Do hospital high school volunteer hours carry over in college?

[glass_of_nostalgia_]

Hi everyone!

I know there have been several threads started on this topic, but I wanted to know the answer for my specific case. I was wondering whether my volunteering hours from high school would count towards the total number of hours in the AMCAS application - the experience section? I am a rising junior and have volunteered at the same hospital since 2013, except not every summer consistently. I was a hs volunteer from June-August 2013-2014, and am now volunteering in geriatrics since June 2017. I am concerned that I will not have enough volunteering hours when I apply to med school since I did not volunteer last summer and am also working full time in a lab so unfortunately I am only able to do about 3 hours per week. I am expecting to apply MD-PhD in two years, so I have far more research hours so far than volunteering experience. I just wanted to get some guidance on this matter.

Thank you so much!

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[CyrilFiggis]

If it's the same institution you should have a problem. Some secondaries do as for a list of your ECs and won't let you go back more than 5 years. But those are the exception to the rule.

As for hours, you aren't applying for 2 more years. 3 hours/week x 50 weeks x 2 years = 300 hours. That's completely reasonable and acceptable for most programs.

 

[21Rush12]

I was in a situation like this with volunteer work as well, it made no sense to just arbitrarily choose a start date since I was an active volunteer firefighter/EMT starting as a high school sophomore. N=1, but when I contacted two schools to ask about how to report this without misrepresenting reality, they said that the overall amount of hours was enough either way. It was a most meaningful experience, so I explained a bit of it as part of my path to medicine and it was completely fine. The important part was that I had done it well after high school as well as one contiguous experience. If it started and stopped, I would say list the start date after HS and hours accrued after.


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[piii]

You are overestimating how important hospital volunteer hours are. The volunteering you did in high school will not matter.

 

[bears1992]

Hi everyone!

I know there have been several threads started on this topic, but I wanted to know the answer for my specific case. I was wondering whether my volunteering hours from high school would count towards the total number of hours in the AMCAS application - the experience section? I am a rising junior and have volunteered at the same hospital since 2013, except not every summer consistently. I was a hs volunteer from June-August 2013-2014, and am now volunteering in geriatrics since June 2017. I am concerned that I will not have enough volunteering hours when I apply to med school since I did not volunteer last summer and am also working full time in a lab so unfortunately I am only able to do about 3 hours per week. I am expecting to apply MD-PhD in two years, so I have far more research hours so far than volunteering experience. I just wanted to get some guidance on this matter.

Thank you so much!

LizzyM has stated before that you should only include high school activities if they extended into your time as a college student.

 

[Catalystik]

I was wondering whether my volunteering hours from high school would count towards the total number of hours in the AMCAS application - the experience section? I am a rising junior and have volunteered at the same hospital since 2013, except not every summer consistently. I was a hs volunteer from June-August 2013-2014, and am now volunteering in geriatrics since June 2017. I am concerned that I will not have enough volunteering hours when I apply to med school

Yes, for AMCAS you can include these HS hours on your application since they took place at the same institution where you volunteer now, but since there was a nearly-three-year gap, you would use the relatively-new "Repeated" feature and enter the two separate date spans. Both will appear in the header of the activity, each with their subtotaled hours. You might check with the volunteer office and be sure they will retain the record of your earlier volunteer hours, since you'd ideally be using them as the required Contact to confirm your dates and hours of involvement.

 

[glass_of_nostalgia_]

If it's the same institution you should have a problem. Some secondaries do as for a list of your ECs and won't let you go back more than 5 years. But those are the exception to the rule.

As for hours, you aren't applying for 2 more years. 3 hours/week x 50 weeks x 2 years = 300 hours. That's completely reasonable and acceptable for most programs.

Thank you! I wish it was 300 hours, but it wouldn't be 50 weeks more like 20ish, since its only in the summer time

 

[glass_of_nostalgia_]

Yes, for AMCAS you can include these HS hours on your application since they took place at the same institution where you volunteer now, but since there was a nearly-three-year gap, you would use the relatively-new "Repeated" feature and enter the two separate date spans. Both will appear in the header of the activity, each with their subtotaled hours. You might check with the volunteer office and be sure they will retain the record of your earlier volunteer hours, since you'd ideally be using them as the required Contact to confirm your dates and hours of involvement.

Thank you, I had no idea about this new repeated feature.

 

[glass_of_nostalgia_]

I was in a situation like this with volunteer work as well, it made no sense to just arbitrarily choose a start date since I was an active volunteer firefighter/EMT starting as a high school sophomore. N=1, but when I contacted two schools to ask about how to report this without misrepresenting reality, they said that the overall amount of hours was enough either way. It was a most meaningful experience, so I explained a bit of it as part of my path to medicine and it was completely fine. The important part was that I had done it well after high school as well as one contiguous experience. If it started and stopped, I would say list the start date after HS and hours accrued after.


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Thank you, sounds like you had an amazing experience

 

[glass_of_nostalgia_]

Thank you everyone for your quick replies. When I submit my AMCAS application, I think I will just go ahead and write down my hs experience in addition to my college hours, since it's one hospital. I think it will show dedication and consistency. Hopefully there will be a way to break up the hours in college and hours in high school to be more representative. If not, I will go ahead and contact some of the schools I apply to ask for more info.