Hey everybody, this is my first day on the site, bear with me if you’ve seen this before. Quick outline of my situation:
-1/3 of the way through my post-bacc program, will finish in a year (May 2017) and will take the MCAT/apply that spring for August 2018 matriculation
-Have about 30 hrs shadowing so far, with more planned in the future (max 75 hrs, ideally)
-3 mos. volunteer experience at a clinic last year (2015)
-Working approx. 25 hrs/wk as radiology patient transport
-Bartending 1-2 nights a week to help pay the bills
Between studying enough to keep a 3.8-4.0 GPA and working enough to keep a roof over my head, finding time to volunteer is proving difficult. I’ll have year+3 mos. to work and volunteer after my post-bacc is finished and before (hopeful) matriculation, but is that too late to add volunteer hours to my resume? I know you can update your AMCAS app as your resume grows, but I’m wondering if I need to try to fit in regular volunteer hours now and put working on the back burner?
If you don’t work, would that impact your life more than a) volunteering and b) getting into med school?
I think for volunteer stuff, they’re looking for more longitudinal stuff in areas you enjoy, not volunteerism because that’s what you think they want to see. If you literally don’t have time or have to prioritize things ahead of it, do what you need to do to live and enjoy life as much as a premed can. If you have time later and want to do it, by all means do it. Do it when you can, but don’t absolutely feel obligated to do something you don’t want to do for your own personal growth.
@Kennymac wrote:
If you don’t work, would that impact your life more than a) volunteering and b) getting into med school?
I think for volunteer stuff, they’re looking for more longitudinal stuff in areas you enjoy, not volunteerism because that’s what you think they want to see. If you literally don’t have time or have to prioritize things ahead of it, do what you need to do to live and enjoy life as much as a premed can. If you have time later and want to do it, by all means do it. Do it when you can, but don’t absolutely feel obligated to do something you don’t want to do for your own personal growth.
Thank you, that’s a fantastic point. It’s tough to remember sometimes that personal development and following my unique journey is what brought me to this point in the first place, and I should balance my obligations to this career path with obligations to myself and what keeps me motivated. Thanks again, Kennymac!
@Kennymac wrote:
I think for volunteer stuff, they’re looking for more longitudinal stuff in areas you enjoy, not volunteerism because that’s what you think they want to see.
KM, while this is true, the most oft quoted reason for rejection I see on the Reapplicant forum on that “other” site is lack of clinical hours. There seems to be a bare min threshold of around 100 hours, beyond which it levels off. That’s just my impression. And on that note, I need to scramble on this myself lest I fall short next June.
Dullhead,
Do you mean shadow experience or clinical volunteering? It may seem like a subtle difference, but some schools do differentiate between the 2. Clinical volunteering can show altruism and get you comfortable in a healthcare setting. Shadowing is a focal effort to see what it’s like to be a physician and get past the glorification in tv and into the reality of patient contact, EMRs, etc.
Granted I only applied to 16 programs, but only one of those had a real requirement for number of shadow hours. That magic number was 40 hours. I don’t remember any real volunteer requirements. In any sense, the quality of your experience is at least as important if not more so than the quantity of the experience. A lot of that is portrayed in how you write up the experience.
The things you have to remember about people saying why they were rejected are that there is a strong bias of people thinking they are better than they are, people have different levels of communication skills so they may not have effectively sold themselves, and that most school don’t actually tell you WHY they rejected you. Unless they have something in writing, take what they say about rejection with a grain of salt.
As for my own record, I had a “strong” background in leadership and experience in the military but only 50 hours shadowing and zero hours of volunteer work on my application. It’s not about any one piece of the puzzle but how they all fit together for each individual.
Edit: I’m not saying that volunteering isn’t important. I’m just trying to get a point across that a) volunteering isn’t everything, b) it should really be at least partly on your terms and not something that is wholly obligatory, and c) you should do something you enjoy and/or will make you a “better person” since it’s your time. When you’re writing it up as an experience, you should discuss more about how it impacted you, how you grew as a person, etc, instead of just what tasks you fulfilled in your role.
@Dullhead wrote:
KM, while this is true, the most oft quoted reason for rejection I see on the Reapplicant forum on that “other” site is lack of clinical hours. There seems to be a bare min threshold of around 100 hours, beyond which it levels off. That’s just my impression. And on that note, I need to scramble on this myself lest I fall short next June.
I agree with this 100%. And my info comes mostly from admins at medical schools. I also think many schools look at clinical hours very broadly,meaning that could be through work, shadowing, or volunteering. IMHO, it seems that many accepted applicants have it through all 3.
@Kennymac wrote:
Dullhead,
Do you mean shadow experience or clinical volunteering? …The things you have to remember about people saying why they were rejected are that there is a strong bias of people thinking they are better than they are, people have different levels of communication skills so they may not have effectively sold themselves, and that most school don’t actually tell you WHY they rejected you. Unless they have something in writing, take what they say about rejection with a grain of salt…
I mean clinical hours, whether they come through volunteering or scribing or other paid patient contact. I do agree with you about people misinterpreting how strong of a candidate they are, but when you see someone with 34 MCAT, 3.8 GPA, rejected across the board and they have 20 hours clinical exposure, and the school lists the same reason, it starts to make sense. This seems to be a fairly common theme over on that “other” site.
I gave my opinion on this question and gave a clarification as well in Session 21 of the OPM Podcast! http://opmpodcast.com/21