nauru Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Now that I've looked at a medical school application and realized that I have to provide line by line the name of the activity, the exact number of hours per week spent volunteering for that activity, and the name and full contact info for a verifier, I've concluded that I need to be much more systematic in my logging of hours. Particularly when doing things I enjoy with people I like, it is very easy to forget that the time actually counts for volunteer hours and is important for medical school applications. So I started a log. My question now is what to include. What about prep time that is specific to the volunteer activity? Travel time to a volunteer site? Cleaning of equipment? If the volunteering is 1 hour each week, and cleanup takes half an hour, and travel to the site takes an hour and return time is an hour, then this could be either 1 hour or 3.5 hours. 1 hour per week actually engaging in the main activity sounds like nothing on paper, when in fact the activity may be taking up one entire evening per week due to the total travel and cleanup time required for the activity you are volunteering to run to even be possible. 3.5 hours per week is a more accurate reflection of the actual time the individual has dedicated to running the activity. But I'm not sure what the protocol is here, or if there are specific guidelines offered by medical schools for this. TL;DR When running a volunteer activity, how do you account for significant travel time and clean-up time? Just include all of it, and indicate in the comments about the activity what portions you have included in the total hours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 I would include the clean-up time, but not the travel time. You're not volunteering while you're traveling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frodo Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 why would you include travel time? its your fault your travelling an hour. volunteer somewhere closer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonney Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 When you work, do you get paid when you are in a bus heading to your job? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MathewsMD Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Only state how much you spend directly volunteering. Travelling time should not be counted but time spent cleaning up may be added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nauru Posted February 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Thanks for the responses. Are there any actual guidelines posted by any of the medical schools? As for 'volunteering closer' this is not always an option. Often it is an option and obviously we all should take advantage of those opportunities when we can, but in many cases it isn't. Thanks for your suggestion though. When I work, yes, I do charge for travel time if it is significant (e.g. an hour each way). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleverusername Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Which schools exactly require us to state how many hours we volunteer per week/month/year or what have you? I thought we simply had to volunteer somewhere and that's what they verified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosuperman Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 The only thing that matters is that you can have someone vouch for it if someone calls a verifier. Nobody is going to weigh your hours pound for pound, they just want to see what you've been up to in addition to school and whether its like two weekends per year or three nights a week sort of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cleverusername Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 The only thing that matters is that you can have someone vouch for it if someone calls a verifier. Nobody is going to weigh your hours pound for pound, they just want to see what you've been up to in addition to school and whether its like two weekends per year or three nights a week sort of thing. So they WILL verify frequency to some extent? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 So they WILL verify frequency to some extent? It's unlikely, but it's still possible. For example, it will probably be suspicious if you claim to have 2000 hours of hospital shadowing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 21, 2013 Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 Since age 16? Not too bad. Well if it's true then you have nothing to fear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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