not really in to volunteering/EC's

[classicalmusic]

I am totally new here. This is my first post. I just finished an associates degree at a community college and will transfer to a university this coming fall. I will complete my degree in two years plus maybe an extra quarter, and may just stay in school for another whole third year as a post bac, it could strengthen my application.

I have done nothing like any of the volunteer experiences I have read about here or on this thing called "mdapplicants." My first two years in undergrad I was just interested in pharmacy school, and was working towards that. I have worked in pharmacy right out of high school for about 10-15 hrs/week and am going to for the rest of the summer and come back to help out during the breaks. Now I have strongly considered being an MD or DO

I have set up a volunteer position for 4/hrs per week at a "Adult Day Care Center." From what I understand it is a place where elderly people stay during the day, and I will be helping them with meals and "activities." I could play games with them. I also play the piano/compose/improvise very well so I was told I could bring that into the picture.

But I have to admit, if I had not made this farily recent decision to pursue med school I would not do this. PLEASE anyone, let me know I am not the only one like this. I don't think I will absolutely HATE doing this, but hey its a small sacrifice to get into med school.

What more should I do????....I plan to get near 4.0's every quarter and apply to med school an of course KILL the MCAT.

Even in high school I could care less about "EC's" aside for things I was actually interested in, which quite frankly WAS NOT MUCH at all. In fact, I did nothing at all but study, hang out with my friends/party, and being involved in my school symphony orchestra.

I became annoyed of the whole "how has your involvement with community service and your extra-curricular activies made you who are and affected your life" crap....

So here are/will be my "EC's" or whatever for now

-church musician for almost two years, volunteer. composed/arranged some of my own stuff
-volunteered in a literacy program for the community...stopped after two months because i honestly did not enjoy it
-pharmacy work, almost two years, will conintue as long as i can

+ anything else I do for the next three years when i apply, which will include anthropology research. However, one thing truly desire to do is shadow physicians, and am in the processing of doing that.

I have absolutely no interestin volunteering for habitat for humanity, a crisis line, a summer kids camp or anything else like that I see on mdapplicants. Furthermore I also have no interest in being a leader of a club, or even joining one. I admit, I am an extremlely boring person within regards to these. I do not believe this affects my desire to be a physician however.

Am I wrong for considering med school?

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[mvenus929]

You don't have to volunteer at a hospital or anything, you just have to have clinical experience. The volunteering you'll be doing looks fine, as long as you keep it consistent. You just might want to shadow for an extended period of time... say a few hours a week throughout the year, rather than just one 8 hour day. As far as other ECs... you have the community orchestra thing, that's an EC. That will make you stand out, especially if you keep with it. As long as you show an interest in medicine and show that you know what you are getting into, I think what you have will be fine, assuming you stick with it.

 

[ComicBookDude]

Yes

 

[DoctorPardi]

What makes you think you will be a good doctor, if you do not want to serve people? (this is the type of question I think you'll run into with your attitude)

Also, what attracted you to medicine? What makes you want to be a doctor?

So here is a list of what you'll need to do, to become a good applicant, it seems like you'll have some of these without being all that interested in habitat for humanity or teaching little kids how to read.

The elements that make up a good applicant to medical school:
1) GPA
2) MCAT
3) Clinical experience-that is working close enough to "smell the patient" (as LizzyM puts it)
4) Volunteering-this could overlap with the previous element
5) Shadowing- this is to understand what you're life as a doctor will be like
6) Research- it seems like you're going to do some anthropology research, so that will probably do. Just feel confident you can talk about your research in an interview setting.
7) Leadership- you may want to have a leadership position of some kind. This can be at your church, in a pre-med society or anywhere else, but it needs to be something real, and not just BS.

 

[akademiks1989]

DoctorPardi is right...

Also, if you are a boring person, then go be active, so you can show the adcoms that you will be an incredible asset to their school, and it may make you very enthusiastic once you find your niche. Your interview will show them who you are, so have a variety of things you enjoy doing, including clinical experience...

Everything you do can only help you: resume booster, something to talk about in PS, help you meet friends, be a better interviewer, and so forth...GOOD LUCK

 

[KornKobs]

yes i hate the whole "getting involved with the community" type thing. however, i am going to try to do some volunteer work at the hospital that I already work for..(which is also the school that i really really want to get into). maybe do a lot of job shadowing so that u have that to talk about in ur interview.

 

[TMP-SMX]

yes i hate the whole "getting involved with the community" type thing. however, i am going to try to do some volunteer work at the hospital that I already work for..(which is also the school that i really really want to get into). maybe do a lot of job shadowing so that u have that to talk about in ur interview.

Yeah! Damn those med schools for wanting to recruit pre-meds that want to help people! What are they thinking? Nobody in their right mind would want to volunteer for the personal growth it gives them knowing they actually did something in a humanitarian spirit.

 

[MahSpoon]

Will your "Adult Day Care Center" volunteering expose you to doctors or medicine? Otherwise I don't really see anything that would indicate you know what medicine is all about or have had much exposure to it. Volunteering in a clinical setting definitely seems in order for you to show on your app that you know what you are getting into.

 

[LizzyM]

Shadowing will give you an exposure to the settings in which physicians work and give you an idea of what it is that doctors do all day.

The Adult Day Care gig will set your application apart from those who do their clinical experience in the pediatric ward or the ER. Older folks who go to these places are those who can't be left "home alone" so they tend to be very physically frail or, more likely, demented. This is your chance to see first hand the later stages of Alzheimer's disease and other neurological conditions such as multi-infarct dementia (caused by many strokes -- some studies have shown that these two causes of dementia are multiplicative).

Volunteer work is not so much seeing what medicine is all about as it is observing the human condition and discovering how people live their day to day lives (with disease, with extreme poverty, etc).

Being aware of the services available to the elderly through adult day care is something that can broaden your perspective with regard to the resources available to older adults and their families.

That work, plus shadowing, the paying job at the pharmacy, research, and your church music activity makes me think that you would have a very acceptable list of ECs.

 

[classicalmusic]

hey...

well im re-thinking things now.

I am somewhat looking forward to volunteering at the Adult Day Care Center, its so close to my new school also. I think I'll stick with it for 2 years +.

The description: Assist senior citizens with meals and bring enrichment to their lives with activities ect

Furthermore, I admit I have never been "extra curricularly" (sp?) involved since I began kindergarden. I know at my new school I will be a musician for the catholic campus ministry for sunday things. I will be a pianist, kind of the lead insturment and plan on using some of my own original compositions. This will develop my "leadership."

Further more while working in the pharmacy or almost two years (and counting) I also had some leadership roles...i think....i took alot of supply/unpicked up perscriptions/patient call back issues into my own hands and established routines.

Thanks for the comments.

 

[defrunner]

If today, volunteering became not "required" for med school, I bet any one of you that almost immediately, the non-profit organizations, hospitals and the like would lose half their volunteer workforce right then and there.

It's kind of ironic that most of us volunteer for selfish reasons.

Betcha double or nothing that wasn't the point of this requirement in the first place.