Just outta curiosity how stringently does BS/MD program check the volunteer Hour? I’m just curious since usually students who apply for BS/MD programs have crapton of Hours in Volunteer Hour, Also for the fact the doctor sadowing is quite important from my info. So how stringently do they check for it? Do people fake it sometimes?
Programs spot check, especially if the hour counts seems exaggerated. Or if you can’t offer a cogent discussion/description of the experience. Sometimes they’ll check randomly just because.
On your application, you’ll be asked to give the name of your supervisor and their contact info for all of your volunteer positions. And you will sign a statement attesting that all the information you’ve given is true and accurate.
If you’re found to be lying on any aspect of your application–including number of volunteer hours, you can kiss all hope of an admission good-bye.
Medical schools take honesty and ethical behavior very seriously.
Is it really worth the risk to lie?
@WayOutWestMom pretty much nailed it on this.
People probably do, but you’re only hurting yourself in the end, really. The point of a medical school volunteering and shadowing is to assess that you really know that only medicine is right for you (not the idealized version of the way you think medicine is) - especially with physician shadowing. It’s not an unnecessary hoop like many high schoolers and premed students think it is.
It helps removes doubt for you when medicine gets very tough, and there will be moments that will be like this. Being able to memorize and apply science to test questions and take exams, while a significant portion of medical school, isn’t the whole picture to be successful, especially when you enter MS-3 year, internship, residency, fellowship, and enter life as an attending. That’s why MCAT and GPA are not the only metrics used to decide who becomes a physician.
That being said, on interviews, you’ll definitely be asked to expound on those experiences, what you learned and gained from it, etc. and it’s really hard to do that in detail, when it’s fake. Most student interviewing physicians have a trained eye to detect when someone is confabulating and talking off the cuff. Oh, and yes, if you’re found to be deceptive and lying on a med school application, it’s pretty much the end of the road, as there are many applicants with just as good academic stats in the BS/MD pool, who don’t have to lie.