I’m starting my sophomore year and I chose not to volunteer because I was afraid I couldn’t make enough time for it (especially because I started to work in a research lab). Since the hospital requires you to have two consecutive semesters where you volunteer there, I might not be able to volunteer until junior year.
For shadowing, there was apparently a large number of juniors/seniors that signed up and there’s a good chance I won’t get a spot until spring semester this year.
How much worse is it if I start junior year (or spring semester soph year) vs now for these activities?
Also is it problematic to start a lot of things junior year (like raise red flags for doing stuff “for the resume”)? I wanted to do relay for life and DM, but I felt with a tougher schedule and lab that it would be better to wait until next year
Adcomms are looking for consistent, meaningful, long-term volunteering.
If you only begin volunteering/shadowing right before you apply to med school. it’ll look like you’re just box-checking.
Pre-meds are expected to be able to do it all. Have great grades AND have significant ECs. And believe me, there will be many among your fellow med school applicants who will.
You need to be more pro-active about finding activities. There are many other places to volunteer beside the hospital near your campus. Stand alone clinics (county public health, Planned Parenthood, Heathcare for the Homeless), nursing homes, group homes for the mentally or physically disabled, hospices, cancer or dialysis centers, blood donation centers, therapeutic camps for disabled children, EMT service, search & rescue squad.
You can seek out your own shadowing opportunities and not just passively rely on those provided by your college’s pre-health advising office/pre-health club. Start by asking your own PCP and network outward from there. Heck, you can even start cold contacting physicians to ask about shadowing. You’ll get lots of no’s but someone will eventually say yes.