<p>What should I be doing this summer? I'm going to be a sophomore next year. I live 5 hours away from my college, so I can't do any undergraduate research. All of the hospital volunteer opportunities in my area aren't medical related at all (like working in the gift shop department). </p>
<p>I'm planning on working at this Vitamin Shoppe or this GNC at the mall.</p>
<p>Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I did AIDS research all my summers</p>
<p>Hospitals aren’t the only place you can volunteer. Try nursing homes, hospices, or any non-medical service organization you find worthwhile.</p>
<p>Any kind of community service is a plus.</p>
<p>Another alternative would be to contact your family physician and see if he or she will allow you to shadow him/her for a few hours each week.</p>
<p>And don’t feel you need to apologize or explain why you aren’t doing research this summer. Not all, maybe even not most, pre meds do research this early on. There’s time for that to happen later on.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. Would working be a bad idea though? Are you guys totally against working?</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of working.</p>
<p>Both Ds worked full time in the summers and part time during the school year in college.(D1 was accepted into med school today. She folded sweaters at Abercrombie & Fitch after her freshman year. D2 was named an Amgen Scholar last week. She sold gas and Slurpees in Yellowstone Park after her freshman year.)</p>
<p>Employment teaches you time management. It also helps to teach budgeting and planning. And people skills. All valuable life skills.</p>
<p>working is great, and is much better than hanging at the beach. But it gets you few brownie points with professional school adcoms. They want to see: clinical experience, shadowing, community service, and/or research., in addition to high grades+mcat. </p>
<p>Next year, apply to some undergraduate summer research programs which are funded. Amgens is extremely competitive (congrats to wowm’s D), but others are less so. Check out your local uni for SURP, REU, or even NIH SIP. SMDEP’s are also excellent, for URM’s and low income. Apply early. </p>
<p>(My D worked retail last summer after her Frosh year and was just accepted into her first choice SURP – stipend+housing+travel allowance.)</p>
<p>Agree with bluebayou–</p>
<p>Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer this summer. And apply widely to summer research programs for next summer. (BTW, many of these summer program have application deadlines that are in January or February. Make sure to get your applications on time.)</p>
<p>Working is fine. Working teaches you life skills, but you’ll need to do more than "just’ working next summer.</p>