Volunteering

[escabatum_rip3]

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What kind of volunteering would be seen as meaningful? Do MSTP programs look for volunteering such as, say, assisting with autopsies or in a research laboratory, or volunteering with hungry kids or building houses across the border? or a mix of the two, and getting involved with health awareness programs and going to schools and teaching different health things?

 

[scooter31]

Any kind of volunteering is good, just make sure youre doing it for the enjoyment of volunteering. I know I sound like a hippie saying that, but if youre going through the motions to cover your ass EC wise, everyones gonna see right though it. Spend your spare time wisely, and if youre MSTP hopeful, I'm imagining time is better spent in the lab than in the soup kitchen...

Cliff's notes: if you want/need to do some volunteer time, do something you'll enjoy and you can speak eloquently of when it come time to interview. 👍

 

[hardy]

I have been told (by a program director) that for MSTP research experience is pretty much the only thing that counts. Of course, people with good research experiences usually come with good LORs and good grades/MCAT scores. When I asked about clinical or volunteer experiences I was told that they do not care about them. The problem with this is that for many MST programs you have to go through the MD application process and there they might care about your clinical exposure. But even so I was told not to worry. If the MSTP adcom wants you then the MD adcom will go with it, even if they initially rejected you.

 

[fantasty]

Overall, I'd agree with everyone that your research experience is by far the most important. But, also keep in mind that, assuming your MSTP does encourage some form of interaction with one another, that having students with interesting backgrounds and personalities can be important. We invite a lot of students for interview weekends who may have done some interesting research, but I wouldn't want to spend my entire mudphud years with because they come off as so one-dimensional. One the other hand, some of our current students have done a lot of things beside research (several were in the peace corps, lots had community-based volunteer experiences, some are really into student government and improving education, etc).

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Volunteer experiences are not going to make you a more compassionate, more humane person. Volunteer experiences are not going to transform an dingus into a nice person. People are who they are for a reason and this should be accepted. It's similar to the logic that medical school curricula cannot teach medical students to be nice to patients. Some people will always be cool; some people will always be socially awkward, maybe even socially ******ed. If the latter applies to you, this may come out in interviews whether you try to hide it or not. And some people will ignore this and others will mark you down by a couple of points. You'd be amazed as to how these same issues come up during residency applications too.

Anyways, don't do volunteer experiences to pad your resume for MSTP; to echo some of the posts above, it really isn't worth it. Do volunteering if it excites you and you know you'll enjoy it. Some volunteer experiences are really boring too so pick something that you'll have fun doing.