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Supplemental and volunteering


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Hi friends,

I was thinking about what to include on my Dal supplemental and I'm worried about the volunteer section. I've filled up the other three sections, but I only have 3-4 (not medically related) commitments for volunteering and they're all <100 hours each. Even my hospital volunteering is excluded with the 5 year rule. Other longitudinal volunteer commitments I had from my childhood until first/second year university are also ineligible. I had accumulated hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours at that point.

My focus over the past 5 years has instead been on work (1000s upon 1000s of hours in healthcare, tutoring, TA), research (peer reviewed pubs, clinical research assistantships), and extracurriculars (writing and editing, campus groups, sports) with some community outreach components. I probably could have participated in more volunteering initiatives, but coulda, woulda, shoulda. I travel frequently and moved locations for work so keeping/starting volunteer commitments was difficult. I'm planning to start volunteering this summer for a few organizations I've been thinking about for years, but I don't think I'll be putting these experiences on my application.

I am relatively confident in my personal essay and other components of my application (3.9 GPA, MSc, 513). I'm OOP and have a mediocre maritime connection (employed there now, previous employment required a lot of interaction with maritime residents, traveling). 

Anyone with a similar experience? I want to submit the best application possible, so your advice would be greatly appreciated :)

 

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Since we can't go backwards in time (wish we could) there's not much one can do. :(

If you find it comforting, I personally am a huge fan of applicants who worked more than volunteered. I think volunteerism is a good thing but it is 100% overrated. Having done both, I think I learned SIGNIFICANTLY more working in a fast food restaurant than bring patients their cloths post-surgery.  

Also, a decent adcom should look at your file and notice your Msc (combined with dals "beautiful" 5 year year rule) , which would explain your "lack" of volunteerism 

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3 hours ago, sportsMD23 said:

Sorry that I can't help but I am just curious why you can't include commitments that you had from childhood until first/second year of undergrad. Can't you usually include activities that you did during undergrad for medical school applications?

Not if you've done a MSc, there's a 5 year limit on activities unless they are still on going.

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34 minutes ago, Chels1267 said:

Not if you've done a MSc, there's a 5 year limit on activities unless they are still on going.

Does this rule ONLY apply to masters students? What if an undergraduate student graduates, moves to a different country for 5 years, and wants to apply? I know this is a ridiculous scenario but would the activities that you have done during undergrad still be valid to include on the supplemental application?

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4 hours ago, sportsMD23 said:

Does this rule ONLY apply to masters students? What if an undergraduate student graduates, moves to a different country for 5 years, and wants to apply? I know this is a ridiculous scenario but would the activities that you have done during undergrad still be valid to include on the supplemental application?

They don't consider the activity after 5 years regardless of whether you were in school or out of school.  You could have a start date that's longer than 5 years, but the activity is still on-going/ end date is within the 5 years. 

I really do not like this rule because for most ontario schools you have 48 activities that you can put in as long as they started when you were 16.

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13 hours ago, sportsMD23 said:

Does this rule ONLY apply to masters students? What if an undergraduate student graduates, moves to a different country for 5 years, and wants to apply? I know this is a ridiculous scenario but would the activities that you have done during undergrad still be valid to include on the supplemental application?

Definitely not, I only mentioned MSc because the OP has one.

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On 7/2/2017 at 4:32 AM, mollypercocet said:

They don't consider the activity after 5 years regardless of whether you were in school or out of school.  You could have a start date that's longer than 5 years, but the activity is still on-going/ end date is within the 5 years. 

I really do not like this rule because for most ontario schools you have 48 activities that you can put in as long as they started when you were 16.

So to clarify, if an activity was started 7 years ago and ended 3 years ago, we can include that?

The directions on the website that I've been able to find are ambiguous on this point.

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43 minutes ago, jfdes said:

So to clarify, if an activity was started 7 years ago and ended 3 years ago, we can include that?

The directions on the website that I've been able to find are ambiguous on this point.

I would say no. Only things that started more than 5 years ago but are still currently ongoing can be used. It specifies activities from undergrad and graduate years.

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34 minutes ago, Chels1267 said:

I would say no. Only things that started more than 5 years ago but are still currently ongoing can be used. It specifies activities from undergrad and graduate years.

Wait a minute... Are you sure? Because when I was applying this past cycle that was not the case and I confirmed with someone I know in Dal med. My understanding was that any activity you have done in the past 5 years as of September 1st 2017 can be added, and if that activity was started before the 5 years and is still on going you can added.

So in the case of @jfdes they should be able to put that activity as they only quit it 3 years ago. This still satisfies the 5 year rule.

To be 100% sure I would say contact Carolyn Pelham 

 

"Only activities completed during your undergraduate and graduate studies and/or within the last 5 years will be used in the assessment of your detailed submission. If an activity was started more than 5 years ago and is ongoing then you may include it. You may only list activities that have started prior to the submission deadline: September 1st, 2017"

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1 hour ago, mollypercocet said:

Wait a minute... Are you sure? Because when I was applying this past cycle that was not the case and I confirmed with someone I know in Dal med. My understanding was that any activity you have done in the past 5 years as of September 1st 2017 can be added, and if that activity was started before the 5 years and is still on going you can added.

So in the case of @jfdes they should be able to put that activity as they only quit it 3 years ago. This still satisfies the 5 year rule.

To be 100% sure I would say contact Carolyn Pelham 

 

"Only activities completed during your undergraduate and graduate studies and/or within the last 5 years will be used in the assessment of your detailed submission. If an activity was started more than 5 years ago and is ongoing then you may include it. You may only list activities that have started prior to the submission deadline: September 1st, 2017"

I could be wrong for sure. I would think something that was started more than 5 years ago but is not currently ongoing would not qualify. So if an activity was started 7 years ago (more than 5) but ended 3 years ago (not currently ongoing) this would count? I thought the reason why they allowed you to list activities that violated the 5 year rule was only for ones currently still happening?

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Your best bet would be to connect with Carolyn to confirm;however, my thought would be that if you only quit the activity 3 years ago it would still fall into the 5 year rule. This would only make sense given you could technically (not saying it's the right thing to do ethically) state you started the activity at the start of the 5 year limit to have the activity included (even though you were involved prior to). Just a thought. 

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From my understanding, the five year rule is related to when the activity was completed. Therefore the activity would absolutely be included if you had finished it only 3 years prior to admission. 

When in doubt contact the administration! Do not leave out your awesome experiences unless you're totally sure it doesn't qualify! 

Good luck! 

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  • 1 month later...

Yes, as long as you continued it within 5 years you can include it!  For non-medically related (and even medically-related) you can still link them to the core competencies outlined by CanMEDS and Dal particularly.

 

As an aside, I am actually providing supplemental and essay editing services this cycle!  PM me for details or if you are interested :)

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