For Those Accepted: How Much And What Were Your Medically Related & Community Related Activities

[UGDAL2016 4]

Hello,

 

I am a non trad and I only have one medically related volunteering experience (Meal Assistance Volunteer at a Hospital).I'm not sure if I want to volunteer as a meal assistance volunteer as I am finding that I'm not learning much and its not worth my time. So any other suggestions would help.

 

I have no community related activities, so I was wondering what counts as community related.

 

Also, I'm currently in Halifax.

 

 

Any help would be appreciated

[yeticrab 11]

Hey, I'm also a non-trad! The Halifax Sexual Health Centre is a good place to volunteer if you can commit to one 3-hour shift a week. A lot of the volunteers are students that leave for the summer so they might be looking for some now. There are two types of positions, 'in back' (cleaning exam rooms, labelling specimens, etc.) and 'out front' (checking in patients, answering phones, etc.). It's a good way to see how a clinic runs day-to-day. Every year I've been there a few of the volunteers get accepted (including me, this year!).

 

Edited to add - if I were you I would continue on with the meal assistance, or at least take on some other role at the hospital. Just because you're not learning much doesn't mean Dal won't see it as a valuable experience - the length of your volunteer commitment and directly helping patients would both reflect well. 

[smalltownpremed 14]

Hey! I am traditional applicant (successful) and I only had one (loosely) medically related experience as well - aside from some family experience that I drew on in the essay (but nothing extraordinary - I have never been a primary caregiver etc). I volunteered in a home for cognitively challenged adults for 5+ years. I mostly volunteered doing activities so none of my duties were directly health care related but I made sure the adcoms understood that I saw a lot of health care from the sidelines, as I'm sure  you have as well. I spent ~2h a week during the summers and less (mostly just for special events/fundraisers) during the school year so it wasn't a huge commitment compared to what other applicants may have had.

t think how you interpret things matters a lot! Have you been witness to some of the difficulties physicians face? (angry patients, families, over booking etc etc). You can make the same experience seem a lot better or worse depending on how you sell it. Keep up your commitment because long term is good and be on the look out while you're in the hospital for stories you can weave into your interview/essay/app (and most importantly - that you'll learn from!!). You can still learn a lot from the patients you see, stories you may hear from other staff and interactions you may witness. Overall you're still getting an idea of how the health care system works, and you can probably see some pros and cons that you can draw on in the interview!

[smalltownpremed 14]

As for community related - I have a lot more in this area. Anything in your community, I am quite involved in cultural events that bring tourists to my community so maybe communities that are less reliant on the tourism industry don't have as many opportunities but any women's/church groups could definitely fall in this category. Community clean up groups/projects are common as well. I have friends that volunteered for local TV stations that film/broadcast local events and counted that as community related. Make a huge list of everything you have done and try to think about whether anything has impacted your community - even if it didn't feel like volunteering you may have more experience than you realize.

[UGDAL2016 4]

Thanks SO MUCH 

[btdubs 81]

I'm not sure what the answer is that you're looking for and I don't know the volunteer community in Halifax very well, but I can answer what I think your title is asking.

 

I had a lot of medically related experience on my application, I'm pretty sure I filled up all of the slots. HOWEVER, it should be kept in mind that I also had a pretty horrendous GPA to make up for (3.6, which I think was the lowest accepted so far just by looking at some very informal stats), and I also listed experience that some people perhaps would not have, like shadowing optometrists.

 

From what I hear though, quality is more important than quantity, so having 1-3 really good involvements is probably worth more than having 5-8 inconsistent/temporary positions. Also, your GPA is likely not as low as mine, so those marks are already safe for you. 

[UGDAL2016 4]

I'm not sure what the answer is that you're looking for and I don't know the volunteer community in Halifax very well, but I can answer what I think your title is asking.

 

I had a lot of medically related experience on my application, I'm pretty sure I filled up all of the slots. HOWEVER, it should be kept in mind that I also had a pretty horrendous GPA to make up for (3.6, which I think was the lowest accepted so far just by looking at some very informal stats), and I also listed experience that some people perhaps would not have, like shadowing optometrists.

 

From what I hear though, quality is more important than quantity, so having 1-3 really good involvements is probably worth more than having 5-8 inconsistent/temporary positions. Also, your GPA is likely not as low as mine, so those marks are already safe for you. 

 

 

I'm not sure what the answer is that you're looking for and I don't know the volunteer community in Halifax very well, but I can answer what I think your title is asking.

 

I had a lot of medically related experience on my application, I'm pretty sure I filled up all of the slots. HOWEVER, it should be kept in mind that I also had a pretty horrendous GPA to make up for (3.6, which I think was the lowest accepted so far just by looking at some very informal stats), and I also listed experience that some people perhaps would not have, like shadowing optometrists.

 

From what I hear though, quality is more important than quantity, so having 1-3 really good involvements is probably worth more than having 5-8 inconsistent/temporary positions. Also, your GPA is likely not as low as mine, so those marks are already safe for you. 

 

Thanks for the response.

I'm actually in the same boat in terms of academics although my GPA might even be slightly lower than a 3.6 ( I really don’t want to calculate it at this point). I’ll most likely have to do a few more years of undergrad to boost that GPA as I don't have many EC's either.