Hey guys, I'm a junior about to apply this cycle and was a little concerned about my lack of non clinical hours. I have only like 20 volunteer tutoring hours. To give you a little background on my other stuff, I'm an RA, an SI instructor (a tutor, but paid), a peer mentor for my college, a committee head for a health organization on campus, a member of a few honor societies ( one is Phi Kappa Phi), and have worked in two research labs, one at Johns Hopkins SOM which I'm still working in (total 4months when I apply). I also have 120 hospital volunteer hours. For my GPA stats, I have a 3.8 science and a 3.9 nonscience and I haven't taken the MCAT yet. I'm mainly worried about by lack of volunteer work. I'm a Maryland resident and hope to go to UMB, so do you think that will hurt me for any schools on the east coast? Thanks for all the input!
Please judge my EC's!!
- Thread starter John Snow
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Beef up the patient contact experience. You could try nursing homes, disables kid's camps, hospice...there's plenty of opportunities. Try Habitat for Humanity as well.
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Maryland's mission statement specifically says that they value service, as do many others, so yes, a lack of it will hurt you. You have 6 months to beef up that component of your application.
Are you paid to be a peer mentor? If not, how many hours do you have and for what do you act as a mentor?
It's a paid job unfortunately. I get minimum wage. Basically I help students make 4 year plans for college, give them advice about how to do well in college, and I'm a TA for an intro to college class as a part of being a peer mentor. Since I'll have to focus on the MCAT until April, do you think it will look bad if I only get in maybe 20-30 more hours by the time I apply? Also, do you think it's worth focusing on when I've got the MCAT as well (i.e., which is more important)?
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1) I think 30 more hours would be a reasonable goal. Maybe you could do more of something over winter and spring breaks? [Ideas: Meals on Wheels, homeless or women's shelter, soup kitchen, food pantry, crisis hotline, after school tutoring of kids or ESL for adults, Big Brother/Big Sister, Special Olympics or coaching athletic programs for the physically disabled, helping with a scout troop or other youth group, providing enrichment classes in a poor school (eg, science demonstrations or health topics), Habitat for Humanity, or Humane Society. Maybe look ahead and work to set something up now closer to your home.]
2) MCAT is more important, as you can always apply a second time. You're really sorta stuck here, as either without good numbers for the other could end with your application being put in the hold file. Many an adcomm will wonder why you couldn't give just one hour of your time a week to helping others, even if it meant an hour less of sleep.
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I would suggest that you continue to engage in pertinent activities during the application year, as update letters detailing added hours can make a difference at many schools.
