Volunteering vs Working

[Mystiqueyam]

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Hello I've been volunteering at a private practice for the past year and a half and the doctor recently offered me a position. I'm wondering if I accept the position will all my previous volunteer hours not be counted? Should I decline?

 

[Phoebus Apollo]

In your explanation of the activity you can say that you volunteered for X hours over X months and finally accepted a paid position “in order to take more responsibility in the clinic” or something like that. The activity clearly shows a service mentality, which is what schools are ultimately looking for.

Also, I started volunteering for 3 organizations last year, all of which hired me LOL. Because my work was still clearly service-oriented, I think they still illustrated the same qualities in me. Obviously I can’t say for sure if schools liked that less than they would have, but I got in, so all’s well that end’s well.

 

[LizzyM]

You can break these into two separate "experiences" on the AMCAS application. Both are valid experiences but one will be tagged "employment, clinical" and the other "volunteer, clinical". They will have different dates and hours. It will be obvious, but you can include in the description, that you stopped volunteering there after the physician offered you a paid position in the office.