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Summer
I am a pre-med freshman. I know it is suggested that we do
medically-related summer programs, but is it absolutely
necessary the summer after freshman year? I love kids, and
would love to work at a camp this summer, especially since it
will probably be the last summer that I would be able to do
this. Would this be discouraged? Should I try to volunteer at
a hospital or something like that at the same time?
Answer: Go ahead and work at the summer camp. It’s nice to
love kids! Medical schools think so, too. Maybe you could hang
out with the camp nurse a bit? Some people do their
medically-related activity during the academic year instead of
the summers. Do what works best for you.
Physicians in the Alumni Career Network, I
This summer I have secured a summer job through Princeton
Project 55 in which I will work for a non-profit organization
in
Chicago. I have a few weeks after my employment finishes when
I will still be living in Chicago. I was wondering if you knew
of any job shadowing or clinical opportunities in the area
(Northwestern, University of Chicago, etc.) or how I might be
able to secure a short term (1-3 weeks) job shadow position.
Answer: We strongly recommend that you use Career Services
(their web site is off ours, among other places) and go
through their Alumni Career Network. You should be able to
find a
Princeton
alumni physician in that area who has volunteered to
host/mentor/talk to Princeton students. You could get together
with that person for those few weeks. This avenue has worked
for many other Princeton students. Good luck!
Physicians in the Alumni Career Network, II
This summer I have a job through Project 55 in which I'll
be working for a nonprofit organization in
San
Francisco. I have a few weeks after my employment finishes
when I will still be living in San Francisco. I was wondering
if you knew of any job shadowing or clinical opportunities in
the area or how I might be able to secure a short-term (1-3
weeks) shadowing position. This and any other advice you can
give would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: We strongly recommend that you use Career Services
- their website is linked to ours, among other places. Go
through their Alumni Career Network, found on the "Alumni"
page. You should be able to find a
Princeton
alumnus/a who is a physician in the Bay Area, who has
volunteered to host/mentor/talk to Princeton students about
medicine. You could get together with that person for that
short 1-3 week period. This method has worked for many
Princeton pre-meds in the past.
Volunteering
How important is volunteering for pre-med students? Is a
student who works at a hospital or lab and shows interest in
medicine less competitive than one who also volunteers? If
volunteering is crucial, how much of it should be done?
Answer: This is a very difficult question to answer--an
all-too-common question, but a hard one. No one should make
you volunteer. If you're not sincerely interested in serving
your community in some way then you should not do it. However,
many pre-meds cite a desire to help others as one of their
main reasons for pursuing medicine. If you are asked at a
medical school interview some day why you want to become a
doctor (and someone is sure to ask you that question) and you
tell them that you take satisfaction in helping others, you
have very little credibility if you've never volunteered your
time in service to other people less fortunate than yourself,
or if your most recent volunteer work was in high school. Why
would anyone believe you if they don't see evidence of
volunteering during your college years? Generally, your
clinical experiences in college should include some
volunteering, but we cannot quantify the amount - how much of
your health-related experience is for pay, or through an
internship, or shadowing, or true volunteer work is all up to
the individual. In addition to clinical experience,
volunteering in other relevant ways - tutoring, coaching kids,
helping the elderly - all "count," so don't turn down those
opportunities just because you don't think med schools will be
interested in them. Hopefully you chose
Princeton
with full knowledge and appreciation of its motto re: being
"in the nation's service"....right?
Contact Names for Your Activities
Hi! I've been doing some volunteer work with the Student Volunteer Council as well as the recent Down Syndrome Conference. Will I need (for medical school applications) signed or written recognition of this service or is keeping record of it sufficient? As a freshman, I'd like to get started on this as soon as possible so I don't end up panicking my junior year when I realize I have no verifiable service.
Answer: Glad you're planning ahead. When you complete your AMCAS application some day--this is the generic, online application for medical school--you'll need to list a contact name for every activity you list. It is wise to keep track of who's in charge of these experiences as they happen. Ideally the contact person would be a University staff member of faculty member if it's a University-related activity, or if the experience happened away from Princeton the person would generally be a supervisor. In some isolated cases, the person who led your activity might even be an upperclassman, although try avoid listing a fellow student if at all possible. Even if that person is long gone by the time you apply to medical school, you will be asked to supply their name. That is the only 'recognition' you'll need. Don't worry, medical schools do not typically contact these people (or even attempt to), the only exception being cases where something else (perhaps comments in the personal essay, in the letters of evaluation, or the interview) raise suspicions as to the veracity of what you listed as an activity.
Question of the Week: A “Year Off” Between College and Medical School
I’m a senior and starting to think about what to do during my year off before medical school. I’d like to travel but does that look bad to med schools, just to spend some time in Europe? What else should I be doing?
Answer: Let’s start by rethinking the term “year off.” We like to think of a year (or two) between Princeton and medical school as time to do something you’ve always wanted to do, which will continue your growth, intellectually as well as socially and culturally, even if you’re not in a classroom. Hardly a “year off,” when you think about it . . . Now, probably the three most common reasons why people elect to take some time before medical school are, 1) They’re feeling burnt out academically, 2) There is something else they’d like to do—a program, an adventure, a job—before starting their medical education, or 3) They need time to become a stronger applicant. If you’re in one of these first two groups, you have the freedom to choose how to spend your time, and Princeton offers an abundance of opportunities for positions, fellowships, etc for your life following graduation. If you’re in that third group, you usually fall into one of two additional subgroups: you need to take more courses to improve your academic credentials (usually science courses) or you need to find some health-related “clinical” work since this area is absent from your background. Some traveling doesn’t “look bad,” especially if you view it as a way toward personal growth. However, if your entire year includes no health-related activity, helps no one other than yourself, and involves just a lot of sightseeing, you may indeed appear a little too “leisurely” to medical schools. Every year we have recent alumni doing Princeton Project 55 and Princeton-In-X fellowships, working for Teach For America and the Peace Corps, teaching on their own (outside of a program), doing bench research or clinical research, working in doctors’ offices or hospitals, working at pharm companies . . . and countless other things. To sum up: our general advice would be to decide what you dream of doing, decide where to do it, and keep an eye on your overall credentials for medicine (academic and non-academic).
What to do during your year 'off’
I'm just curious, what are some of things that people do with their year between college and med school? I'm thinking about applying after senior year but I'm wondering what my options are with the year off. Thanks.
Answer: As we've said before, the most common two reasons people elect to take a "glide" year are: 1) They're tired of being a student and there's something else they'd like to do before beginning their medical education, or, 2) They need the time to become a stronger applicant. If you're in the first group, you have more freedom in choosing how to spend your time. If you're in the second group, you need to be realistic, and work toward filling in gaps--for instance, taking extra coursework in the sciences if your science grades are not competitive, or volunteering at a hospital or clinic of you have done very little of such an activity since high school. We thought it might be interesting to list the things that recent alumni are doing with their year. This should give you a sense of the broad range of things you might consider:
- Doing clinical research in endocrinology at Mass General
- Earning a masters of public health at Columbia
- Working for Africare, setting up HIV/AIDS youth centers in Zambia
- Developing the curriculum for a charter school in Brooklyn
- Assisting with research in pathology/immunology at WashU in St. Louis
- Researching in "parasitology" at the Univ of Colorado while volunteering in the ER
- Studying in the special masters post-bac program at Georgetown
- Working at an AIDS hospice in Houston
- Volunteering at a health clinic in Spain
- Coordinating a literacy program in low-income areas of New York City
- Performing clinical research on breast cancer at UCSF
- Teaching biology and coaching a sport at a New England prep school, and more!
Making the Most of Volunteering
I've been volunteering at PMC and to be honest I don't find
it very interesting. I'm wondering if you could help me. Why
do med schools insist that we volunteer in a hospital? Can I
do something different? It's pretty frustrating.
Answer: Frustrations abound when it comes to pre-med
volunteering at a hospital. There are four important things to
remember:
1) If you're not finding it "interesting" because you don't
have the opportunity to meet many physicians, and the patients
you see are asleep, then you're volunteering at the wrong time
of day. When scheduling your volunteer work, think beyond
what is best for your schedule. Volunteer in the mornings or
afternoons, possibly on weekends if you have to,
not late in the evening when the docs have gone home
and the patients are sleeping.
2) Remember, with a little
initiative you can switch to a different unit of the hospital,
particularly if you've stayed with your original assignment
for at least a semester and therefore gained some seniority.
Make an effort to get to know physicians, nurses, and
administrators; and speak up
if you'd like more responsibility
(politely, of course).
3) Students often experience more than they realize when
serving as a volunteer. Write down your experiences. Spend a
little time recording conversations you've had with patients
or conversations you've overheard between doctors and staff.
The more detailed you are with your note-taking, the better
equipped/informed you'll be when asked to discuss your
volunteer work. (It may even help you better understand why
you're volunteering in the first place.)
4) Lastly, remember this isn't
about your
doing something you find "interesting" as much as it is
about backing up your desire to work
in medicine; i.e.: serving others.
To be blunt, it's not about you, it's about helping
others.
Tasks like comforting patients, talking
with
them, transporting them, bathing them, etc. are
essential
experiences
in your development as
a caregiver. |
Internships/Volunteer
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