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I was thinking of going to Mexico in the summer of my Sophomore year and volunteering for 1 or 2 months. Will that stand out? What if I get a LOR in Spanish though? Can I submit one?
Volunteering outside of the US of A!?
- Thread starter 09javcar
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Lots of people volunteer in Latin America, so just doing it won't make you stand out. If you developed your own project or something like that, then yes, but you could have done that in the US of A. And I don't think you can submit a LOR in Spanish.
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im doing something like that for spring break, 1 or 2mos is wayyyyyy to long to volunteer abroad IMO.
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Well since I generally go for summer vacation there, I thought what the heck, might as well do something useful.
I've had an idea to develop a project. Hmmmmm, as for the LOR, you think no? 🙁
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No. What happens if the person reading your letter was Chinese? or Italian?
Volunteer at a foreign country isn't special. Doing a substantial project is (you need to have tangible results).
You can have the letter sent to a professional translating service so as to preserve is anonymity.
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Yeah except then it loses its legitimacy. Most schools I know/AMCAS only accept letters from the person writing them, the school or career center, etc.
Go for it. Honestly, if you have the opportunity and especially if you speak Spanish well, why wouldn't you??
I don't understand how you could get anything out of a volunteer abroad experience in LESS than 1 or 2 months. A week? Really? Sorry, that's a vacation.
not so calm now is right, if there is any sort of program available where you can design your own project, that would be better from a "get into med school perspective." It sounds like you might have some contacts in the area, maybe at a hotel, church or clinic? Shoot them an e-mail or letter asking them if there is anything you might be able to do for their community. You will be surprised by the responses you get, I guarantee you. This is how I organized my summer volunteer trip to Africa. You don't need to be Paul Farmer, but maybe you could teach a class on STD prevention, help build a community garden to improve nutrition, or whatever...the list goes on, and trust me, they will know better what their community needs than you will, and that is something you must never forget.
Would you be the only one applying to volunteer abroad? No. But putting in the work to do an intensive one or two month volunteer abroad program shows that service is something you are passionate about, not just a 200 hour goal you are plodding towards handing out magazines in a hospital waiting room, and on top of that, you will have TONS of material with which to confidently answer those community service/diversity experience essays on secondaries and at interviews. AND on top of everything else, you might just learn something about another culture and the world around you. It's an adventure! How is that not ten times better than anything else you could be doing with those 2 months?
PS: Disclaimer. I realize not everyone has the time/funds/time to raise funds to be able to volunteer abroad, but if you do have the opportunity, why not take it?
PPS: All LORs in English, please.
I don't understand how you could get anything out of a volunteer abroad experience in LESS than 1 or 2 months. A week? Really? Sorry, that's a vacation.
not so calm now is right, if there is any sort of program available where you can design your own project, that would be better from a "get into med school perspective." It sounds like you might have some contacts in the area, maybe at a hotel, church or clinic? Shoot them an e-mail or letter asking them if there is anything you might be able to do for their community. You will be surprised by the responses you get, I guarantee you. This is how I organized my summer volunteer trip to Africa. You don't need to be Paul Farmer, but maybe you could teach a class on STD prevention, help build a community garden to improve nutrition, or whatever...the list goes on, and trust me, they will know better what their community needs than you will, and that is something you must never forget.
Would you be the only one applying to volunteer abroad? No. But putting in the work to do an intensive one or two month volunteer abroad program shows that service is something you are passionate about, not just a 200 hour goal you are plodding towards handing out magazines in a hospital waiting room, and on top of that, you will have TONS of material with which to confidently answer those community service/diversity experience essays on secondaries and at interviews. AND on top of everything else, you might just learn something about another culture and the world around you. It's an adventure! How is that not ten times better than anything else you could be doing with those 2 months?
PS: Disclaimer. I realize not everyone has the time/funds/time to raise funds to be able to volunteer abroad, but if you do have the opportunity, why not take it?
PPS: All LORs in English, please.
This is not true. You can send in both letters together. My pre-med committee, which organizes a letter packet, told me this option was ok if I had wanted to use a foreign language letter.
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it's not how long you do something, it's what you gain from the experience.......volunteering somewhere for 2 months just to put it on ur app is ridic/ thread
Totally agree with you, any experience that you get something out of as a person is a good experience. Sorry for jumpin on ya there. It just kinda seems like everyone on sdn talks about how this or that will look on an app, and you would think people would just do things because they wanted to do them, ya know? And there is nothing wrong/excessive with volunteering abroad for 2 months (since some people do it with the Peace Corps for years).
I guess what I'm trying to say is that volunteering abroad doesn't check off a box that everybody has (like regular volunteering or research ) and it's not rare enough that an adcom will be like "OMG you worked in a clinic in Belize...if you don't go to my medical school I will have a coronary right here in this interview room that smells like nervous sweat." (Note: Expect this reaction only if applying as a Nobel Laureate).
But if it is something you are interested in (for whatever length of time), don't NOT do it because you think your time is more valuable doing something else. It does look great on an application, and it can help you grow as a person.
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And I would argue, you're not going to get 100% of an experience from just spring break's worth of time. It usually takes me > 1wk to just adjust to a culture.
Quantity does not trump quality, sure - but you need a certain quantity to have quality.
Agree with cbear. Don't make life "i did all this stuff to get into medical school"...you won't enjoy any of the experiences or look back and feel like you were actually able to do something. If you're doing it because you really want to then invest some time and effort into the work you will be doing there.
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Sorry to revive this thread. I have the opportunity to be a part of a medical team travelling to rural Belize to staff a medical clinic there for a week. It will be a team of about 12, including several physicians, and we will be treating pediatric, adult, and geriatric patients.
The clinic estimates that we will likely see around 500 patients during that period of time and many of them will get referrals to come back to the clinic later on or to the hospital staff a few hours away. Many of these patients will have not seen a doctor their entire lives.
The team will also be distributing hundreds of bags of rice and beans, shoes, clothes, school supplies, etc. when we arrive as well as helping to re-stock the medical supplies with donations that we gather.
Will this serve to be a beneficial opportunity in med school admissions? I'm going anyway - it's not ONLY about a leg up in admissions but after reading this thread it left me with some doubt about how much difference it will truly make to adcom's.
Would it make a significant difference if I organized my own shipment of some type of supplies to distribute to the people of Belize? Band-aids, glucometers, hand sanitizer, something like that? I'm not sure how substantial a project I can put together - this place is a medical compound that the sponsors of this medical mission have built over a period of years so its a fairly sophisticated operation, given its surroundings, in the middle of poverty.
The clinic estimates that we will likely see around 500 patients during that period of time and many of them will get referrals to come back to the clinic later on or to the hospital staff a few hours away. Many of these patients will have not seen a doctor their entire lives.
The team will also be distributing hundreds of bags of rice and beans, shoes, clothes, school supplies, etc. when we arrive as well as helping to re-stock the medical supplies with donations that we gather.
Will this serve to be a beneficial opportunity in med school admissions? I'm going anyway - it's not ONLY about a leg up in admissions but after reading this thread it left me with some doubt about how much difference it will truly make to adcom's.
Would it make a significant difference if I organized my own shipment of some type of supplies to distribute to the people of Belize? Band-aids, glucometers, hand sanitizer, something like that? I'm not sure how substantial a project I can put together - this place is a medical compound that the sponsors of this medical mission have built over a period of years so its a fairly sophisticated operation, given its surroundings, in the middle of poverty.
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Don't do it to stand out, do it because you will enjoy the experience.
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I think all major volunteering experiences should be participated in because you are actually invested in the project and the people you will be working with/for. I think that the timing is less important than the experiences that you helped shape, both for yourself and your growth as a person as well as the individuals who were impacted by your work. For example, I worked for two weeks (twice) doing post-Katrina clean up and feel like that was meaningful in its own way, but I am also going to Africa with the Peace Corps for two years. I think really long term volunteering ultimately needs to not be about medical school at all. Do it because you are intimately invested.
