Medical Should I have reported my pre-health fraternity service?

[Mr.Smile12]

I was in Phi Delta Epsilon, a professional (not social) premedical fraternity. This is where the majority of my nonclinical volunteering (NCV) stems from. I volunteered at 2 organizations during Spring 2016 (35 and 40 hours = 75 hrs total_ and thats how much I reported on my AMCAS for NCV.

In my fraternity, I actually attended soup kitchen almost weekly for 1.5 hour sessions, roughly 75 hours over the course of two years. I volunteered at a special Olympics annual event for the past 3 years (30 hours). Our organization also started the Food recovery network on campus, where we brought food from campus dining halls to soup kitchen to minimize waste, increase efficiency, etc, thats besides the point. I probably spent around 20 hours doing that as well over two years.

75+20+30 + original 75= 200 hours. Im reporting 75/200, or less than half of my time commitments towards NCV in college and I feel like im really selling myself short in this aspect. I spent probably close to another 40-50 hours fundraising for our national philanthropy, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.

I was advised by my advisor on the basis of "you dont know how adcoms will perceive greek life, let alone the honesty behind greek life service and your specific commitments as opposed to identifying with the group"

Was he correct? Did I sell myself short on my AMCAS? Please let me know if you need to know more of my app in context

Thanks to all who respond

Being part of a prehealth fraternity or a community service fraternity like Alpha Phi Omega is not "Greek life". Whether one places value on prehealth honor societies like PDE or Alpha Epsilon Delta is a different conversation, but most of us are pretty sure it's not "Greek life" to the informed.

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[Catalystik]

I disagree with your advisor. I think you should have included all the fraternity-sponsored volunteering activities, assuming you had reliable Contacts to use. Fund raising wouldn't be given as much weight, but could have been included with the rest. The possible negative perception of "Frat Life" could have been countered with a description of your fraternity's "mission."

On the plus side, 75 hours of nonmedical community service is more than I usually see on an application.

 

[Catalystik]

Damn. Okay. I ended up calling Tulane admissions (service heavy, etc) on this issue too a bit ago and he recommended I submit a clarification letter- which I did. But now I wish I just went with my gut and reported it for all schools.

1) Anything I can do to remedy this issue?
2) Also, if I end up being a reapp, will it look suspicious that I didnt report it this cycle and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of "old" service experiences are listed on my app?

Thanks for the response Cat

1) For schools accepting pre-interview update letters, you could include the information in a succinct Fall update communication. After an interview, more schools are willing to get these supplemental letters, and you could also bring it up in interview conversations.

2) No, it won't look suspicious, as you are asked to include only the most relevant activities in the 14 spaces on AMCAS. Many are not aware that they could group multiple activities in one space to get the more substantive impact of a greater number of hours for experiences in the same category.

Keep in mind my comment about a "reliable" Contact. If you use an old buddy willing to attest to anything you ask him to, or yourself, it won't validate the activity as well as a representative of the actual organization you served, or a staff or faculty member from your college.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I also think if you didn't consider the experience significant or meaningful, it's not that big a deal. I would update if given a chance to interview.