People who start an orphanage, etc...

[FightingIrish01]

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Hey,

I was curious about those people who spend a summer starting an agency like there was this student at harvard who started an adoption agency when he found babies left in a dumpster by Chines parents or there was this girl who started an orphanage in India.

My question is, these kinds of tasks basically exemplify great leadership skills as opposed to a telent. Yet med schools view these accomplishments as equivalent to being a statewide musician or a varsity athlete because of how much time and devotion you had put into doing something like that. So I am curious as to how people decide to start an orphanage? How do they state this on their application and what evidence do they show that they have done that they have done this? Is there proof for there community service?

Thanks.

 

[Rafa]

How to start a charity:

http://www.drcharity.com/npstart.html

 

[Duchess742]

Do you have an orphanage that you're just dying to start or something?

 

[DrBowtie]

Dude just win a national championship for ND and you won't have to worry about anything ever again.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Please...don't do something JUST to put it on your app.

If you are passionate to start an orphanage, refer to the link that Rafa posted, or go to local charities and ask them how they got set up.

Either way, do things because you want to do them, not because they might make your app look more appealing

Best of luck.
-Dr. P.

 

[8744]

I despise the word "passionate." Everybody is "passionate" about everything. Can we all just admit that we are just mildly interested in some things and reserve the word "passionate" for things that deserve the passion?

Definition of a loser: Somebody who started an orphanage to get into medical school. Dude. Chill out.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Can we all just admit that we are just mildly interested in some things and reserve the word "passionate" for things that deserve the passion?

AMEN

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

what's nice is that i could never afford to go to china or india in the first place to start the above-mentioned orphanages and prove my love for the poor and great leadership ability. if i end up a rich doctor and my kids do this and get some inflated upper middle class liberal ego, i will disown them. then they can pursue leadership skills finding a job and feeding themselves...

ETA: Dropkickmurphy: why didn't she just throw him a nickel instead of a sandwich?

 

[idandps]

I despise the word "passionate." Everybody is "passionate" about everything. Can we all just admit that we are just mildly interested in some things and reserve the word "passionate" for things that deserve the passion?

Definition of a loser: Somebody who started an orphanage to get into medical school. Dude. Chill out.

Hey, admit that you volunteered at a local hospital primarily to get into med school, and not for the sake of helping people. We all did something that we say we did for society, but did them to get into med schools. Your hypocrisy makes me vomit and purge.

 

[baylormed]

Hey, admit that you volunteered at local hospital primarily to get into med school, and not for the sake of helping people. We all do something that we say we did for society, but did them to get into med schools. Your hypocrisy makes me vomit and purge.

Oh so true!

I don't care what anyone says, if you want to "help people", go join the Peace Corps or become a missionary. The truth is, many of the things we have done have been because we want to get into medical school, and not because we enjoyed handing cups of water to people in the emergency room (few exceptions granted to VERY FEW PEOPLE).
That's the thing with medicine, that we have to "prove" we want to be doctors. As opposed to being an engineer or a journalist, where you don't have to "prove" to the adcoms how much you really want to be an engineer or write for a magazine.

 

[45408]

Hey, admit that you volunteered at a local hospital primarily to get into med school, and not for the sake of helping people. We all did something that we say we did for society, but did them to get into med schools. Your hypocrisy makes me vomit and purge.

I don't see why it's so hard for people to state in their PS that they volunteered at a hospital to get into med school. It's a perfectly legitimate reason to do it - just say that you were looking to get clinical experience to prepare yourself for a career in medicine and to see how you felt in that environment. No lies, no exaggerations, no problem. You don't have to say you have a heartfelt passion for the sick and weak, and you wanted to volunteer with them.

 

[jillibean]

I don't see why it's so hard for people to state in their PS that they volunteered at a hospital to get into med school. It's a perfectly legitimate reason to do it - just say that you were looking to get clinical experience to prepare yourself for a career in medicine and to see how you felt in that environment. No lies, no exaggerations, no problem. You don't have to say you have a heartfelt passion for the sick and weak, and you wanted to volunteer with them.

But how many applicants really say this. I think it is one thing if you found a really unique volunteer experience that was in line with your personal interests, but I haven't seen people going overboard on the value of being a run-of-the-mill hospital volunteer. Most essays I've read (albeit a limited #) have said something like I volunteered in the hospital to see if I liked working with patients or to see if I thought I could work in this field, etc..... more of a learning experience than actually helping anyone.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Hey, admit that you volunteered at a local hospital primarily to get into med school, and not for the sake of helping people

Some of us didn't volunteer at all, so shut up.

You don't have to say you have a heartfelt passion for the sick and weak, and you wanted to volunteer with them.

But how many applicants really say this.

*raises hand*

 

[Hopeful_Doc]

we are all "passionate" about getting in to medschool at any cost.

 

[bbas]

So I am curious as to how people decide to start an orphanage? How do they state this on their application and what evidence do they show that they have done that they have done this? Is there proof for there community service?

Some people decide to start an orphanage/organization because they actually care about the cause, while others do it for the sole purpose of impressing people and adding it onto their resume. (I'd guess about a 15%/85% ratio for those two above groups of people, respectively.)

I doubt med schools check up on every activity of every applicant. It should be apparent in the interview if you are lying or not. (And it should also be apparent whether you just did something for the sake of putting it on a resume).

 

[univscience]

lol this thread is hilarious.

 

[idandps]

Some of us didn't volunteer at all, so shut up.
*raises hand*

If you didn't even volunteer at all, shut the mother fucc up.

 

[lilnoelle]

I think it would be wrong to start something like an orphanage without having the means or appointing someone else with the means of continuing it permanently. Doing something like that is a lifetime commitment. How terrible to be a child that is ripped away from parents, put into an orphanage that lasts a short period of time, doesn't have good caregivers, etc, only to be booted out on the street after a year or so. I don't think anyone should start something like that unless they are committed for the long haul or have someone else involved that is. If your interested in something like that and have the money to start it up, then donate a bunch of money to an already existing orphanage and go visit/volunteer.

 

[45408]

But how many applicants really say this. I think it is one thing if you found a really unique volunteer experience that was in line with your personal interests, but I haven't seen people going overboard on the value of being a run-of-the-mill hospital volunteer. Most essays I've read (albeit a limited #) have said something like I volunteered in the hospital to see if I liked working with patients or to see if I thought I could work in this field, etc..... more of a learning experience than actually helping anyone.

I've read quite a few PSs that definitely overstated the value of their experience.

 

[riceman04]

Dude just win a national championship for ND and you won't have to worry about anything ever again.

wont happen as long as SC has something to say about it

Oh that game last fall was soooooooooooooooo nice....the fighting irish thought they had an upset..... ...not quite... .

We will once again be the dominators of college football while ND is dragging behind still trying to figure out how to get past a prevent defense

 

[quanct]

What about the people who are so passionate about their hate for babies, they set up abortion clinics? Do we get bonus points too for preventing the rise of these fascist scum?:

 

[Hard24Get]

I think it would be wrong to start something like an orphanage without having the means or appointing someone else with the means of continuing it permanently. Doing something like that is a lifetime commitment. How terrible to be a child that is ripped away from parents, put into an orphanage that lasts a short period of time, doesn't have good caregivers, etc, only to be booted out on the street after a year or so. I don't think anyone should start something like that unless they are committed for the long haul or have someone else involved that is. If your interested in something like that and have the money to start it up, then donate a bunch of money to an already existing orphanage and go visit/volunteer.

This is not a fraction as bad, but I started a non-profit org to help inner city youth (tutoring, etc) that was really just a way for my student group to write grants and get funding/discounts. We got money and kicked off the program with a full day workshop and kids got mentors, but after I graduated no one has really kept it up. I feel bad for the kids and scared that the IRS will demand answers for why the ball was dropped . So don't do it!

 

[DrBowtie]

wont happen as long as SC has something to say about it

Oh that game last fall was soooooooooooooooo nice....the fighting irish thought they had an upset..... ...not quite... .

We will once again be the dominators of college football while ND is dragging behind still trying to figure out how to get past a prevent defense

SC looked to be in some NCAA hot water for a while there.

 

[Rafa]

What about the people who are so passionate about their hate for babies, they set up abortion clinics? Do we get bonus points too for preventing the rise of these fascist scum?:

If you're applying to Stanford next year, please open your PS with the above questions. I'll take all the help I can get!

 

[star22]

I've read quite a few PSs that definitely overstated the value of their experience.

I was talking to an adcom member a couple weeks ago (from OHSU-- I don't mind saying since this is so typical of them) and I was told "we look for people that really enjoyed their experience as volunteers. Some people say being a hospital volunteer is boring and they didn't do much in the except stock supplies and change bedpans. While other people talk about helping the doctors out during procedures and really contributing to patient care and those are the people we want."

If only they really knew.... those Super Volunteers that they are going out of their way to find are probably 95% over-inflating what they did. Right... like a hospital is really going to let some lowly volunteer help out with procedures

 

[SilverBandCry!]

What does it take to start a non-profit in a foreign country? I lived in another country before immigrating to the US as a child and feel that I want to give back to the country I come from. I visit in the summers and I think there is a lot that I can do.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

If you didn't even volunteer at all, shut the mother fucc up.

I've been a volunteer firefighter for 10 years, but it had zero to do with medical school (I wasn't even thinking about med school when I started). It isn't that I haven't volunteered- it is that some of us haven't done the candy ass volunteering that most premeds engage in.

 

[8744]

I've been a volunteer firefighter for 10 years, but it had zero to do with medical school (I wasn't even thinking about med school when I started). It isn't that I haven't volunteered- it is that some of us haven't done the candy ass volunteering that most premeds engage in.

"Candy-ass" sums it up exactly.

 

[noonday]

"Candy-ass" sums it up exactly.

yup. agreed. "ooh, i shadowed." "ooh, i played with babies." "i wheeled patients around the hospital" "i worked in tobacco use prevention" "i hung out with sweet old people in a nursing home and read to them" sure, all worthy, but not really representitive tests of being able to handle the hard parts...that is, the people for whom it's hard to have sympathy, the situations that leave you nothing but disheartened, and yet you still go back...why? because it's NOT about putting it on the AMCAS, or having it help you get in. it's because you know what you do is important, and you care about that work right then, not about what saying you did that work might get you in the future...

try having the stench of wound botulism in your nostrils for days after seeing a client with a gaping leg wound from a heroin miss...and, as soon as they get off to the hospital, cleaning your hands with bleach spray (no running water), having a slice of pizza, and doing it again... and then going and spending time with multiple diagnosis patients (AIDS + mental illness) at a county facility for the indigent, where the paint is peeling, the light is bad, and the people aren't ever going to leave the big rooms with 30 beds lined up against the depressing plain concrete walls. that's volunteering. or dealing with belligerent drunk drivers. or dead bodies. or prying people out of car crashes. or telling people their loved one died. or working hospice...etc. etc.

 

[72531]

you've got to be kidding me......people will do anything to get something on their application.

 

[RxnMan]

I despise the word "passionate." Everybody is "passionate" about everything. Can we all just admit that we are just mildly interested in some things and reserve the word "passionate" for things that deserve the passion?

The dean's own words: I didn't get in last year because I didn't show 'the passion.' (Maybe I should have humped a table leg.)

Definition of a loser: Somebody who started an orphanage to get into medical school. Dude. Chill out.

 

[RxnMan]

Hey, admit that you volunteered at a local hospital primarily to get into med school, and not for the sake of helping people. We all did something that we say we did for society, but did them to get into med schools. Your hypocrisy makes me vomit and purge.

Of anyone here, I think I know about jumping through hoops to get into med school. But I didn't volunteer at an ER to get in - I did it because I didn't know if I liked patients. I needed to find out if I had the constitution to look at traumas (e.g. a woman taking a shotgun blast to the face) and work despite the shock. I wasn't going to go full-bore into a pre-med program until I knew the field was a good fit for me. I just happened to like a lot of the patients, despite them being drunk, crazy, depressed, bloody, and violent.

Not all of us are sure what we wanted to do from birth and started sucking up to ADCOMs before we could crawl.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

yup. agreed. "ooh, i shadowed." "ooh, i played with babies." "i wheeled patients around the hospital" "i worked in tobacco use prevention" "i hung out with sweet old people in a nursing home and read to them" sure, all worthy, but not really representitive tests of being able to handle the hard parts...that is, the people for whom it's hard to have sympathy, the situations that leave you nothing but disheartened, and yet you still go back...why? because it's NOT about putting it on the AMCAS, or having it help you get in. it's because you know what you do is important, and you care about that work right then, not about what saying you did that work might get you in the future...

try having the stench of wound botulism in your nostrils for days after seeing a client with a gaping leg wound from a heroin miss...and, as soon as they get off to the hospital, cleaning your hands with bleach spray (no running water), having a slice of pizza, and doing it again... and then going and spending time with multiple diagnosis patients (AIDS + mental illness) at a county facility for the indigent, where the paint is peeling, the light is bad, and the people aren't ever going to leave the big rooms with 30 beds lined up against the depressing plain concrete walls. that's volunteering. or dealing with belligerent drunk drivers. or dead bodies. or prying people out of car crashes. or telling people their loved one died. or working hospice...etc. etc.

Not to engage in a game of oneupsmanship, but imagine being the EMT on a call, and not being able to save the patient after a car accident. Then go to work at the funeral home, be called to the medical examiner's office to pick up an autopsy case. You get there to discover it is the patient you lost- a 17 y/o girl. Once you get back to the funeral home, you have the "pleasure" of embalming her, and attempting to rebuild her face, only to discover that you can't make her viewable. Your boss then goes, "You need to call the family in and tell them this is going to be closed casket." Imagine facing that family, knowing that you saw her die but having to hold your tongue, and telling them there is nothing more than can be done to allow you to make her presentable. By the way, that was my last case at the funeral home.

That is exposure to the hard parts of life.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

"Candy-ass" sums it up exactly.

And when a former Marine calls something "candy-ass" he has final say....

 

[windzilla]

And when a former Marine calls something "candy-ass" he has final say....

I find former marine's use "candy-ass" so much it losses its athority. Given that Marines are so "hard core", its difficult for much of anything to be more than candy-ass to them.

take there critisizm with a grain of salt, many of their experiances are unabashedly skewed by seeing the toughest, the dirtiest and the most nasty things this world has to offer.

If you genuinely pushed wheelchairs around because you genuinely felt it was the right thing do (not in that application padding brat way) than be proud of that i say.

On the other hand, the real scars of a volunteer come from TB.


Semper Fudge

 

[trustwomen]

On the other hand, the real scars of a volunteer come from TB.

I got lice twice in one year from the residents at the homeless shelter where I work, does that count? (And my hair is halfway down my back, to boot...)

p.s. when my med-school TB test was negative I was very glad, 'cause my employer had mentioned that as another one of the risks.

 

[noonday]

I got lice twice in one year from the residents at the homeless shelter where I work, does that count? (And my hair is halfway down my back, to boot...)

p.s. when my med-school TB test was negative I was very glad, 'cause my employer had mentioned that as another one of the risks.

lice, ugh. i've only gotten that once. and one case where i had a patch of MRSA impetigo. and three episodes of community acquired pneumonia in four years. (i'm getting the pneumococccal vaccine before school, methinks).

i agree about the constantly being surprised at my negative TB skin tests...every 6 months i get one, and every time i swear it'll be positive...and yet, it never is. whew!

 

[idandps]

Just don't start an orphanage if you have problem with people starting an orphanage to get into medical school. There you go, problem solved.

 

[star22]

Just don't start an orphanage if you have problem with people starting an orphanage to get into medical school. There you go, problem solved.