Talking about this COVID-related experience in secondaries?

[brockhamptonfanacct]

I understand many schools will ask some sort of question asking how the pandemic has affected individual applicants, what applicants did during the pandemic, etc.

My life was not disrupted significantly beyond my coursework transitioning online, so I don't have any adversities to share (nor would I want to be disingenuous and compare my standard transition to people's far more real and worse pandemic-related issues, like job losses and family deaths).

Would it be appropriate for me to acknowledge the fact that while I was fortunate enough to not have been harmed, I appreciated that and did some COVID-related volunteer work? I don't want to come off as someone who saw COVID-related service as a slot to fill on AMCAS/AACOMAS. That wasn't the case; though I've spent significant time with this organization and now have a leadership role within it, I wasn't planning on putting it on my application (other than these secondary questions) because it is a short-term, low-hour experience and, again, I don't want my reasons for participating to be misinterpreted. (The organization is a PPE outreach effort led and founded by medical students and is a pending nonprofit).

Of course, if the question specifically asks how I was negatively impacted by the pandemic, I won't interject with my volunteering story. This is only for secondary or interview questions that generally ask about what I did during the pandemic, or ask how the pandemic impacted my path to med school.

Thanks!

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[Lampy]

I understand many schools will ask some sort of question asking how the pandemic has affected individual applicants, what applicants did during the pandemic, etc.

Didn't know this was happening (obviously not super active) are a lot of school's doing this?

My life was not disrupted significantly beyond my coursework transitioning online, so I don't have any adversities to share (nor would I want to be disingenuous and compare my standard transition to people's far more real and worse pandemic-related issues, like job losses and family deaths).

Yeah I would be careful like what you say you'll do here

Would it be appropriate for me to acknowledge the fact that while I was fortunate enough to not have been harmed, I appreciated that and did some COVID-related volunteer work? I don't want to come off as someone who saw COVID-related service as a slot to fill on AMCAS/AACOMAS. That wasn't the case; though I've spent significant time with this organization and now have a leadership role within it, I wasn't planning on putting it on my application (other than these secondary questions) because it is a short-term, low-hour experience and, again, I don't want my reasons for participating to be misinterpreted. (The organization is a PPE outreach effort led and founded by medical students and is a pending nonprofit).

This sounds really cool! If you can meaningfully talk about it (which I would guess you could based on the leadership exp) I don't see why you wouldn't bring this up in your secondaries!! But this is just one lowly pre-med's opnion lol

 

[Moko]

I understand many schools will ask some sort of question asking how the pandemic has affected individual applicants, what applicants did during the pandemic, etc.

My life was not disrupted significantly beyond my coursework transitioning online, so I don't have any adversities to share (nor would I want to be disingenuous and compare my standard transition to people's far more real and worse pandemic-related issues, like job losses and family deaths).

Would it be appropriate for me to acknowledge the fact that while I was fortunate enough to not have been harmed, I appreciated that and did some COVID-related volunteer work? I don't want to come off as someone who saw COVID-related service as a slot to fill on AMCAS/AACOMAS. That wasn't the case; though I've spent significant time with this organization and now have a leadership role within it, I wasn't planning on putting it on my application (other than these secondary questions) because it is a short-term, low-hour experience and, again, I don't want my reasons for participating to be misinterpreted. (The organization is a PPE outreach effort led and founded by medical students and is a pending nonprofit).

Of course, if the question specifically asks how I was negatively impacted by the pandemic, I won't interject with my volunteering story. This is only for secondary or interview questions that generally ask about what I did during the pandemic, or ask how the pandemic impacted my path to med school.

Thanks!

I'm somewhat confused. You say that you spent "significant time" with this organization yet it is a "low-hour experience"? Keep in mind that every COVID-19-related experience will be short-term and relatively lower in hours this year as the pandemic just started several months ago.

If you have not submitted your primary application, you should consider including this as one of your activities if you have put in some time. You can always state (if true) that you will continue working with this organization this upcoming year. This will be appropriate to include in secondaries as well that specifically ask about your plans this upcoming year. There's nothing wrong with getting credit for work that you've done. Just my thoughts.

 

[brockhamptonfanacct]

I'm somewhat confused. You say that you spent "significant time" with this organization yet it is a "low-hour experience"? Keep in mind that every COVID-19-related experience will be short-term and relatively lower in hours this year as the pandemic just started several months ago.

If you have not submitted your primary application, you should consider including this as one of your activities if you have put in some time. You can always state (if true) that you will continue working with this organization this upcoming year. This will be appropriate to include in secondaries as well that specifically ask about your plans this upcoming year. There's nothing wrong with getting credit for work that you've done. Just my thoughts.

I meant significant time in context of the short total amount of time spent, since as you mentioned, pandemic-related experiences are time-sensitive and will not have been very long (I have around 50 hours currently). It's also shorter/not as commitment-demonstrating as my other community service, which, of course, is due to the nature of the pandemic itself.

Thank you for responding! I should clarify, I am not applying this cycle - just thinking ahead.