Question for Med School Students

[tesfawMD]

Hey guys,

I'm curious to know how much volunteer work you guys did, and what kind of work it was?


Thanks

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[CptCrunch]

I volunteered at the circus as a midget tosser for 2 summers.

On a more serious note, just do some volunteer work at your local hospital.

 

[pingouin]

As the OP is an undergrad, moving to pre-allo.

 

[anon3]

Maybe he's asking how much volunteering med students do in med school? Probably not.

 

[ensuii]

In undergrad, I did the pretty typical stuff: volunteered for about 200-300 hours in hospitals, shadowed a couple people, interned for a student organization that wanted to improve asian/philip enrollment at institutings of higher learning (this is funny considering that I went to a school with 40k undergrads, half of whom were azn), research for 1.5 yrs (not published), EMT, and did teach for america.

 

[J ROD]

200 hr in an ER
150 hr Free Clinic
100 hr Animal Shelter
100 hr MD shadow

 

[Forthegood]

I did very little volunteering... I was pretty busy with class full-time and working to put food on the table, keep a roof over my head, and pay for school.

I think what you were trying to get to is how important is volunteering and how much is enough. It is important if you have the time and ability and you should do as much as you feel helps those around you without giving up your sanity.

I seriously doubt ADCOMs count hours between students. It is better to have volunteered for 5 hours and actually learned something or grew from the experience than volunteering 50 and got nothing out of it.

 

[DrYoda]

I didn't do much volunteering (below 50 hours), I volunteered in the ER.

I seriously doubt ADCOMs count hours between students. It is better to have volunteered for 5 hours and actually learned something or grew from the experience than volunteering 50 and got nothing out of it.

Agree with this.

 

[JonathanMD]

Volunteered at a Free Dining Hall run by St. Vincent de Paul for a semester.
45 Hours ER Shadowing

Umm...

That's about it. But I also had 2 years acute patient care experience at a paid position in a Hyperbaric Unit and EMT cert + ambulance ride alongs. Other non-clinical/medical work.

 

[Mattabet]

100+ hours of an afterschool program for autistic youth, A semester of Special Olympics Basketball coaching, and gratis work on the Dance Marathon sound crew at my school (I was a supervisor at the union's technical services department).

I definitely agree with the statement above about quality over quantity. Frankly, it's easy to run up the hours in some volunteer situations, but I doubt adcoms see more as necessarily better. I can sit all day and make sure an autistic child doesn't accidentally wander out the door (which is great), but it's not really a lot of work. On the other hand, if I donate dozens of hours to Dance Marathon, I know just from not charging them, I've saved them (effectively donated) hundreds of dollars, plus whatever they raise from the two or three rooms that I'm working on.

Make your mark on something other than AMCAS.

 

[Forthegood]

Make your mark on something other than AMCAS.

That needs to be stickied!

 

[tesfawMD]

Wow, thank you guys for the really good advice, much appreciated.

 

[tesfawMD]

As the OP is an undergrad, moving to pre-allo.

What's an "OP"?

 

[DrYoda]

What's an "OP"?

original poster.

 

[atomi]

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