Volunteering and Service Hours

WayOutWestMom
Tue, 31 Oct 2017 19:03:11 +0000

A med school application is all about “What have you done lately?” No one cares what someone did 5 or 6 years ago unless it was something truly unique and spectacular. (Think: qualifying for the Olympics, for example.)

Generally activities are listed only for college years, though if an activity is started in high school and continued on thru college then one will include the high school experience as part of the larger experience. While one can certainly list an activity that was done during high school and had a major influence on an applicant’s decision to pursue medicine, there are usually better places to deal with this. (HINT–this is what a personal statement is for.)

The issue is the applicant only has a limited number of lines (15, IIRC) to list everything–volunteer clinical experiences, jobs, shadowing, academic awards & honors, research experiences, publications, community service, teaching/tutoring/coaching activities, leadership positions held, major hobbies, etc.

Applicants have to be very judicious about what they include–and don’t include-- since most will have way more things to list than there are places on the AMCAS application.

Also, the applicant will need to be able to document EC involvement for anything listed on AMCAS. This is done by providing a supervisor’s name and their contact info, as well as providing start and stop dates and average weekly participation for every activity. Adcomms do spot checks to verify EC participation.