Volunteering in high school, and yeah I searched the forums ;)

[intj]

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I have around 125hrs of volunteering at a specific hospital spread out between soph and junior years of high school (2004 - 2005). From what I have gathered after searching previous threads, this experience is irrelevant to my application UNLESS I continued with it throughout college, or it had a big enough impact on me to be included in my PS. Well, I discontinued volunteering even before I got to college (The location was inconvenient, I got too busy, etc) and while it wasn't exactly mind-blowing, I did enjoy interacting with patients and helping in whatever way I could.

I have just graduated from college and have decided to apply to med school next summer. In the meantime, I am hoping to go back to volunteering at the same hospital as 5-6 years ago because I had such a positive experience the last time I was there!

I am wondering whether I should be including my high school hours in my application. Would the previous 125hrs demonstrate that I have a long-term commitment to one hospital, one activity, and help my application? Or would it be considered a blatant padding of my activities list, because the hours were from so long ago?

Thanks for your advice in advance :]

 

[lorenzomicron]

generally....you wouldn't...

 

[Avoidthetiger]

If you go back to volunteer there, included it in the activities description (not in the actual number of hours). Say from this to that year I volunteered here for some many hours (don't mention it was in high school). I brought up that I volunteered for 2 years at a nursing home during HS as it was a contiution of me volunteering at a nursing home in college... but then again, I see no problem with putting down high school activities on my AMCAS (especially if they are medicine related). Then again, I haven't gotten in to medical school yet.

 

[intj]

Thanks for the advice 🙂

 

[Catalystik]

I have around 125hrs of volunteering at a specific hospital spread out between soph and junior years of high school (2004 - 2005). From what I have gathered after searching previous threads, this experience is irrelevant to my application UNLESS I continued with it throughout college, or it had a big enough impact on me to be included in my PS. Well, I discontinued volunteering even before I got to college (The location was inconvenient, I got too busy, etc) and while it wasn't exactly mind-blowing, I did enjoy interacting with patients and helping in whatever way I could.

I have just graduated from college and have decided to apply to med school next summer. In the meantime, I am hoping to go back to volunteering at the same hospital as 5-6 years ago because I had such a positive experience the last time I was there!

I am wondering whether I should be including my high school hours in my application. Would the previous 125hrs demonstrate that I have a long-term commitment to one hospital, one activity, and help my application? Or would it be considered a blatant padding of my activities list, because the hours were from so long ago?

You can either mention the HS volunteering in yor Personal Statement, or you can list the current hospital volunteering, with the more recent date span then mention at the end of the narrative that you also volunteered at the same hospital in 2004-2005 for 125 hours. If you list it as starting in 2004 to present, those hours will be diluted to less than 1 per week, making it look ridiculous. The fact that the location is not the same as where you went to college will make it evident why you didn't volunteer there during the interim college years.

 

[littlealex]

The answer really is no. You knew this coming in the this thread; you just wanted someone to make you feel better.

The thought is that you should had done enough during the college years to impress the adcoms. If you could not gather enough meaningful activities to put down, things you did in HS is not going to help you.