Volunteer Hours in High school but non in college

[jovuss]

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I have over 200 hours of volunteering at my local hospital when I was in high school, but none in college as I decided to focus on other volunteer opportunities as I already spent a good deal of time already. Do the hours i spent in high school count or do I have 0 hours to put on my application?

*sorry for misspelling the title

 

[ribbondino]

You can put them down but I don't think they will count for much. I'm just going from what I've heard though. However, volunteering anywhere is great, it doesn't just have to be in a clinical setting. I guess what I'm saying is that even though the hospital volunteering wasn't in college, it's still clinical background and your recent volunteer experiences, no matter which field they are in, do count and still show that you care and have empathy toward life. (which really, is the purpose of volunteering anyway.)

 

[Doctor Strange]

They will count for absolutely zero. Unless you've continued this experience through college, adcoms generally don't care what you did in high school.

 

[phikapdoctor]

They will count for absolutely zero. Unless you've continued this experience through college, adcoms generally don't care what you did in high school.

That's not entirely true. They won't hold much weight but it is still good to see. Definelty put it in your application.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN Mobile app please excuse punctuation and spelling

 

[Anathema]

Your reasoning for your undergrad may end up hurting you. I'll have to side that those high school hours don't mean anything. They would only mean something if you continued it later on in college.

 

[hs2013]

Would be interesting to know this as well. By the time I am done with high school I will have 250+ hours volunteering at my local hospital. But if I continue volunteering at the same hospital during college will those 250 hours count like someone above me said?

 

[IncognitoGuy]

Your reasoning for your undergrad may end up hurting you. I'll have to side that those high school hours don't mean anything. They would only mean something if you continued it later on in college.

+1 I wouldn't mention it. Because if you do, now you will have to offer some explanation as to why you discontinued it, and it might be a hard sell if you're pre-med but for some reason gave up a consistent clinical experience.

 

[Yorick]

What about summer after graduating from HS, before first semester of college? I did about 30 hours of shadowing, would that count for my total shadowing or also be disregarded?

 

[Anathema]

What about summer after graduating from HS, before first semester of college? I did about 30 hours of shadowing, would that count for my total shadowing or also be disregarded?

That's a tough one and I've never heard of it yet. Usually people regard your first academic day as your first day in undergrad, but I'm not entirely sure. Might be good to hit up Catalytik on it.

 

[plumhill]

Unless it was a very significant activity that you did in high school (this is praiseworthy but not significant), it really won't count. Now if you begin volunteering at that hospital again, you can tack on your 200 hours from high school (and phrase it as "I started volunteering at this hospital in high school, and then enjoyed the experience so much that I returned and did another X hours")

 

[jovuss]

ok thanks good to know! I did do a lot of other volunteering in college just not at the hospital. I also received a scholarship from the hospital for outstanding work and patent care. Is that worth including?

Also I should say that I was taking college classes at that time of my volunteering but I was not enrolled as a full time student yet.

 

[Ashley1989]

If the point is to gain an insight into the medical field and the OP was already interested in medicine why do they not count?

 

[Anathema]

Its doing him a favor. If everyone could include high school stuff it would make it 100x harder to get into things.

 

[Anathema]

Unless it was a very significant activity that you did in high school (this is praiseworthy but not significant), it really won't count. Now if you begin volunteering at that hospital again, you can tack on your 200 hours from high school (and phrase it as "I started volunteering at this hospital in high school, and then enjoyed the experience so much that I returned and did another X hours")

It seems like OP is a junior or senior at this point and hasn't had contact with the hospital since then. Would it look out of the ordinary if he jumped back to the same hospital? Or would it be looked at in a positive light?

 

[plumhill]

It seems like OP is a junior or senior at this point and hasn't had contact with the hospital since then. Would it look out of the ordinary if he jumped back to the same hospital? Or would it be looked at in a positive light?

I don't think it would be a negative thing at all. OP could talk about how he enjoyed the experience in HS and finally had the time to go back and continue volunteering there. Also, OP could use this experience to volunteer in a different part of the hospital. Its really up to OP, but there are a lot of ways to spin going back to the same hospital to make it a positive (or at least a neutral) experience for adcoms.

 

[cuculici1]

Clinical experience is clinical experience. I don't see why doing it in high school makes it "not relevant". That being said, you should try to continue to do it to some degree after high school as well. If you don't, be prepared to explain why you stopped (there are obviously a number of good excuses, particularly if you were buried in other EC's at the time). I was a D1 athlete and worked part time during college, so realistically I didn't have time to volunteer in hospitals. However, I put in many hours as a high school senior and am resuming now in my gap year. You have to remember the main purpose for this activity is to have an idea of what you are getting yourself into. If the last time you stepped foot in a clinical setting was 4 years before you apply, it is more likely that you forgot what that experience was like and thus that volunteering stint may carry less weight.

 

[Aerus]

What does it look like when you volunteered in a hospital in high school, think to yourself "this is clinical; therefore I won't need more clinical hours in college", and then discontinue it?

It makes it look like you're checking a box. Sure, it can count, but ideally, you would have kept this up throughout your UG years that you won't need to add those high school hours.

If you volunteered for 200 hours in high school but didn't want to when you got into college, what does that say about your dedication to patients?

 

[LizzyM]

AMCAS has no written rule that prohibits listing activities from HS (or earlier) on your application. That said, you are limited to 15 so you may want to choose your more recent activities over those from long ago.

Your application should show how you have "tested your interest in medicine". This can be done through volunteerism, shadowing, and/or employment. The point is that you know what medicine is from an adult perspective and have made a decision as an adult to pursue this career path. The number of hours is less important (to me, anyway) than the number of months (you are asked start date & end date) and the average hours per week.

Your application should also show a spirit of volunteerism and ideally this should include non-medical volunteering particiularly if it involves interactions with the poor (free tutoring of K-12 age kids, literacy programs & ESL for adults, food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, etc). Again, you can list things you did early in life but if you did it at 15 and list nothing of that type beyond that age it looks like a "check the box" activity and not something that is part of your regular schedule because it is important to you as a person to be of service to others.

 

[Catalystik]

What about summer after graduating from HS, before first semester of college? I did about 30 hours of shadowing, would that count for my total shadowing or also be disregarded?

That's a tough one and I've never heard of it yet. Usually people regard your first academic day as your first day in undergrad, but I'm not entirely sure. Might be good to hit up Catalytik on it.

Anything you did after HS graduation could be considered as "during the college years."