Volunteering Question

[Tatiana2020]

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I am finishing up my first semester as a post-bacc (no previous science classes taken) and starting a research position this summer. I have no prior medically-related volunteer experience at all and am going to be applying to med schools in 2007 (for 2008 acceptance).

How much volunteer experience should I have to be considered as a competitive applicant? What is the minimum amount of time I should spend volunteering at any one particular place? I would like to get as much experience as I can but my time is limited, so I am not sure if it is better to have one solid position (ie research for 2 years) or various positions each for 6 months at a time. Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your help everyone!

 

[Law2Doc]

I am finishing up my first semester as a post-bacc (no previous science classes taken) and starting a research position this summer. I have no prior medically-related volunteer experience at all and am going to be applying to med schools in 2007 (for 2008 acceptance).

How much volunteer experience should I have to be considered as a competitive applicant? What is the minimum amount of time I should spend volunteering at any one particular place? I would like to get as much experience as I can but my time is limited, so I am not sure if it is better to have one solid position (ie research for 2 years) or various positions each for 6 months at a time. Hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your help everyone!

Virtually every med school wants you to have done some clinical experience. By clinical, it should be something where you are working and interacting with doctors and patients, which lets you see exactly what medicine is all about, so you know what you are getting into. It can include volunteering, shadowing or paid medical staff type positions. One interviewer told me that good clinical experience is any hospital position in which you have a high likelihood of getting thrown up on. 🙂 While the more research oriented schools like to ALSO see that you have done some research, those schools will generally not accept research in lieu of clinical/volunteering/shadowing experience. There are also some schools which want to see non-medical volunteer experience (community service type stuff) in their applicants. Thus it's probably important to find a way to mix at least one good clinical position into your schedule in place of or addition to the research position. No specific amount of time is required, but longer tends to look better. Hope that helps.