When to start shadowing/volunteering?

[JeremiahStone]

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Title says it all, I'm a freshman in college, as of now just trying to focus on my grades as well as getting into some MCAT prep courses. However, I wanted to know when would be a good time to start shadowing/volunteering? Some have told me to wait until Junior year, other say the sooner the better? 😕

 

[dsoz]

Do you see volunteering as fun, or a chore. Do you see it as an obligation that you don't want to do or something that you will look forward to doing every week?

If you treat it like it is a chore, or a check mark to make on your application.then the less of it you can do the better and you should change your major to something other than pre-med while you are at it.

If you look forward to doing it each week, and it won't hurt your grades to give up the few hours each week to work in the hospital, then go for it. It will be a great learning experience, and you will learn whether working in a hospital is really something that you want to do the rest of your life.

Who knows, you may decide that sitting in front of a computer is more your style and end up being a computer programmer. Many people change their minds, and volunteering and shadowing is one way to see if you are one of them.

dsoz

 

[JeremiahStone]

Do you see volunteering as fun, or a chore. Do you see it as an obligation that you don't want to do or something that you will look forward to doing every week?

If you treat it like it is a chore, or a check mark to make on your application.then the less of it you can do the better and you should change your major to something other than pre-med while you are at it.

If you look forward to doing it each week, and it won't hurt your grades to give up the few hours each week to work in the hospital, then go for it. It will be a great learning experience, and you will learn whether working in a hospital is really something that you want to do the rest of your life.

Who knows, you may decide that sitting in front of a computer is more your style and end up being a computer programmer. Many people change their minds, and volunteering and shadowing is one way to see if you are one of them.

dsoz

Fun for sure, but an obligation as well!

 

[mzarrowsmith]

Title says it all, I'm a freshman in college, as of now just trying to focus on my grades as well as getting into some MCAT prep courses. However, I wanted to know when would be a good time to start shadowing/volunteering? Some have told me to wait until Junior year, other say the sooner the better? 😕

RE MCAT: Most MCAT courses are content review. If you're a frosh, chances are you haven't taken all of the material covered on the MCAT, making review course(s) useless. And good heavens, why is "course" plural?

RE Shadowing: Would you buy a car or marry a womyn without a test drive (😉)? Similarly, you shouldn't consider spending a couple hundred grand and 7+ years on a medical education without taking a look for yourself and determining if it is the right path for you. The time for shadowing is now.

RE Volunteering: Do this out of a genuine interest to serve, not to get accepted to medical school. If you don't want to be there, nobody wants you in their ED/school/soup kitchen/dusty African village/public orphanage in the Dominican Republic/etc.

 

[Josh7]

Yesterday.

 

[deleted357625]

Title says it all, I'm a freshman in college, as of now just trying to focus on my grades as well as getting into some MCAT prep courses. However, I wanted to know when would be a good time to start shadowing/volunteering? Some have told me to wait until Junior year, other say the sooner the better? 😕

Do it now! Get it over with! Do no wait till junior year that's when you apply and that's when you start taking harder upper-level courses so you'd be spending more time in class when you can knock them all out early with basic classes.

 

[neurotroph]

I started volunteering first semester freshman year (I'm a sophomore now). The groups I'm volunteering with are ones that I'm genuinely interested in, so I would've started that early regardless of whether I was a pre-med or not. I started shadowing last year too, though it's been nothing extensive so far. No reason to put everything off until junior year. It's also better to start volunteering with an organization early on so that you can eventually move into a leadership position when you're an upperclassman.

 

[JeremiahStone]

I started volunteering first semester freshman year (I'm a sophomore now). The groups I'm volunteering with are ones that I'm genuinely interested in, so I would've started that early regardless of whether I was a pre-med or not. I started shadowing last year too, though it's been nothing extensive so far. No reason to put everything off until junior year. It's also better to start volunteering with an organization early on so that you can eventually move into a leadership position when you're an upperclassman.

Im going to start volunteering next semester once i transfer to UTSA, however I was planning to begin shadowing once I hit Sophomore year, just so I can have my Freshman year to sort of get my roots down and build up study skills. Does this sound like a good plan?

 

[neurotroph]

Im going to start volunteering next semester once i transfer to UTSA, however I was planning to begin shadowing once I hit Sophomore year, just so I can have my Freshman year to sort of get my roots down and build up study skills. Does this sound like a good plan?

Sounds good. Academics are of course the priority, so it's smart to make sure you have your foundations set in that before trying to pursuea bunch of other things.

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

Do it now! Get it over with! Do no wait till junior year that's when you apply and that's when you start taking harder upper-level courses so you'd be spending more time in class when you can knock them all out early with basic classes.

This. I enjoy my volunteering a lot, but start in freshman year. It does get a lot harder to juggle everything junior/senior year.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Do you see volunteering as fun, or a chore. Do you see it as an obligation that you don't want to do or something that you will look forward to doing every week?

If you treat it like it is a chore, or a check mark to make on your application.then the less of it you can do the better and you should change your major to something other than pre-med while you are at it.

Well that sounds a bit harsh... I highly doubt that the majority of 80% or so of medial school matriculants that volunteered did it because of the goodness of their hearts. 🙄

 

[Praefectus]

You can try doing a shadowing gig over the summer. Start with your own doctor and then work your way out of your network (i.e. family and friends' doctors). Who knows? You might hit the jackpot and get a large multi-specialty clinic that allows you to see several doctors.

 

[iforget2]

IMO, always try to look for volunteering opportunities as soon as possible. Certain places, especially the volunteer sites with high competition, can be competitive, and so there's never any guarantee you'll get in. Look early, and so if you don't get into a volunteer program, you'll have plenty of time to rebound

 

[dsoz]

Well that sounds a bit harsh... I highly doubt that the majority of 80% or so of medial school matriculants that volunteered did it because of the goodness of their hearts. 🙄

I don't think it is too harsh. I see too many people that come into the ED to volunteer that are just checking off a box and not interested in doing any work. If they don't want to be there, and they don't help, why should they pretend to be helpful?

I am sorry that you, or most med-school students didn't volunteer "out of the goodness of your heart." But some people do. Some see it as a valuable step in learning how the hospital operates (especially surgery). <-- I know it was a bad pun.

I worked a full time job as a high school science teacher (the career that I am changing from), was taking classes one at a time (immunology, biochemistry, anatomy, etc.) and volunteering at a hospital one evening every week, and one Saturday shift every other week. In addition to studying for the MCAT, shadowing, being a father to a busy teen-ager, and married.

I can honestly say that of all those items on my weekly to-do list, volunteering was near the top of what I liked to do. Even when I was dead-dog tired, I still made it to my volunteer shift and worked hard.

For the past year, I have been the person that trains the new volunteers in the department. Even though I have been accepted to three schools already, I am going to continue my ED shift until I matriculate. If I find that I can continue as a MS1, then I will do what I can to give 3 hours every other Saturday to the hospital volunteer department.

dsoz

 

[lobo.solo]

Im going to start volunteering next semester once i transfer to UTSA, however I was planning to begin shadowing once I hit Sophomore year, just so I can have my Freshman year to sort of get my roots down and build up study skills. Does this sound like a good plan?

👍 yeah!! this is definitely a good plan.

 

[mindyopenner]

Dedicated volunteering certainly pays off. Usually a long history of service is worth something at application time.

Clinical experience reassurres admissions committees you are not afraid of being around the patients. They don't want to see you drop out as soon as you see a patient or go on wards.

I think most medical students enjoyed volunteering during pre med years. I have known hundreds of examples. Even if many of the applicants do not really care about volunteering, at least they care enough to try it. That's the way admissions looks at it.

 

[Planes2Doc]

You have made some fair points. To address your first one:

I see too many people that come into the ED to volunteer that are just checking off a box and not interested in doing any work. If they don't want to be there, and they don't help, why should they pretend to be helpful?

Have you ever had someone complain about a requirement? Let's say someone is saying, "Boy, I hate studying for the MCAT. It really sucks." Then someone responds by saying, "Well if studying for the MCAT sucks so much, then why are you doing it?" The last part never makes any sense because it's a requirement. Otherwise you would not be doing it. There are very few pre-meds that get away without volunteering, so at the end of the day, even though volunteering is not an official requirement, not having it will make you stand out, in the not-so-good-way.

I am sorry that you, or most med-school students didn't volunteer "out of the goodness of your heart." But some people do. Some see it as a valuable step in learning how the hospital operates (especially surgery). <-- I know it was a bad pun.

I actually enjoyed your pun! 👍 Anyway, I think anyone that makes a thread like this, or asking other typical volunteer questions like what looks better, how many hours are enough, etc etc are probably not doing volunteering out of the "goodness of their hearts." Here's a fun thing to try... Copy and paste any one of those threads into a word processor. Replace the words "volunteer/volunteering/volunteered/community service/etc etc" with something people usually do in their free time, like going to bars with friends, partying, playing games, or any other activity. You will laugh when you see how ridiculous the thread now looks. If people genuinely enjoyed the activities, they would have been doing them in the first place a long time ago. When was the last time you needed to ask such questions pertaining to an activity you enjoy on a regular basis? 🙄 I met a few people along the way that were always altruistic, and they have been doing volunteer activities since they were kids. I think most people do a volunteer activity or two here and there (I know I did during undergrad), but it was usually something short with friends and would never be a long commitment. I never saw anyone who wasn't pre-med that was lining up to provide free labor to the hospital, or do long-term volunteer commitments coming out to such a huge number of hours. By the way, you'll see how a hospital operates fairly quickly. People on SDN are doing hundreds of hours, which is probably overkill. You'll also get everything you need once you're in medical school. I don't feel that I'm at any disadvantage whatsoever compared to someone who volunteered 1000+ hours or worked entry-level clinical jobs.

I worked a full time job as a high school science teacher (the career that I am changing from), was taking classes one at a time (immunology, biochemistry, anatomy, etc.) and volunteering at a hospital one evening every week, and one Saturday shift every other week. In addition to studying for the MCAT, shadowing, being a father to a busy teen-ager, and married.

I can honestly say that of all those items on my weekly to-do list, volunteering was near the top of what I liked to do. Even when I was dead-dog tired, I still made it to my volunteer shift and worked hard.

For the past year, I have been the person that trains the new volunteers in the department. Even though I have been accepted to three schools already, I am going to continue my ED shift until I matriculate. If I find that I can continue as a MS1, then I will do what I can to give 3 hours every other Saturday to the hospital volunteer department.

Once you're an MS-1, you'll probably end up singing a completely different tune. Trust me when people tell you that medical school is unlike anything you've ever experienced before. It's worse than drinking from a fire hose! A lot of people quickly will miss the lives they once had... Look, I don't know how you study and what not. I can't predict whether you are one of those people that can study a couple hours every day and get away with it, or if you need to sell your soul to the medical school Gods for your pre-clinical years. But if you are the latter, you will be regretting that you spent your time doing other things.

When I was doing my post-baccalaureate, I was irritated when my volunteer commitments conflicted with my "fun life" (I volunteered on Saturday mornings for a good amount of time, rendering my Fridays useless where I could not stay out with friends). I ended up doing between 300-400 hours in two separate EDs before I received that letter of acceptance to my top school. My opinions on volunteering were as such during these two times of my life:

Pre-Matriculation - I was irritated typically and did not enjoy doing scut work in the ED on most occasions. I did what I was asked, always with a smile. No one had any complaints. I told my friends how I did not enjoy volunteering and they usually told me to stop b!tching.

Post-Matriculation - I began to look back at my ECs and regret the time I spent doing them. I no longer have time to see family and friends. My life is entirely consumed by school. I also have the rest of my life to give "back to the community" like schools want us to do. I wish I could have that time back to do things that I really enjoyed. I now share the same opinions as SDN members like circulus vitios and notbobtrustme. Will you and others fall into this?

Other Thoughts - I also feel like this is hurting "service oriented medical schools" in the long-run. Volunteering is now expected among everyone. It's close to impossible to tell who was doing it because they enjoyed it, and who was doing it because it's the norm. There should be changes implemented to help schools figure this out.

 

[circulus vitios]

If you treat it like it is a chore, or a check mark to make on your application.then the less of it you can do the better and you should change your major to something other than pre-med while you are at it.

...

Who knows, you may decide that sitting in front of a computer is more your style and end up being a computer programmer. Many people change their minds, and volunteering and shadowing is one way to see if you are one of them.

dsoz

Volunteering sucks and has absolutely nothing to do with being a doctor.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Volunteering sucks and has absolutely nothing to do with being a doctor.

Well I wouldn't say that all volunteering sucks, because there are fun things that people do and enjoy them. I know that when I was an undergrad, I did some (brief) activities through organizations like Hillel that were actually pretty fun. I usually did them with other friends, the activities were usually only around the Jewish holidays, and I would only do the activities if I had nothing else going on. I didn't even think of them as volunteer activities until after starting medical school! 😱

But when it comes down to providing free labor to a hospital system (I fail to see how this directly helps patients in most cases if you are only cleaning beds, filing papers, etc) or doing other activities that one does not enjoy, then yes, indeed do these volunteer activities suck. Not only do they suck, but they suck and blow at the same time.

This is why pre-meds tend to have bad reputations as volunteers. A lot of them are being "forced" into volunteer gigs that they do not want to do. The other problem with this is that since volunteering is not an "official" requirement, there is no way for ADCOMs to see how the applicant actually performed. For example, you have four applicants in the ED all with 320 verifiable hours, and all who have a similar writing style for medical school essays:

Applicant 1: Volunteered for 320 hours and was respected and highly valued by the ED medical team.
Applicant 2: Volunteered for 320 hours and spent a majority of the time studying material for school.
Applicant 3: Volunteered for only 160 hours. This applicant along with a fellow friend/volunteer would take turns checking each other in and out. Applicant 3 spent a majority of their volunteer time studying. Therefore, they had 160 actual hours of volunteering, but it was verifiable up to 320 hours!
Applicant 4: Did not actually volunteer since they personally knew a volunteer coordinator who would vouch for 320 hours of volunteering. Used their friends and SDN to create "experiences" to write about.

If all of these applicants have similar writing styles and interview skills, the ADCOMs usually have no way of figuring out where along the spectrum an applicant can lie. If this was an equivalent to letter grades, Applicant 1 would have an A, Applicant 2 would have a C. Applicant 3 would have an F. Applicant 4 would technically have committed ACADEMIC DISHONESTY which would pretty much keep them from getting into medical school in the first place. Yet, medical schools take students all along the spectrum!!! 😱 🙁

I also do not think that it is right to have a condescending attitude toward those who do not want to volunteer out of the "goodness of their hearts." Volunteering is just that, volunteering! It's not something that people should be forced to do if they do not want to. We should respect everyone for what they are willing to give. If someone wants to give up their valuable time to volunteer in the hospital, then I respect that. If someone would rather spend their valuable time studying or doing activities that they find fun (things that do not look good on medical school applications), then I respect that too. I think that a lot of SDN members in the pre-allo board fail to respect the latter. 👎

 

[circulus vitios]

Applicant 4: Did not actually volunteer since they personally knew a volunteer coordinator who would vouch for 320 hours of volunteering. Used their friends and SDN to create "experiences" to write about.

I want to be friends with this guy. 😎

 

[Anathema]

Planes2doc your posts really are the most informative and realistic on SDN. I pretty much pictured everything you said coming out of my mouth a couple years from now.

 

[KnuxNole]

I agree with Planes about the requirement aspect of it. If everyone who complained about having to take Organic Chemistry to spending time studying for the MCAT was told to choose another career, we'd have far fewer medical students. Not everything people do to achieve a goal is supposed to be "fun". Volunteering is an exception, because there are many venues you can choose that tailor to your interest and a cause that you genuinely want to help out. However, let's not lie and say that if volunteering was not an unspoken requirement, everyone would still do it. There are people who would(ie people who regularly volunteer who don't pursue education beyond undergrad), and people who don't.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Planes2doc your posts really are the most informative and realistic on SDN. I pretty much pictured everything you said coming out of my mouth a couple years from now.

Thank you very much for the kind words! 🙂 It's nice to hear this instead of getting attacked for disagreeing with the general SDN pre-allo mentality. I think that a lot of peoples' opinions will change once they get into medical school. This is evident in the allopathic forum. Even then, I think that SDN as a whole represents a different set of people than the general medical student population. I was never the type of person that coasted through school with ridiculously high grades and had an MCAT high enough to get me into school. I feel like I represent (or at least I hope I do) the more "typical" student population.

I agree with Planes about the requirement aspect of it. If everyone who complained about having to take Organic Chemistry to spending time studying for the MCAT was told to choose another career, we'd have far fewer medical students. Not everything people do to achieve a goal is supposed to be "fun". Volunteering is an exception, because there are many venues you can choose that tailor to your interest and a cause that you genuinely want to help out. However, let's not lie and say that if volunteering was not an unspoken requirement, everyone would still do it. There are people who would(ie people who regularly volunteer who don't pursue education beyond undergrad), and people who don't.

Well said! I think that people can always find an issue that is "important" to them. But is it important enough that they would have been doing it in the first place regardless of "application padding?" Based on who I've met in college, I think it's safe to assume that while most people will do a volunteer activity (single event) here and there, very few took part in long-term weekly commitments. Another interesting thing to note is that I've seen quite a few people on SDN who picked up significant volunteer activities once becoming pre-med and (supposedly) enjoy them. But how do they differ from people that have been doing volunteer activities for years because they actually enjoy them?...

Every single genuinely altruistic person I've met who volunteers extensively (not for any sort of application or padding) will tell people about how they enjoy volunteering and what not, but will NEVER shove it down anyone else's throat. They especially will not criticize one's character if they do not take part in volunteer activities. This is the exact opposite of what happens here on SDN, and it's very sad in my opinion. 🙁

 

[benrose]

Title says it all, I'm a freshman in college, as of now just trying to focus on my grades as well as getting into some MCAT prep courses. However, I wanted to know when would be a good time to start shadowing/volunteering? Some have told me to wait until Junior year, other say the sooner the better? 😕

The sooner the better. Next semester I will be spending most of my free time studying for the MCAT, while taking classes, and as of right now my ECs are lacking. I wish I had started getting clinical exposure/volunteering during my first undergrad years, now its pretty much too late if I plan on applying next summer. Start early!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Narie]

Title says it all, I'm a freshman in college, as of now just trying to focus on my grades as well as getting into some MCAT prep courses. However, I wanted to know when would be a good time to start shadowing/volunteering? Some have told me to wait until Junior year, other say the sooner the better? 😕

Hey!

Sooner the better, definitely. Med schools like to see a long-term relationship with a clinic or hospital, where you know people well enough that 1) you may get to do more hands-on work 2) learn more and 3) have the opportunity to actually get personal letters of recommendation.

If your supervisor knows you well, there is most likely a chance that the letter of recommendation will not be a boring, templated read, which is what most students end of getting.

A good, long-term position, where you actually get some serious learning and work done, is your best bet for getting the attention of admissions officers, as it shows that you are taking initiative to learn about the career, take it seriously and have the evidence to back up your personal essay. Nothing replaces detailed, real experience. 🙂

 

[Natnow]

Start as soon as possible, of course! The early bird gets the worm! It may not be as easy as you think to start getting into volunteering activities and shadowing opportunities, so start as soon as you can because it takes a lot of dedication to become consistent with your extracurricular activities and managing your studies.

I think if you can start early by volunteering at your college it will help you to become a motivated individual early in your undergraduate, which is a good trait to develop!

Think about it, you want to show medical schools that you are the perfect applicant and that you are meant to be a doctor. How are you going to do that? By showing your volunteerism and that you innately want to help people. Giving your time to help and gain important experiences is something they want to see.

I was never involved throughout my first two years of college and I regret that. But I did a complete turn around when I started my junior year at a university. Had it not been for a little motivation from a friend I would not have the resume and credentials that I have now.

If you can't think of any "quick" way to get involved visit your student government organization on campus! It's a great way to get involved and shows your leadership skills; which as a doctor you need to be both autonomous and capable of working with others!

Good luck!

 

[wizedw]

I would also recommend getting involved in research if you can! The hospital volunteering around me was not super valuable to me because we weren't allowed to do anything so they basically just had us sit around. In my research I was able to strike out on my own a lot more, learn more, and I ended up loving it and I have been working in the same lab for about 2 years.

That being said, I did have an international volunteer experience that was awesome because they doctor's there actually wanted and appreciated my help.