<p>I worked in a chemistry lab for ~150 hours. I was not paid, and although I didn't have a formal title, I was basically a research intern/assistant.</p>
<p>Would you consider this volunteer work? Since I entered my research in science competitions, I didn't think it would be considered volunteer work, but I know people who think it should count. Since I'm applying for scholarships and such, I wanted to be sure where to draw the line.</p>
<p>It’s an unpaid internship. Particularly since you used the research for your own benefit, I would not classify it as volunteering.</p>
<p>It is considered an EC/Work Experience</p>
<p>My dd, like you, had many hours in the college lab researching a specific thing and did not get paid. She wants to be a dentist and used it on her college app as EC, listed as an internship even though her research was to help others in a different country. Her volunteer part of the app was used as what she has done the last 3 years (one specific organization).
Good luck.</p>
<p>To clarify, an unpaid internship is a category of EC. I wouldn’t count it as work as work is for a paid activity.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the feedback. I wrote it as an EC on all my college apps as in the “Science/Math” category (since I got learning experience and fair awards from it) and plan to put it under the EC section for scholarship apps/etc as well.</p>
<p>Just curious, was there an “Internship” category on the Common App? I didn’t see it…</p>
<p>I worked in a lab at a hospital and they made me go through the volunteer office in order to do it, so I logged community service hours by doing lab work. It makes sense: you are assisting a researcher in completing there work.
When I first got there, I probably slowed down the entire process, but by two weeks I understood all the processes and we probably ended up doubling the output of cell production. So if you feel OK about putting it as volunteering, then by all means do it.</p>
<p>My daughter also worked at a hospital and registered through the volunteer office. It was a lab at Hopkins and it was considered volunteer work.</p>
<p>@moonman676, hmm. In my case, the research was at a university, and I didn’t get the opportunity through a volunteer organization/office/etc. I entered the work in Siemens/STS/ISEF/etc. so I feel like that’s “payment” enough - would this type of scientific research still be considered volunteer work? For my situation, I’m just not sure if it’s still considered volunteering - because that implies that it’s free service, and technically, I did get a lot of experience/opportunities out of my work even though the time I dedicated to it was unpaid…</p>