Summer Between Senior Year of HS and Freshman Year of College?

[oelizas]

Hi everyone,
I'm currently a senior in high school, and I was wondering whether or not medical schools considered ECs done during the summer that directly precedes freshman year of undergrad. For example, will the clinical volunteer hours I gain this upcoming summer contribute to the total that I will put on my med school application?

Additionally, the father of a friend of mine is a surgeon, and he goes on mission trips to Haiti every few months. I have the opportunity to join and shadow him on these trips. I would really love to go as soon as possible, so I was wondering if I could put this on my applications if I go next summer, before I am technically a college student. I know that I will be able to go again once I am actually in college, so this is not a major concern, I was more so just curious to learn when exactly med schools start considering these types of ECs.

Thanks so much to anyone who can help!

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[oelizas]

1) I'm not on an adcom, but I would personally say yes. If you're uncertain you could always try to continue those ECs at least periodically during the school year/subsequent summers.

2) Be VERY careful about international medical missions. (Buckle up, this will be a long one). There is a right way and a wrong way to do missions and it's very easy to do them the wrong way even with the best of intentions. Which of course would look bad on your application. What will you be contributing to the trip? If it's medical, is it something you'd be allowed to do at an American hospital, or would you be doing things outside of your scope/skill level that may harm patients? Could your role be filled by a local employee, and are you displacing an economic opportunity for the people you're trying to help? Does the organization you go with have partnerships with locally-run organizations and local healthcare providers? Are you going to have an opportunity to learn about the language, culture, and economic/political situation before you go? Is the group's mission and values statement indicative of a desire to give opportunities to wealthy first world college students or to serve the population in the low-income country? Is the group doing outcomes research, sharing data with local organizations, involving local workers, and creating sustainable change or just showing up for a week and putting a bandaid on a bullet hole, or even doing more harm than good?

Of course, you can always go and then just not put it on your application (though I'd certainly still encourage you making sure you're being ethical). I'd suggest doing some reading up on voluntourism and the specific trip you'd be going on, then make a decision.

Hi! Thank you for your response, I've considered some of these things before, but I'm really glad that you've clarified exactly what "right" and "wrong" is. I've looked into many different trips before, but sometimes its not fully clear what the limitations based on education and experience are, especially in countries that don't have an equivalent to HIPAA. My friend has been on this specific trip before, and she's mentioned that she was able to care for patients (much like a hospital volunteer) and observe surgeries, but practicing medicine was left up to physicians and PAs. To my knowledge, they work within a hospital, and their purpose is to share new medical knowledge with underdeveloped communities while healing patients that come into the hospital for surgeries. You make a very good point about the risk of taking jobs away from local workers, I will definitely look further into this. I do not believe that they simply mean to give college students something to put on their application, but this is certainly something I do not want to risk, so I will look deeper into what you have mentioned. Again, I really appreciate your insight into what to look out for. Thanks so much for your help!