underserved volunteering

[neuro1617]

How important is volunteering with the underserved, such as working at a soup kitchen? I have lots of volunteering at 2 hospitals, peer mentor volunteering and volunteering with my Women in Science club. Also I would really love to get a position at a Cancer Institute I know of....but none of this is with the poor communities. My schedule is already kind of full this year and I'm not sure how hard I should try to fit it in...

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[175961]

How important is volunteering with the underserved, such as working at a soup kitchen? I have lots of volunteering at 2 hospitals, peer mentor volunteering and volunteering with my Women in Science club. Also I would really love to get a position at a Cancer Institute I know of....but none of this is with the poor communities. My schedule is already kind of full this year and I'm not sure how hard I should try to fit it in...

I'm from Idaho and at a recent pre-med conference some ad com members from 3 med school on this side of the country talked a lot about the underserved and practicing rural medicine. If I was applying to a school that was big on it I would be sure to have some experience with helping the underserved so I could be very familiar with their situation. Of course, medicine should always be big on helping the underserved, but I think it can be emphasized in some places, and other not at all. I dont think it is a matter of "must have or you wont get into medical school".....but I dont know, thats just what I heard

 

[neuro1617]

Surely there are other opinions??

 

[172858]

How important is volunteering with the underserved, such as working at a soup kitchen? I have lots of volunteering at 2 hospitals, peer mentor volunteering and volunteering with my Women in Science club. Also I would really love to get a position at a Cancer Institute I know of....but none of this is with the poor communities. My schedule is already kind of full this year and I'm not sure how hard I should try to fit it in...

I would go with doing something clinically related. For example, I volunteered a free clinic, which was pretty cool (and eye opening).

 

[calnation]

How important is volunteering with the underserved, such as working at a soup kitchen? I have lots of volunteering at 2 hospitals, peer mentor volunteering and volunteering with my Women in Science club. Also I would really love to get a position at a Cancer Institute I know of....but none of this is with the poor communities. My schedule is already kind of full this year and I'm not sure how hard I should try to fit it in...

depends on what context you mean, as far as "how important is it in general?"
i'd say it's very important at a social level and as a mechanism for self healing.

as far as "how important is it at a medical application level" I wouldnt think it'd give you very many brownie points. Unfortunately competition amongst pre-meds has made any altruistic deeds appear to be selfish and ingenuous. If everything you do is going to be pre-supposed to be in the name of your medical application, might as well do something that comes across as more genuine. just my opinion..

 

[neuro1617]

I would go with doing something clinically related. For example, I volunteered a free clinic, which was pretty cool (and eye opening).

Yeah I've checked all the free clinics in my area b/c I thought that'd be really cool/interesting since it also involves medicine...but none of them are taking student volunteers unless you're in med school. And yes for the poster above, I was talking about importance in terms of the med school app.