hours !?

[kgamon8]

I saw a post that said if an admissions person saw a lot of research hours in comparison to volunteering that would be frowned upon, and I spent two school years and two summers doing research. My volunteer hours pale in comparison. I volunteered every summer since college started and during my sophomore and junior years, but it doesn't add up to working full time in the lab. And I feel like research heavy schools also want high academic stats?

And I was wondering if it was okay if half my non clinical hours were in the animal shelter? They always need help and have flexible hours.

Also can alternative service breaks count for volunteering or just an activity? I'm part of center that helps organize them and research supplies/service/places to stay, so I end up going on quite a few.

Lastly, I was concerned about most of my other non clinical volunteering lasting only a few months due to it occurring in my hometown. Probably my most rewarding volunteering was done this summer at a free technology center running coding camps for kids and tech help for seniors

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[Catalystik]

I saw a post that said if an admissions person saw a lot of research hours in comparison to volunteering that would be frowned upon, and I spent two school years and two summers doing research. My volunteer hours pale in comparison. I volunteered every summer since college started and during my sophomore and junior years, but it doesn't add up to working full time in the lab.
1) And I feel like research heavy schools also want high academic stats?

2) And I was wondering if it was okay if half my non clinical hours were in the animal shelter? They always need help and have flexible hours.

3) Also can alternative service breaks count for volunteering or just an activity? I'm part of center that helps organize them and research supplies/service/places to stay, so I end up going on quite a few.

4) Lastly, I was concerned about most of my other non clinical volunteering lasting only a few months due to it occurring in my hometown. Probably my most rewarding volunteering was done this summer at a free technology center running coding camps for kids and tech help for seniors

To answer the questions you posed:
1) It seems that way.

2) Yes.

3) It depends on your role. For the service, count it as volunteering. For the organizing components, you might list them under Leadership, if you had enough hours for it to stand in it's own space.

4) Consider grouping short-term volunteering into one space so the hours have more impact.

 

[kgamon8]

To answer the questions you posed:
1) It seems that way.

2) Yes.

3) It depends on your role. For the service, count it as volunteering. For the organizing components, you might list them under Leadership, if you had enough hours for it to stand in it's own space.

4) Consider grouping short-term volunteering into one space so the hours have more impact.

Thank you so much!
For question 3: are you saying its a bad idea for it to be its own activity? Because it's both leadership and volunteering?

Question 4: how would you label short term volunteering?

Another question, I really don't know how to frame the difference in hours (1000 plus for research, hopefully 300 for volunteering)

 

[Catalystik]

1) For question 3: are you saying its a bad idea for it to be its own activity? Because it's both leadership and volunteering?

2) Question 4: how would you label short term volunteering?

3) Another question, I really don't know how to frame the difference in hours (1000 plus for research, hopefully 300 for volunteering)

1) I was not suggesting it was a bad idea. I was suggesting you have more than one option for presenting your involvement.

2) Short-Term or Seasonal Volunteering, or if they all have another common feature, that could be inserted, too, like Tech Support, or Community Center, or Home Town, for example.

3) Do you feel you need to? Are you a candidate for highly-selective, research-oriented schools? Did you need a job to stay in school? Are you assuming all adcomms think similarly and will discriminate against you?

 

[kgamon8]

1) I was not suggesting it was a bad idea. I was suggesting you have more than one option for presenting your involvement.

2) Short-Term or Seasonal Volunteering, or if they all have another common feature, that could be inserted, too, like Tech Support, or Community Center, or Home Town, for example.

3) Do you feel you need to? Are you a candidate for highly-selective, research-oriented schools? Did you need a job to stay in school? Are you assuming all adcomms think similarly and will discriminate against you?

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
I have a scholarship for school and my parents helped a little with housing but I needed to be a bit more financially stable so working full time over the summer really helped. And since I only have one publication, just an abstract, and three posters, I don't know where I would stand

 

[masnerj]

To answer the questions you posed:
1) It seems that way.

2) Yes.

3) It depends on your role. For the service, count it as volunteering. For the organizing components, you might list them under Leadership, if you had enough hours for it to stand in it's own space.

4) Consider grouping short-term volunteering into one space so the hours have more impact.

Just wanted ask a similar question regarding your last point (sorry to hijack the thread):

I go to school pretty far from my hometown so I only come back during certain periods of the year (winter break, summer break/parts of summer, essentially just breaks). Since high school I have been involved with my local religious center (did a lot of volunteering in high school with planning events, setting them up, providing help like serving food, manual tasks, cleaning up, etc) and obviously now that I live pretty far away its not as common or regular but over the past few years I have still been volunteering somewhat frequently whenever I am at home from school with some of the manual help (food, cleaning, being a helping hand).

Whats the best way to "show" these hours (if I even can)? Its not an official role where I go like X times a week for X number of hours over X period of time as its pretty flexible but I have an estimate of how many hours I have helped out over my college career (based on a certain number of events that I can remember). Do I just add everything up under one activity with a general title and then just explain that out further or is that not OK? I just worry that because its kind of random during school breaks, that it will seem weird or abnormal.

 

[Catalystik]

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
I have a scholarship for school and my parents helped a little with housing but I needed to be a bit more financially stable so working full time over the summer really helped. And since I only have one publication, just an abstract, and three posters, I don't know where I would stand

Seems to me you have above average research productivity and some leadership (as mentioned above), so your application options remain open pending your stats.

 

[kgamon8]

Just wanted ask a similar question regarding your last point (sorry to hijack the thread):

I go to school pretty far from my hometown so I only come back during certain periods of the year (winter break, summer break/parts of summer, essentially just breaks). Since high school I have been involved with my local religious center (did a lot of volunteering in high school with planning events, setting them up, providing help like serving food, manual tasks, cleaning up, etc) and obviously now that I live pretty far away its not as common or regular but over the past few years I have still been volunteering somewhat frequently whenever I am at home from school with some of the manual help (food, cleaning, being a helping hand).

Whats the best way to "show" these hours (if I even can)? Its not an official role where I go like X times a week for X number of hours over X period of time as its pretty flexible but I have an estimate of how many hours I have helped out over my college career (based on a certain number of events that I can remember). Do I just add everything up under one activity with a general title and then just explain that out further or is that not OK? I just worry that because its kind of random during school breaks, that it will seem weird or abnormal.

Yes I think you can put one title and use the space to explain. You're fine, I realize that adcoms will likely understand all the breaks and such due to college

 

[Catalystik]

Just wanted ask a similar question regarding your last point (sorry to hijack the thread):

I go to school pretty far from my hometown so I only come back during certain periods of the year (winter break, summer break/parts of summer, essentially just breaks). Since high school I have been involved with my local religious center (did a lot of volunteering in high school with planning events, setting them up, providing help like serving food, manual tasks, cleaning up, etc) and obviously now that I live pretty far away its not as common or regular but over the past few years I have still been volunteering somewhat frequently whenever I am at home from school with some of the manual help (food, cleaning, being a helping hand).

Whats the best way to "show" these hours (if I even can)? Its not an official role where I go like X times a week for X number of hours over X period of time as its pretty flexible but I have an estimate of how many hours I have helped out over my college career (based on a certain number of events that I can remember). Do I just add everything up under one activity with a general title and then just explain that out further or is that not OK? I just worry that because its kind of random during school breaks, that it will seem weird or abnormal.

It will be fine to include as one activity, with a title that covers everything in the space. You are allowed to subdivide the timespan into 1-4 periods, each with it's own hours. You might elect to subdivide into the HS years and the college years. You can explain in the description that your involvement decreased when you moved away for college, except for vacation breaks, so the lower total hours is understood.