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What to put in an update letter??
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Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
Personally, I would not send one until you have worked the position for a little while.
By doing this, you’ll be able to write a significantly stronger letter by discussing specific things you’ve done and skills you’ve learned.
By doing this, you’ll be able to write a significantly stronger letter by discussing specific things you’ve done and skills you’ve learned.
I generally advise people not to send an update on a new experience until after at least 100 hours of experience has been logged in. Besides, for a new job, you are usually on a probation period for 100-150 hours.
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Is this a full-time position? Remember 50 hours = 1 hour per week for a year. 4 weeks in a full-time job = 160 hours. I would still wait until your probationary period is over, and being a volunteer means you are less tied to the position and shouldn't be working 4 weeks full-time.
It just seems you want to get attention now. This is not an effective strategy, but hey... you can take or leave the advice. Either way, I don't know if it will cost you a seat or get you closer to one. Likely, it will have zero impact.
Read
Writing an Update Letter | Student Doctor Network
If you have not yet heard from your dream medical school, learn tips for writing an update letter explaining why they should accept you.
www.studentdoctor.net
Added article
www.studentdoctor.net
Writing an Update Letter | Student Doctor Network
If you have not yet heard from your dream medical school, learn tips for writing an update letter explaining why they should accept you.
www.studentdoctor.net
I wouldn't. You haven't learned anything yet, and you could quit tomorrow. If you're insistent on sending something, I wouldn't update until you have at least 100 completed hours. Frankly, if you told me that you're going to spend 16 hours/wk in lab, I would not believe you until I saw the proof in obtained hours--in my experience, most students over-estimate the number of hours they can volunteer in a lab on a week-to-week basis, and research hours tends to be the first thing that gets squeezed when something comes up.
Doing research is probably still a good idea, as it's something you can talk about in interviews and will be helpful in case you wind up needing to reapply. But on paper, your app is what it is for this year.
If you're going to send this letter regardless of whether we think it's a good idea, then you can choose to ignore our advice. But this is NOT an activity section where you can write a whole essay about why this experience is important and what you learned.
I strongly advise people to keep post-application communications brief, usually a single paragraph to communicate whatever you're sending. If you choose to update for this activity, then I would include the date that you started the position, your current number of hours, and (because this is really the point of you sending this update, even if I think it's not worthy of an update) your number of projected hours. 4-5 sentences max.
Did you read the article I posted?
