WAMC - Extracurricular Help?

[KC417]

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[Faha]

You have identified the weakness in your application- low non clinical volunteering hours. You should accumulate 150+ hours in an activity such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application. It is not possible to comment on your school list until you have an actual MCAT score. Post your score here when available.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

It would help me knowing what your tie to Kansas is. That's a significant factor for KU.

Reading tutor/partner for elementary school children at underserved school 200+ hours (last year and a half), adaptive sports volunteer 20+ hours, volunteered at a homeless shelter for 20+ hours as part of a summer internship for a medical school (summer 2023). Reading other threads, it seems I should try to get more volunteer hours at the homeless shelter since tutoring isn’t ideal? Does it make a difference that it is for young children (ages 6-10) in a low-income school)?

Correct. Having fewer than 150 hours as a shelter volunteer or other service orientation activity puts your application at risk of getting screened out. In fact, I generally ignore anything you list with fewer than 50 hours unless it's shadowing. If you are gunning for brand-name schools, you should have at least 250 hours to keep pace with your peers in the applicant pool.

Every prehealth student does tutoring, teaching, or mentoring especially with under-resourced students of all ages. It doesn't help you stand out.

 

[KC417]

It would help me knowing what your tie to Kansas is. That's a significant factor for KU.


Correct. Having fewer than 150 hours as a shelter volunteer or other service orientation activity puts your application at risk of getting screened out. In fact, I generally ignore anything you list with fewer than 50 hours unless it's shadowing. If you are gunning for brand-name schools, you should have at least 250 hours to keep pace with your peers in the applicant pool.

Every prehealth student does tutoring, teaching, or mentoring especially with under-resourced students of all ages. It doesn't help you stand out.

My connection to Kansas is that my mother’s side of the family is from there. Because of this, I have spent a lot of time in the state with my family. My grandmother who had a stroke and inspired me to pursue medicine as a career is from there.

Thanks for your response about non-clinical volunteer hours. I’m just not sure if I’ll have time to get those hours in before I apply with studying for my MCAT, working 25 hours a week, and taking a full course load among my other extracurricular commitments. Is this something I would need to take a second gap year for? I really don’t want that to be the case. If I get those hours is it acceptable to apply later? I don’t want to risk applying too late, so when would you recommend? Is the beginning of July still ok versus applying in the beginning of June right when submissions open?

 

[candbgirl]

You need the nonclinical volunteering way more than the trip to Guatemala. Trips like that aren’t looked at positively by many ADCOM members. They are considered voluntourism. And you already have one of the trips from last summer. Why are you going again? It’s great you did so much for your grandmother. I did too. But we are expected to take care of our family members. Besides, that was high school, so leave it off your application.

Let us know when you get your MCAT score. It’s not really possibly to help,with a school list until you have your score.

Good luck on the MCAT.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Taking on this wall of text.

I took a gap year after high school (2020-2021) and worked as an emergency room tech (above) and a licensed pharmacy tech (300+ hours).

Okay, well you can list it. Did you continue any of the above once you started college?

I will be taking a gap year following undergraduate graduation and will be working as a graduate assistant in the biomechanics laboratory, working with assistive robotics for the elderly.

Okay, you'll start working in a research robotics lab.

I wasn't sure where to categorize these, but I am also a fellow for two different community outreach organizations working to empower and expose students from traditionally underrepresented groups in medicine to careers in healthcare. I get paid a stipend for both, but they are not hourly jobs and are community service organizations. So they aren't exactly jobs, but not exactly volunteering? One is for high school students and holds monthly events catered towards a specific grade level. This organization is more for empowerment and the total process of achieving healthcare career goals along with exposure by informing students about financial aid, college admissions, standardized testing, as well as healthcare fields. I have dedicated 1000+ hours to this organization over three years (since summer 2022) and help plan these events and teach students about biomechanics at them along with serving as a mentor.

In short, you promote science, careers, and college education. That's an academic mentoring activity that you can list as community service, but it will not fulfill "service orientation."

For the other organization, I lead an after school program for 7th graders once a week exposing them to a different field of healthcare each month with guest speakers and field trips. I serve as a mentor for these students, help coordinate guest speakers, and also plan and teach curriculum about standardized testing strategies once a month. I have probably dedicated 200+ hours to this organization this academic year.

In short, you promote science, careers, and college education. That's an academic mentoring activity that you can list as community service, but it will not fulfill "service orientation."

For extracurriculars, I am the vice president of my university's tour guide organization (helping with and overseeing recruitment, training, and social media) and give tours as well. I have been the vice president this academic year and have dedicated probably 500+ hours to the organization since spring 2022.

Campus ambassador, check.

I am the president of Global Brigades and have planned our upcoming trip to Guatemala. I also went to Panama last year and have served in two other officer roles over three years. I have probably amounted 200+ hours of planning (excluding time actually on the trips).

Global Brigades. That's on quite a few premed apps.

I was involved in marching band (freshman year), pep band (first two years), and concert band (first three years) in varying capacities throughout my first three years of undergraduate and probably gave 1000+ hours to these commitments combined. I was also a math and chemistry tutor for my university for three semesters (August 2023 - December 2024) and probably worked 500+ hours. I also served as an orientation leader one fall (fall 2023) but am not sure if I will have room for this on my application.

(See what paragraphs can do... this is so much better to read.)

I am very passionate about research, community service, and education. I am currently debating on if I should go for the MD/PhD route or just go MD. My dream is to go into PM&R. If I were to get a PhD it would be in human movement science or something similar. I also need to calculate my hours my accurately, but these estimates will hopefully serve their purposes for now.

I don't see service orientation activities in your community or campus service. This involves food distribution, shelter volunteering, job/tax preparation, legal advocate, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. With zero hours in this category, your app is at risk of getting screened out at most schools; you should have 150 hours before you submit your application. Furthermore as a high-metrics applicant likely to apply to brand-name schools, you really should have 250 hours before you apply to stay on pace with other applicants you are compared against.

You would do very well in Ph.D. programs in engineering. You may want to look at medical schools that target engineers too... once you have the service orientation hours.

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