Does cutting volunteer hours short look bad on applications?

I volunteered at my local hospital for 60 hours and thet requires 100. I stopped at that point to focus fixing my grades. I tried reapplying to the hospital but they said they wouldn’t be able to accept me back this long after. Should I omit this from my application or leave it on/explain the discrepancy? Thanks!

What other clinical experience do you have?

You are not obligated to list everything you do on AMCAS

@WayOutWestMom

With regards to clinical experience, I have about 80 hours of scribing done at a private clinic, as well as ~60 hours of shadowing. Shadowing primarily occurred within my first two years of college, and scribing has occured as of this year (I’m a third year). The 60 hours of hospital volunteering occured throughout my first 1.5 years of college, not sure if the spread of my clinical hours should be worrisome or not.

I had also mentioned the 60 hours of hospital volunteering in my resume/list of things I’ve done to my LOR writers. Should I tell them to disregard it if it’s something I’ll be omitting from my application? Is it worth leaving it on my application and perhaps explaining the discrepancy through interviews or in the application itself? The thing I worry about is either if this reflects poorly on me or if med schools would call the group I worked for and they would put in a poor word for me.

Will the hospital volunteer office verify that you did 60 hours of service? If so, then you don’t have a problem.

However, if they won’t verify your service or alternatively did not keep your volunteer records because you failed to complete your commitment, then you have a serious problem. HP offices and adcomms do spot checks on activities. If the hospital will not or cannot verify your service, then it looks like you lied on your CV or application. Lying (even if you didn’t actually lie) will pretty much end your chances for a med school admission.

And don’t bother trying to explain; it just look like you’re making excuses and that’s not a good look.

If you are omitting those 60 hours from your application, then you definitely need to contact your LOR writers and tell them. It would be awfully embarrassing to have a writer reference your work at XXX hospital, but then not have it on your application. It would raise some eyebrows.

80 hours of clinical employment/volunteering is on the very low end for most med school applicants. (Shadowing is listed separately from clinical experience.)

@WayOutWestMom Thanks for letting me know. I will likely have 120 hours before applying. I will check in with the hospital if they would verify that I did 60 hours. Should I be worried if any AdComs ask them why I only did 60?

Also the volunteer services manager sent me a copy of my hours, so I figure they must have my hours, but I’m not sure if they’re willing to say I did them?

@honcho Agree with WOWM has said. But there is nothing wrong in reporting 60 hours, especially if you have the hours letter given to you by them. It looks like that hospital will give a formal letter only if you work 100 hours and you could not do it. So be it. Unless you have strong GPA and MCAT, you need to accumulate more hours for both clinical and non-clinical hours. Shadow is fine, especially if you have done a variety of Docs.

@GoldenRock it is moreso a printout from their system, can they still deny my hours? If I’m able to use the 60 hours, id have around 180 to 200 hours around the time I apply, is that considered low?

200 hours is pretty much the base level of expected hours for traditional applicants.

I doubt that since the hospital has a record of your hours on file that a representative will deny that you ever volunteered there. What incentive is there for them to do so?

Well upon trying to reapply there, they said they couldn’t offer me a position due to my lack of communication upon leaving and the lack of spots available. No real incentive, just trying to be careful. I assume this will be something that I should address during interviews if at all? Should I treat it as a typical experience on the application with no mention of leaving early?

@GoldenRock @WayOutWestMom Thanks again for all your help

Do not bring it up at all during interviews. Address the topic only if asked about it and then keep your answer as brief and factual as possible. Something along the lines of: “When I originally joined the volunteer program at the hospital, I thought I would have no difficulty on completing the 100 hour commitment; however, a scheduling conflict arose with my academic schedule and I wasn’t able to continue in the program.”

Just list the experience on your application without any editorial commentary about the number of hours you volunteered vs the number of hours the program expected.

Sounds like you quit volunteering without ever notify the volunteer coordinator. That bad.You don’t ever quit something without notifying your supervisor. That’s just common courtesy.

@WayOutWestMom Makes sense. And yep, I feel it’s entirely on me for the response I got, likely a result of me going through some of my biggest college troubles at the time. Thank you!

@WayOutWestMom Just called and they said they wouldn’t be able to confirm that I worked there for those hours since I didn’t finish the 100, but that I could put it down? Should I omit the 60 hours?

@hondodad
There are pros and cons to both options and some associated risks involved.

Sent your PM with more information.