Short term medical volunteering? Please advise

[Status Sciaticus]

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Hello everyone,

I am currently in the process of putting forward a strong application for this upcoming cycle and I needed a bit of advice on my ECs.

my grades are : 3.5uGPA 3.9 grad SMP GPA
MCAT 4/26 avg is around 33.

so for the ECs, I havent done any hospital volunteering because most of the ones here are only clerical with no patient contact and it takes about 6 weeks to go through.

1) I have about 60 hours of shadowing that I am looking to double by May
2) I do have clinical experience however and interaction with patients
- I did a clinical research internship for 1040 hours where I basically did IC, med history, vitals, ECGs, A1cs, etc... I also have a first author thesis publication from that internship.

3) I also have some non-clinical volunteering (Habitat 100 hours and ongoing volunteering at a Tiger reserve ( prob about 50-60 by May)).

would that be adequate in terms of ECs or do in need to branch out into something else?
Thanks for the advice.

 

[occams_razor]

IMO that is adequate clinical experience

 

[Status Sciaticus]

IMO that is adequate clinical experience

I thought so too.
Its just that I always hear about people on SDN having 200-300 volunteer hours in hospitals/hospices/clinics and I think that since I have zero hours in those areas, its a serious setback.

The internship itself was unpaid so it was basically like volunteering, only an intense version of it.

 

[Geebeejay]

I thought so too.
Its just that I always hear about people on SDN having 200-300 volunteer hours in hospitals/hospices/clinics and I think that since I have zero hours in those areas, its a serious setback.

The internship itself was unpaid so it was basically like volunteering, only an intense version of it.

I think the issue is that the only clinical experiences that are available to most applicants are volunteer positions - that's why many applicants have so many volunteer hours (that and they're box checking). An unpaid internship will definitely look better, and I don't think it will hurt you just because it's not volunteering. You should be good to go, and that sounds like a solid EC to write about.

 

[aspiring20]

Hello everyone,

I am currently in the process of putting forward a strong application for this upcoming cycle and I needed a bit of advice on my ECs.

my grades are : 3.5uGPA 3.9 grad SMP GPA
MCAT 4/26 avg is around 33.

so for the ECs, I havent done any hospital volunteering because most of the ones here are only clerical with no patient contact and it takes about 6 weeks to go through.

1) I have about 60 hours of shadowing that I am looking to double by May
2) I do have clinical experience however and interaction with patients
- I did a clinical research internship for 1040 hours where I basically did IC, med history, vitals, ECGs, A1cs, etc... I also have a first author thesis publication from that internship.

3) I also have some non-clinical volunteering (Habitat 100 hours and ongoing volunteering at a Tiger reserve ( prob about 50-60 by May)).

would that be adequate in terms of ECs or do in need to branch out into something else?
Thanks for the advice.

your clinical experiences (the most important ECs) are excellent; your 1000+ hrs of clinical internship is a better form of medicine exposure than merely volunteering for 200 hours, imo. like a previous poster said, most premeds only have access to hospital volunteering as their clinical EC.

however, your EC list as a whole seems a bit sparse. I am not seeing any research/tutoring/leadership type activities. do you have other activities that you did in undergrad that you didn't list?

 

[aspiring20]

also OP, why did you do a SMP when your ugrad GPA is a 3.5?

having said that, the fact that you did so well in an SMP will definitely help you.

 

[Status Sciaticus]

your clinical experiences (the most important ECs) are excellent; your 1000+ hrs of clinical internship is a better form of medicine exposure than merely volunteering for 200 hours, imo. like a previous poster said, most premeds only have access to hospital volunteering as their clinical EC.

however, your EC list as a whole seems a bit sparse. I am not seeing any research/tutoring/leadership type activities. do you have other activities that you did in undergrad that you didn't list?

of course
the habitat was in undergrad.

Organization 1
social chair 1 sem
vice president 1 year

Organization 2
social chair 1 sem
treasurer 2 years
parliamentarian 1 year
Events coordinator 1 year

I decided to do the internship as part of my SMP. That would qualify as clinic experience as well as research (clinical research as in phase IIIB clinical trials). I dont have bench research experience or experience in labs. No tutoring since the SMP was definitely a time consuming experience.

However, as i mentioned earlier, I do have a 1st author publication pending approval.

also OP, why did you do a SMP when your ugrad GPA is a 3.5?

having said that, the fact that you did so well in an SMP will definitely help you.

My school uses the B+/B/C+/C system so it brings my TMDSAS down to i think a 3.4 or maybe even a 3.35 😱 ( i cant find where it says my TMDSAS GPA is).