I am thinking of going somewhere in the Middle East this summer, and then my Junior year to somewhere in Europe. I do not have a financial plan yet, but I will start discussing it with my counselors soon.
Would having too much on my resume, along with other volunteer opportunities, look like I’m just doing things to fill it up for med or graduate school?
Thank you!
Well, are you just doing it for med or graduate school?
How can being more exposed to the world be a bad thing? As long as you have the other pertinent things like a strong academic record, no, it won’t be too much.
As with all these decisions, a lot of it is about your narrative arc: how do you link these up?
Iknow a 2016 grad who managed 3 study abroad programs (in 3 regions) that linked together her academics and her language skills so that she ended up with deep fluency in the main variations of her second language and courses in her major from leading institutions in her field. Yes, she was snapped up by grad schools.
If you are looking for school funded tourism (a common enough motivation), I agree with @doschicos:more exposure to other parts of the world is no bad thing- just put some thought into what you choose & how you structure it. Be careful about how you choose ‘volunteer’ activities, esp if you are looking for an admissions bump for med/grad school: they are pretty good at recognizing the difference between voluntourism and actual, meaningful, work.
I am going to Lebanon this summer as a vacation, and I want to volunteer in a hospital to expose myself to more Arabs and improve my language skills. Would that be counted as voluntourism?
Hard to know from that description. Will you be working in a regular role, on a continuing basis, where your work output is appreciably greater than the work required to train and monitor you & your work?
(also, the phrase “expose myself to more arabs” doesn’t read well- you might think about what you mean by it- including how it might seem from the perspective of the Lebanese people you are referring to)
I’m not sure yet. Also my bad! lol I meant I wanted to surround myself with Arabs because I’ve never had any Arab friends or interacted with them like that …if that makes sense