This is how I get repaid?!

[theboywho2]

---

Members don't see this ad.

A couple of months ago I left a volunteer position because I got a paid job and I needed the money more than I wanted to volunteer. I've been with the organization for about 3 years. Today I came in inquire on how many hours I accumulated and the last date I came to volunteer. They said they do not release this type of information to volunteers who no longer volunteer with the hospital. Is it just me or is this complete BS? Anyways because of this dilemma i am not sure what to put on my med school app for when I apply. Should I just estimate the time and amount of hours I accumulated? Should I use the hospital as the verifier, should I use people I volunteered with, or both?

 

[Microglia]

I'd say estimate, list a person you volunteered under (administrator, physician, etc) as the contact, and if they have a problem with your estimate (which they won't) you can always show the email to the program asking about the hours (if you asked via email) or tell them you tried to ask via phone.

 

[theboywho2]

what about listing someone that I volunteered with? Would that be a bad idea?

 

[thesauce]

A couple of months ago I left a volunteer position because I got a paid job and I needed the money more than I wanted to volunteer. I've been with the organization for about 3 years. Today I came in inquire on how many hours I accumulated and the last date I came to volunteer. They said they do not release this type of information to volunteers who no longer volunteer with the hospital. Is it just me or is this complete BS? Anyways because of this dilemma i am not sure what to put on my med school app for when I apply. Should I just estimate the time and amount of hours I accumulated? Should I use the hospital as the verifier, should I use people I volunteered with, or both?

In that case, it will be impossible for ADCOMs to verify. Put whatever you want 😀

 

[mcloaf]

Estimate hours. List the hospital as the contact. If they choose not to release that info I don't see how that's your fault/problem.

 

[Loveless]

Issues like that are why I keep a composition notebook with all my dates and volunteer hours in it.

Don't go crazy though, you never know how they'll act towards different requests. Perhaps one day a n00b will be on the phone and accidentally give away your hours.

 

[mvenus929]

Unless AMCAS has changed significantly in the past 4 years, you only need to list the average hours per week that you worked, not the total number of hours. So estimate your start and end date (if you can't remember the date, then at least to the month), and try to figure out how many hours per week you did it.

 

[EnginrTheFuture]

Estimate hours. List the hospital as the contact. If they choose not to release that info I don't see how that's your fault/problem.

+1

Estimate honestly. If they won't release the hours to you... they won't release it to anyone else. The truth of the matter is that the number of hours you volunteered is unimportant compared to what you did and what you got out of it. 1 million useless hours is no better than 10, but 100 great hours that you can speak to are priceless.