tutoring friends count as volunteer hours?

[hopingigetin]

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I tutor my friends for about an hour each week, and dont make any money off it -- i basically correct essays and help w science and math classes. I have about 50 hours total now, so would i be able to list this on amcas even though i am not a registered tutor with the university?

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Sure you can put it on, but very weak.

 

[hopingigetin]

Sure you can put it on, but very weak.

how would it be weak?

 

[Catalystik]

Tutoring friends counts as volunteer hours?

I tutor my friends for about an hour each week, and dont make any money off it -- i basically correct essays and help w science and math classes. I have about 50 hours total now, so would i be able to list this on amcas even though i am not a registered tutor with the university?

One expects friends to help friends, so listing this activity under Community Service/this isn't the best option if you want to demonstrate your altruism. Nor does it show that you're willing to go outside your comfort zone to work with folks unlike yourself. And who would you use as a Contact to validate the activity? Is a faculty or staff member of your school aware of the activity and willing to attest to it?

 

[ChymeofPassion]

how would it be weak?

A. Easily lied about (who will verify, your friends?)
B. No one assessed whether or not you were qualified to be a tutor, and no one in a professional sense can assess your quality as a tutor.
C. I think most premeds have helped out friends at some point, but never thought to tally up the hours, so it feels like a reach (like, wow they didn't have anythings better to put on?)

 

[deleted972488]

Find a different/better activity that demonstrates your commitment to service.

You can maybe count tutoring as teaching experience, but it would be better if you become a registered tutor through the university.

 

[Lampstrike]

If I was an adcom and I read that, I would be wondering why you didn’t become a registered tutor.
If it was because you only wanted to tutor your friends, then it’s not really volunteering. It’s just having fun.
If it’s because you didn’t want to make an actual commitment, then the activity doesn’t really reflect well on your commitment to service or education.

 

[theKingLT]

I tutor my friends for about an hour each week, and dont make any money off it -- i basically correct essays and help w science and math classes. I have about 50 hours total now, so would i be able to list this on amcas even though i am not a registered tutor with the university?

I included it as part of a group of teaching related activities as "informal tutoring". Other activities included in that one WA entry included formal tutoring though X program, teaching X,Y,Z classes, etc. The total hours was the sum of all of them minus the informal tutoring bc I only had a rough estimation of hours. Each activity also had the specific number of hours listed in the description so adcoms could weight them however they wanted. I would not put informal tutoring as it's own entry

 

[rdyotz]

Don't put this. This is fluff that looks bad. I could add all the seconds I have spent holding doors open for people and probably get 100 hours, but should I?

Helping friends and family is expected and really doesn't show anything about you. Helping random people does. Only exception I would see is if you are the primary caregiver for a family member and a significant portion of your day entails helping without pay (although many government programs can offer pay /reimbursement).

 

[907914]

If it helps, I put about 120 hours of peer tutoring. Mine was for other peers that had kids and couldn’t make it to on campus tutoring, but still otherwise peer tutoring. It was my only non-military volunteering activity and, as others have mentioned, it kind of is fluff. However, if it is not your only volunteering experience then the only thing it can do is increase their understanding of how you spend your time. A hundred or more hours of peer tutoring shoes initiative and a dedication or passion for teaching others. The bolded is basically how I worded mine, something that was a consistent theme in my activities. If you’ve got that going for you, then it can only add to the narrative.