Hello all, I am a rising sophomore and I am deciding between research and hospital volunteering. I want to help with research in a lab in the field of osteoporosis (my mother suffers from early onset osteoporosis, so I really want to help in any way that I can). If I can’t find this I would be fine with assisting in any lab that will allow me to do so. I live in a highly populated area so I don’t believe it would be that difficult to find a lab. I also want to volunteer in a hospital to get a feeling for everything that goes on mainly because I am very interested in the medical field. Looking purely at the college aspect, which would look better? I really want to do research and volunteering, but I don’t think I will have the time to dig deep into both.
Do not do something based on what looks better for a college. Do what interests you.
Can’t you apply for both? You can make the decision of whether to intern at a lab or volunteer at a hospital once you’ve heard back from these places. Note that volunteering at a hospital, at least for high schoolers in my area, usually involves administration duties, so if you are looking to shadow a neurosurgeon, you probably won’t find an abundance of options.
My problem is that both of them interest me equally, this is why I am resorting to the college aspect.
I am hoping that if I volunteer at a smaller hospital they will be more lenient about letting me interact with patients. I am not sure that this will work, but if it doesn’t, I heard that I will for sure be able to direct patients around the hospital. This should also give me a good amount of insight at how the hospital setting works.
Where I live teen volunteer opportunities at hospitals are highly competitive because every wanna be pre med thinks it will look good on their resume. Ditto lab internships. Kids I know who did those did so over the summer not during the school year. I’d apply to whichever you can find and see what you get offered. Then you can decide. You might also consider working in a nursing home. They tend to use more volunteers
Alright I will for sure try to get into both and pick then. Thank you for the idea of working in a nursing home I will look into that if what I tried before doesn’t work out.
Will do, thanks for the advice.
Also check with a local science museum if you have one. Ours has an awesome HS volunteer program.