Which Med Schools Love Community Service?

[DemonDeacon]

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I know for sure that some schools, like Duke, are big on numbers. Quite a few of their students have had no volunteering experience, sadly to say. UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the want people with genuine service experiences. But that's only in NC. Any elaboration would be super!

 

[Gleevec]

I know for sure that some schools, like Duke, are big on numbers. Quite a few of their students have had no volunteering experience, sadly to say. UNC-Chapel Hill seems like the want people with genuine service experiences. But that's only in NC. Any elaboration would be super!

Explain to me, DemonDeacon, are you on the adcom of Duke? Are you on the adcom of UNC? Do you even know what "genuine service experience" means? Your generalizations are not only ignorant, but misleading as well.

Every school in the nation cares about service, its just the top schools care about numbers AND service. So if you want to get in a top school, you'll need to have numbers, but you will also need service. In fact, its more likely that someone with great numbers and poor ECs will get rejected over someone with poor numbers and great ECs. Yeesh, talk about your uneducated posts, then again, what can we expect from a Wake Forest grad? 🙄

 

[Spitting Camel]

Explain to me, DemonDeacon, are you on the adcom of Duke? Are you on the adcom of UNC? Do you even know what "genuine service experience" means? Your generalizations are not only ignorant, but misleading as well.

Every school in the nation cares about service, its just the top schools care about numbers AND service. So if you want to get in a top school, you'll need to have numbers, but you will also need service. In fact, its more likely that someone with great numbers and poor ECs will get rejected over someone with poor numbers and great ECs. Yeesh, talk about your uneducated posts, then again, what can we expect from a Wake Forest grad? 🙄

Calm down, buddy! Where did THAT come from? Maybe get a psych eval before school starts?

 

[DemonDeacon]

Gleevec,

First off, I'm NOT a Wake Forest grad and I don't care to elaborate.

Second off, if I was on the adcom of Duke or UNC, I would be asking people here.

Third off, don't increase your post count by posting unnecessary comments. I'd hate to be your patient. Shukran Spitting Camel for recommending Gleevec a psych evaluation. *sheesh.

Back to my original question, folks.

 

[Spitting Camel]

I know Loyola is interested in well-rounded people, and are not such number ******... Religious affiliation would help, too, since they are Jesuit.

LLU is another...

 

[Gleevec]

Gleevec,

First off, I'm NOT a Wake Forest grad and I don't care to elaborate.

Second off, if I was on the adcom of Duke or UNC, I would be asking people here.

Third off, don't increase your post count by posting unnecessary comments. I'd hate to be your patient. Shukran Spitting Camel for recommending Gleevec a psych evaluation. *sheesh.

Back to my original question, folks.

I enjoy getting psych evals from "registered sex offenders" like Spitting Camel.

In any case DemonDeacons, you really should consider not making gross and inaccurate comments and the fact is, you are completely mistaken. And I already answered your question, though your question was posed in perhaps the most annoying and ignorant way possible.

So here's another one for you, you deserve it for your original post: 🙄

 

[macdown]

Creighton is very big on community sevice, we won the outstanding Community Service Award for 2003 from the AAMC, and was runner up the previous 2 years.

 

[jlee9531]

honestly...all schools care about service. esp primary care oriented schools.
the people with no volunteering experiences at duke prolly spent a lot of their time doing something also valuable - research.

 

[jlee9531]

if the above post is unsatisfactory...
i will list the schools that were receptive to me:

uic
uvm
msu
davis
ucla

 

[WARi0FL]

Creighton University is an awesome school for community service. They won the Outstanding Community Service Award from the AAMC last year. The school offers so many community service opportunities, it would take me 2 pages to list them all. They have a great program for freshman to travel out of the country to treat patients for 2 weeks, and a program for seniors to go to Nepal for a month. I will be starting there in August, and I'm excited about getting involved in their awesome program.

 

[anthoncr]

It's a well known fact around here OHSU places a TON of importance on community service. The most coveted award for medical students I'm told is a demonstrated commitment to community service.

I had over 15 "experiences", and was told that was a major reason I was admitted.

~Tony
OHSU MS1 this fall!!

 

[DemonDeacon]

Congrats to both of you!!!

First off, Creighton sounds awesome!!!

As for OHSU, how did they know you had over 15 "experiences?" Might I add, that's a lot of experiences. Were they all continuous or were some one-timers?

 

[Cerbernator]

Gleevec is growing bitter like me and Pete

 

[Gleevec]

Gleevec is growing bitter like me and Pete

Kinda. Its really annoying when people with an agenda bash a school, leaving an incorrect impression. What makes the OP comment worse is that it is completely unfounded. People with extraordinary stats get rejected from all med schools for having no community service.

Its kind of like asking, "Which Med Schools Love Students Who Dont Murder People" and then saying "I hear Wake Forest Med doesn't care too much about it". 🙄

 

[skyreaper]

Wow, Gleevec...you should rethink your profession, I mean...someone with your level of patience might have a limited amount of stuff they can do. Why even look at the forums if you don't like people posing questions--even if they may seem arrogant or stupid to you. Anyways, it would be most appropriate if you were more circumspect with your posts...I think it would help a lot of people out.

Also, your projected personality does not fit the drug you like to reference yourself with...unless, since you're Gleevec and the "dumb" posters are the cancerous cells that you would like to remove, than I believe your name does indeed fit your profile.

 

[Mediculous]

I'm on Gleevec's side on this one. Everyone gasping at what he said hasn't truly understood him. The OP has a valid question, but then adds an unfounded derogatory comment about Duke. The comment is slander against schools with good numbers in general, as if compassion and intelligence are inversely proportional. The OP also adds that there a "quite a few" students who get into schools with higher numbers. This is exaggerating beyond any rationalization. MSTPs don't place as much emphasis on community service, but the OP's comments don't hold up for M.D. programs (which, I'm assuming they were talking about in the first place). If anything, I would even say that the majority of people accepted to high-number schools have done extraordinary community service. Maybe I'm biased because ALL of the people I know who have been accepted to high-number schools have also had amazing E.C.'s, but I'm sure the "quite a few" people getting in without community service is really closer to "the unexplainable minority". One of the reasons why the admissions process is like a crapshoot is because while your numbers are, for the most part, objective, your E.C.'s are, for the most part, subjective. That's part of why there are people who get scholarships from some schools and rejections from similarly ranked schools("school mission" being another). It's okay to just not like some schools, but it's not appropriate to bash them on faults that don't exist. It's just not cool. 😎

 

[DemonDeacon]

Yeah my question should have been worded differently for the sensitive, but that's not my fault.

 

[DemonDeacon]

I forgot to mention that there are some undergrad schools that will take you without any volunteering. There are some med schools that would do the same if you have the grades. Duke for sure is one of them, but I am not undermining them whatsoever. Wake Forest undergrad especially wants students with community service, they want students who just haven't done volunteering, they want students who find true meaning in service. Of course all med schools should love community service, just as all undergrads should, but not all have a main theme of Pro Huminitate.

Anyway, thanks for the specific names of the schools!

 

[IndyZX]

i dont understand your point...

1) great ECs will help you everywhere
2) no school will admit that your ECs are pretty much irrelevant
3) and if there do exist institutional preferences for exceptional ECs, it would be pretty hard to make that judgement based on some replies to this post

 

[Cerbernator]

I am far angrier than Gleevec, just to assert that.

 

[DemonDeacon]

I am far angrier than Gleevec, just to assert that.

That's pathetic. Getting angry from an online forum is simply pathetic. So you're just sitting on you bum looking at the computer reading comments from people whom you have no idea who they are (and will probably never meet 90% them)... and you're getting mad at them? 🙄

Did I say something about your mother?

 

[Cerbernator]

That's pathetic. Getting angry from an online forum is simply pathetic. So you're just sitting on you bum looking at the computer reading comments from people whom you have no idea who they are (and will probably never meet 90% them)... and you're getting mad at them? 🙄

Did I say something about your mother?

yes, angry and it has everything to do with online forum posts 🙄

 

[DemonDeacon]

then maybe you should take a good long break from online forums and do something worthwile, besides the "WILL PAY FOR SEX." 😉

 

[scrappydawg]

Wow, Gleevec...you should rethink your profession, I mean...someone with your level of patience might have a limited amount of stuff they can do. Why even look at the forums if you don't like people posing questions--even if they may seem arrogant or stupid to you. Anyways, it would be most appropriate if you were more circumspect with your posts...I think it would help a lot of people out.

Also, your projected personality does not fit the drug you like to reference yourself with...unless, since you're Gleevec and the "dumb" posters are the cancerous cells that you would like to remove, than I believe your name does indeed fit your profile.

While he is more the capable of defending himself, don't knock gleevac. The guy is awesome, has a reservour the size of hoover dam of knowledge pertaining to medicine and a positive outlook on life. He generally is a patient guy, but come on sometimes a poster just asks for it.

 

[vandypatty]

To the OP's question, I think what people are trying to get across is that basically none of us have ever sat on an admissions committee, and it's kind of an irrelevant question to ask how each school views ECs. I don't know how many Duke med students you know, but I would be willing to wager that the overwhelming majority have excellent numbers as well as experience volunteering in some field (whether it's health related or not). How is your question any different than someone asking "which school likes really really high MCATs and GPAs?" No school wants to be labeled with only accepting students with high numbers and no EC (and visa versa). I can therefore see the arguement against your question, however I don't think it's worth trash talking on this forum about....this is where someone starts trash talking about me... 🙄

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

Calm down, buddy! Where did THAT come from? Maybe get a psych eval before school starts?

Finally, someone understands where I'm coming from.

To DemonDeacon: Don't even pay attention to Gleevec's braindead response. His posts are becoming about as worthless as his life. To answer your question, it would be close to impossible to tell if an institution does have a clear preference for one "type" of EC versus another without talking to a member of the admissions committee. I think you can get a good feel for this sort of thing by looking at members of the incoming class and their ECs...but this is just a really rough way to gauge whether the institution prefers one type of EC versus another...it's impossible for us to tell for certain.

That said, I think is it pretty likely that certain institutions do want to attract students that are in line with their "mission" and can be molded to fit their own image of what constitutes an "excellent physician." Some institutions are just hell bent on research (there are many of these). These schools want to produce the future Nobel Prize winners in medicine, the future faculty members at Harvard Medical School, the leading researchers in the fight against cancer, etc. The adcom members at said schools will seek out applicants with very strong research credentials (X number of years in a research lab, 1st authorship publications, strong letter of recommendation from a famous PI, etc).

Other schools might want to produce the future leaders in health policy. These schools would want their students to serve on the World Health Organization, design policies to help in effort to combat bioterrorism, serve on a commitee in the Food and Drug Administration, etc. The adcom members at these schools would probably seek applicants with extensive experience working for non-profit organizations, leadership experience in campus clubs, internships with governmental organizations, etc.

I doubt any med school would openly state what "type" of EC they prefer...but I really do think they take this into account when making their final admit/reject decisions. I also seriously doubt that ANY US med school would state that they prefer X EC over volunteer experience...or that they prefer volunteer experience over Y EC.

Final advice: Just do whatever exra-curriculars you're interested in and forget whether these ECs will give you an edge for admissions. If they do end up giving you an edge with an adcom, more power to you. If they don't, then you probably wouldn't have liked attending that med school anyway. Just do the ECs that you love and leave the rest to fate. In the end, it'll all work out.

 

[BerkeleyPremed]

bumparoo

The OP raises a pretty important issue.

 

[adesua]

Hello all,
I guess there are 2 ways of interpreting the question that was asked - "which med schools love community service?"
Which medical schools:

1. prefer applicants with (substantial/worthwhile/genuine) community service.

or

2. are involved in a lot of community outreach/service.

I cannot address interpretation #1 so I'll just address #2. Earlier people have mentioned Creighton. I also know of Univ. of Connecticut and Wash U in St. Louis (of course there may be more but I know of these from when I applied).

Wash U: Despite its reputation as 1 of the top 5 research medical schools Wash U finds itself in a city with a lot of need and inequality - many poor people/ immigrants without health insurance. Racial minorities are grossly underrepresented in this population of people and historically the city has not been as integrated as some North Eastern cities like Boston and New York. There have been efforts for Wash U to reach out to the community, spearheaded by Dr. Will Ross, a nephrologist at Barnes and Jewish, and incidentally their dean for minority affairs. For example, there is this student run clinic called the Saturday neighbourhood clinic where care is provided to the uninsured. This is one example of the several ways students can reach out to the needy of St. Louis. In Dr. Ross's own words, at Wash U there is a great opportunity to really help as a medical student.

UConn: Its situated in Farmington but close by is a city called Hartford which has a fairly high indigent uninsured population. I know they have this program where from quite early students go out into Hartford and soon assume the role as primary care physicians of patients of such demography.

To end I'll just say many schools will claim that their students are involved in 1 community service or another. This may be true. But its important to consider how big/widespread it is among the student body and what the results are.
Location is also important because you may have the initiative but if you find yourself in an affluent locale, you might have to go further out of your way to find avenues for engaging in community service. All the best.

 

[DemonDeacon]

" I think is it pretty likely that certain institutions do want to attract students that are in line with their "mission" and can be molded to fit their own image of what constitutes an "excellent physician." Some institutions are just hell bent on research (there are many of these). These schools want to produce the future Nobel Prize winners in medicine, the future faculty members at Harvard Medical School, the leading researchers in the fight against cancer, etc. The adcom members at said schools will seek out applicants with very strong research credentials (X number of years in a research lab, 1st authorship publications, strong letter of recommendation from a famous PI, etc).

Other schools might want to produce the future leaders in health policy. These schools would want their students to serve on the World Health Organization, design policies to help in effort to combat bioterrorism, serve on a commitee in the Food and Drug Administration, etc. The adcom members at these schools would probably seek applicants with extensive experience working for non-profit organizations, leadership experience in campus clubs, internships with governmental organizations, etc. "

---BerkeleyPremed, you couldn't have said it better. Thanks so much!!

Also, thanks for the UConn suggestion.