will only have 1 semester of volunteering, help!

[lilqu]

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hey guys, im in a deep pit right now.
so far my grades are fine science gpa is approx 3.6 and cumm is 3.68, i have been shadowing the chief of cardiology in my local hospital since last semester, i have been actively involved in the pre med club at my school organizing events etc, i have been doing grading as a TA, i also work in the nursing lab at my school storing/sorting/organizing medical supplies, teaching nursing students simple routines like removal of IV's and IV placement on the arm as well as pt assessments.

my problem is i still have to do some volunteering/tutoring, which i plan to do next semester.....but i am also going to take my mcat in april and applying in june..... so ill only have 1 sem of volunteering before i apply!

is this bad will med schools ask for how long i did volunteering for?
any suggestions will be helpful

 

[beckhunter116]

When you fill out the AACOMAS (primary application) you will list all of the activities you are/were involved in and you include dates in the information that you give.

As far as only one semester of volunteering in addition to what you already do I'm not sure how they will look at that so hopefully others will comment on that. I would recommend that you continue to volunteer after you send in your application, because schools will ask about this in interviews. Good luck!

 

[Isoprop]

Quality is better than quantity. If you volunteered for 15 weeks but learned a lot from it, I believe you will be fine.

 

[beckhunter116]

Quality is better than quantity. If you volunteered for 15 weeks but learned a lot from it, I believe you will be fine.

LOL...it's easy to say that but in some cities it is hard to find quality volunteering places. I mean places where you actually learn/see/do some things as opposed to file charts, alphabetize stuff, answer phones, and fax medical record requests.

I have recently moved, but at one of my last volunteering places...major hospital with a med school, on my unit there were probably 7 (at least) on the same day that I came, and we would fight over who got to refill the blanket warmer and change trash bags...whoo hoo! Of course, I was fortunate that I also volunteered somewhere else where I was directly involved in patient care.

 

[Isoprop]

Even at those places, you weren't allowed to talk to patients? Good volunteering experience does not necessarily mean patient care.

I know the situation you're talkinga bout. I live in a city where the hospitals create B.S made-up positions for volunteers to work. But even working in a hospital gift shop can be meaningful if you make it that way.

 

[beckhunter116]

Even at those places, you weren't allowed to talk to patients? /

Yes, I could talk to patients, provide anything non-medical they requested, but are you saying that if this was the only kind of patient contact someone had that schools are going to go for it? I just don't know, I'm a pre-med myself, so I hope that they recognize everyone can't have a job in healthcare and that volunteering positions are hard to find where you actually do patient care.

I think I have a nice blend of volunteer hours...of course, until I have an acceptance next year (hopefully ) I will be a nervous wreck.

 

[Hybrid1]

Just make sure you get a letter of rec from somebody saying that you volunteered -- regardless of the number of semesters. Some schools will not offer an interview without it.

 

[beckhunter116]

Just make sure you get a letter of rec from somebody saying that you volunteered -- regardless of the number of semesters. Some schools will not offer an interview without it.

I think I had heard this about ATSU-SOMA...but would you list what other schools you know of that have this policy. Thanks!

 

[Hybrid1]

I think I had heard this about ATSU-SOMA...but would you list what other schools you know of that have this policy. Thanks!

DMU absolutely requires a letter from a healthcare-related experience to be accepted, but they recently started interviewing candidates who are still waiting on their letter. I'm a current 4th year student and was recently talking to the Dean of Admissions about this.

 

[Isoprop]

Yes, I could talk to patients, provide anything non-medical they requested, but are you saying that if this was the only kind of patient contact someone had that schools are going to go for it?

Again, it's about quality. I took a class with the dean of students at a medical school, and she was more impressed with my teaching volunteer experience than the time I volunteered as a triage tech at a ED. The focus of my personal statement was when I visited patients at a nursing home, and I totally left out my experience doing chest compressions in the emergency department. Why? Because I learned more and got more out of the first experience than the second. I felt like I was "doing more" playing checkers with an older gentleman and talking about his life than taking vital signs off of babies.

I truly believe medical schools are more impressed if you got something meaningful out of the experience. They don't care about the number of hours you did xyz as much as what you learned. Not all successful premeds had the clinical skills before entering med school.