Working or Volunteering?

[broken tibula]

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I'm a freshman in college and, although I have a meeting with the premed advisor tomorrow, I wanted to ask around here first and see what you guys think.

I'm going to spend this winter shadowing a physician for forty hours a week, for four weeks, while I'm on my winter break. When I come back, I want to start regularly volunteering/shadowing/doing something hospital-y on campus. Spring is jam-packed with four intense classes, another class that I'm teaching, band, Quidditch (yes, we have a Quidditch team, it's cool), and my job on campus. I also plan to do research this summer.

I don't want to quit my job, because I need the money, but it's the only thing I would really drop to get in some volunteering hours. Is having steady involvement with a hospital really that important to adcoms, or would it look fine to have shadowing hours from my winter breaks and do research over the summer?

 

[CoolWhipp]

Research over the summer is weak sauce. Volunteering on breaks is even more weak sauce.

 

[Stratego]

You are planning way more shadowing than you'll need. Consider instead one to five days with each of 2-3 types of doctor (one being in primary care). Shadowing, being observational, is not considered clinical experience. You will also need an activity where you are interacting with sick people, ideally on a weekly basis (3-4 hours is fine) for one to one and a half years (or more, since you have the time). Yes, adcomms value steady experience gained over a period of time over big chunks of intense experience in a short time.

Try to get in at least a year of research, which is the average for those who list it.

 

[schrizto]

I'm going to spend this winter shadowing a physician for forty hours a week, for four weeks, while I'm on my winter break. When I come back, I want to start regularly volunteering/shadowing/doing something hospital-y on campus. Spring is jam-packed with four intense classes, another class that I'm teaching, band, Quidditch (yes, we have a Quidditch team, it's cool), and my job on campus. I also plan to do research this summer.

You teach a class? What kind of class? And I'm curious as to how you play Quidditch without flying on brooms. 😛

 

[broken tibula]

Research over the summer is weak sauce. Volunteering on breaks is even more weak sauce.

I do plan on continuing research into the school year--I just can't start until summer. Does it really look that bad to just volunteer over break/summer?

You are planning way more shadowing than you'll need. Consider instead one to five days with each of 2-3 types of doctor (one being in primary care). Shadowing, being observational, is not considered clinical experience. You will also need an activity where you are interacting with sick people, ideally on a weekly basis (3-4 hours is fine) for one to one and a half years (or more, since you have the time). Yes, adcomms value steady experience gained over a period of time over big chunks of intense experience in a short time.

Try to get in at least a year of research, which is the average for those who list it.

The reason I'm doing such intense shadowing is because it's technically our second term, and we have to create a four-week project. That involves roughly forty hours a week of work, and I know a nurse who knows a cardio surgeon, so... That's what I'm doing.

Thanks for the response! I'll definitely look into starting volunteer work early.

You teach a class? What kind of class? And I'm curious as to how you play Quidditch without flying on brooms. 😛

I'm teaching a class on ScriptFrenzy in the spring, and NaNoWriMo next fall. It's very fun! As is Quidditch--we run around on brooms. Although it's rather painful. And we tend to break a lot of brooms. You should start a team at your school!

 

[schrizto]

I
I'm teaching a class on ScriptFrenzy in the spring, and NaNoWriMo next fall. It's very fun! As is Quidditch--we run around on brooms. Although it's rather painful. And we tend to break a lot of brooms. You should start a team at your school!

lol, I had no idea what ScriptFrenzy or NaNoWriMo was so I looked them up... looks like something to do with fiction writing.

 

[broken tibula]

They're really fun--NaNoWriMo is novel-writing, and ScriptFrenzy is script-writing. You should give it a shot!

 

[Slack3r]

Shadowing for 40 hours/week for four weeks is both excessive and unnecessary.

 

[Dr McSexy]

I volunteered once a week for ~4 hours for about 5 months and I shadowed a few doctors. I realize I'm on the low end of hours, but it seemed to suffice.

 

[futureNCmed]

Considering you're a freshman and you've already got all this stuff planned, I think you're golden. I wish I had known that I wanted to go into medicine when I was a freshman! I didn't make the realization until the summer before my last undergrad year so I was struggling hard to study for the MCAT and pack in as much shadowing/volunteering experience as I could!

My advice is to keep working if you need the money and remember you have 3+ years to get in the other EC stuff for your application. Med schools understand that not everyone can glide thru college on mom and dad's money and most people will respect the fact that you had to work. Also, you're an undergraduate student... don't forget to have some fun in college!

 

[BlitzSleep]

I'm teaching, band, Quidditch (yes, we have a Quidditch team, it's cool)