitat for Humanity, Ronald McDonald House, Humane Society, crisis hotlines, soup kitchen, food pantry, homeless or women’s shelter, after-school tutoring for students or coaching a sport in a poor school district, teaching ESL to adults at a community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, or Meals on Wheels.

 

[TheDocWho]

Go volunteer somewhere, as others have said. If there is one thing I would go back and change after applying this cycle, it would have been to start a volunteering project before applying. I was asked about a lack of volunteering even though I have worked clinically for years with lots of patient caring/contact. Regardless of how you feel about it, or how considerate a person you are, there are other applicants with all your stats plus volunteering experience.

 

[conradical]

Is this zero nonclincial or zero volunteering all together including clinical?

I have about 20 hours of non clinical volunteering at an elementary school and around my community but that's about it.

 

[conradical]

Your lack of community service that is not connected to your school is major void. The work on student government, president of bio club, and even the summer mentor are all at best, secondary kinds of activities and not likely to be that impressive. The student government and bio club barely look community related and say more about what you want to do for yourself than what you want to do for others.

Thank you for the tough critique! I'll definitely whip it into shape. I am very passionate about helping others its just that most of my time is spent pouring into those closest to my vicinity. I mentor a lot of underclassmen biology majors, I tutor without pay, and I still keep in touch with the kids I mentored for pay 2 years after the fact. Would these activities be viewed on a similar plain as volunteering or is this stuff that I do in a completely different ballpark?

 

[LizzyM]

I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend a gap year doing full-time volunteering in a US location where many people live in poverty and you are in a direct service role. Someday, people like this will be your patients and having some idea of their circumstances and some experience living in their community will be very beneficial. Don't apply until you've been serving there for at least a month and commit to at least 12 months of service.

Check into Serviceyear.org or one of the service corps sponsored by a relgious group (Lutheran and Jesuit are two I know of). Goro and gonnif are correct in identifying this as a major hole in your application.

 

[calivianya]

One of the schools I interviewed at basically spent the whole interview roasting me because of my lack of community service and I unsurprisingly got the rejection email 12 weeks later.

Not having community service will absolutely get you rejected from schools, even if your MCAT/GPA is way above their average matriculant stats.

 

[BucketDoctor]

I did one year of Americorps service through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest program. I helped undeserved patients fill out Medicaid applications (along other things) at a medical clinic. I thought it was very beneficial doing service in the same setting I could find myself as a physician one day.

I even want to help do a free clinic for migrant farm worker families in the agriculture industry as they often lack health insurance and live in very poor conditions. This would not of been possible if I would not of done a year of Americorp service. My year of service has motivated me to work with undeserved patients as my primary patient demographic if I manage to become a physician one day. I don't know if this experience would count as community service per se though.

My tip op is to follow the advice of the adcoms in this tread. I would not want a physician that did not have a passion to help his or her patients including undeserved patient populations as my parents were immigrants from Mexico.