Hello gang. So I posted this on the med studetns forum hoping to get some good feedback and after about 50 views, nothing. Yet I come here to our forum and when I post something within 5 minutes I get a response...what's up with that. Anywho, since they don't want to answer my questions at the moment, I will extend the same question to our forum.
I wanted to get some feedback on an issue that is a bit confusing. It has to do with volunteer/work experience. How much is enough? What type of experiences do admissions committees look for in people they admit?
I just recentlly met with the associate dean at my local med school and part of our meeting consisted of her probing into my volunteer and work experience thus far. Let me break down what I have so far and what was just recently offerred so i can get some advice as to whether or not this is the best track to be on...
I have a BS in Psych and a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. I spent three months after graduating from my undergrad working with victims of domestic violence threw the District Attorney's office and was hired on from a volunteer for another 9 months (I was let go because it was an LTE position). Then, while working for the DA's office, I applied for my two year Master's program and began volunteering for a 24 hour parental stress line (which I did a few shifts a month, but slowly digressed to fewer and fewer shifts because of the graduate load). I did that from Feb. 2003 till May of 2005.
As for hospital experience, I worked as a Mental Health Specialist for two years on the child/adolescent psychiatric unit and worked directly with patients and an interdisciplinary team from May 2003 till May 2005.
The assistant dean said I needed to volunteer or work on a medical unit to gain more experience. (What is the psych unit I ask you?) I was just offerred a part-time position today as the Health Unit Coordiantor on the Neurosciences Unit of a local hospital. Should I take it? Would that aide in satisfying the work/volunteer portion of my application? I am applying for fall 2008 admission.
Do they prefer volunteer work over paid medical experience? What about this new position in addition to what I have already for work/volunteer experience?
Would this make me a qualified candidate in the work/volunteer section?
The reason I ask such specific questions is that some premed's and re-applicants did volunteer or paid work as EMT's or on various hospital units and that still didn't seem like enough to admissions committees. Plus, the volunteers at hospitals and such said they spent of their time reading because they couldn't do much outside of delivering food trays or changing bed linens because of some hosptial regulations. I don't want my experience to be like that!
Thanks for reading and for any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated, as always.
I wanted to get some feedback on an issue that is a bit confusing. It has to do with volunteer/work experience. How much is enough? What type of experiences do admissions committees look for in people they admit?
I just recentlly met with the associate dean at my local med school and part of our meeting consisted of her probing into my volunteer and work experience thus far. Let me break down what I have so far and what was just recently offerred so i can get some advice as to whether or not this is the best track to be on...
I have a BS in Psych and a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. I spent three months after graduating from my undergrad working with victims of domestic violence threw the District Attorney's office and was hired on from a volunteer for another 9 months (I was let go because it was an LTE position). Then, while working for the DA's office, I applied for my two year Master's program and began volunteering for a 24 hour parental stress line (which I did a few shifts a month, but slowly digressed to fewer and fewer shifts because of the graduate load). I did that from Feb. 2003 till May of 2005.
As for hospital experience, I worked as a Mental Health Specialist for two years on the child/adolescent psychiatric unit and worked directly with patients and an interdisciplinary team from May 2003 till May 2005.
The assistant dean said I needed to volunteer or work on a medical unit to gain more experience. (What is the psych unit I ask you?) I was just offerred a part-time position today as the Health Unit Coordiantor on the Neurosciences Unit of a local hospital. Should I take it? Would that aide in satisfying the work/volunteer portion of my application? I am applying for fall 2008 admission.
Do they prefer volunteer work over paid medical experience? What about this new position in addition to what I have already for work/volunteer experience?
Would this make me a qualified candidate in the work/volunteer section?
The reason I ask such specific questions is that some premed's and re-applicants did volunteer or paid work as EMT's or on various hospital units and that still didn't seem like enough to admissions committees. Plus, the volunteers at hospitals and such said they spent of their time reading because they couldn't do much outside of delivering food trays or changing bed linens because of some hosptial regulations. I don't want my experience to be like that!
Thanks for reading and for any feedback you may have would be greatly appreciated, as always.
she might layeth the smacketh down on you. Revoke posting for a day or two or twenty 
