volunteering/application timing

[not a dvr user]

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So I'm a junior taking the June 18th MCAT. I'm planning on sending out my apps the day I get my scores, provided they're good enough, which puts me at mid-July for submission, which is a little later than I'd like but eh what can you do.

I have pretty bad to mediocre volunteering and shadowing experiences, and I was thinking about using this summer to shore them up. How transparent will this be, that I'll have copious amounts of volunteering and shadowing the summer before application and only for like a month and a half?

I'm still gonna do it anyway because some is better than none at all right?

 

[Confused2626]

I'd be interested to know opinions of this too because I am in a similar situation. I have volunteer experience, but that is definitely very weak.

OP, what I was planning on doing was volunteering and not listing it on my application, but using it as a conversation point for secondary and/or interviews.

 

[Anita817]

How transparent will this be, that I'll have copious amounts of volunteering and shadowing the summer before application and only for like a month and a half?

Regardless of how "transparent" it may seem, it's always better to have the experiences and list them than to not. Even if you can only comment on half the summer, it is definitely a convo starter in interviews since surely they will want to know how the rest of the summer went.

what I was planning on doing was volunteering and not listing it on my application, but using it as a conversation point for secondary and/or interviews.

Why on Earth would you not list it?! The app is what GETS YOU THE INTERVIEW! What if they send you a rejection letter citing your lack of volunteer experience as a sticking point?? Who cares if it's small--small is always better than nothing!

 

[BlueElmo]

Agree with Anita. Doing it, however little, is better than not doing it at all.

 

[Confused2626]

I see your point, I guess I was thinking I might have enough to skate by into an interview and further explain there.

But agreed, if you're going to volunteer you might as well list it.

 

[flip26]

To write a thoughtful and meaningful PS, adcoms expect you to have thoroughly tested your interest in medicine via clinical experiences.

So it is pretty difficult for them to take seriously your profession of love for medicine if you have maybe 10 to 15 hours of bed pan duty under your belt at the time you submit AMCAS.

Failure to have significant clinical experiences prior to submission of the AMCAS is an app killer - read enough examples of this on SDN and the picture is very clear.

 

[Catalystik]

I share flip's concerns about your relatively sparse clinical experience. To save a wasted application year, consider beefing up your application and making it the best it can be before applying next year.