Not enough volunteer hours? (Switched to pre-med)

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Biswas

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Hey, so this is something I've been thinking about for a little over a semester now and I've finally decided to ask on here. I've asked a few friends of mine who are currently in medical school and they think I'll be fine, but those students took gap years -I do not intend to do that (hopefully).

I am a junior (entering 6th semester) student of chemical engineering with a cGPA 3.83, sGPA 3.93, MCAT 514 (91st percentile - 129/127/130/128). I believe I have participated in a good number of extracurricular activities as I have played intramural sports every semester, have an officer position in American Chemical Society, and am in various honors organizations. Additionally, I have done research work in a laboratory for 2 summers and 1 semester. My letters of recommendation are from great full-professors and a medical committee from my college. Now for the fun part -I've got only about 20ish hours of clinical experience in shadowing various physicians; this is what I have been working on during the winter break. I have no volunteer hours in medicine yet. I actually just got offered a volunteer position for the spring semester in which I will be working 3 hours every week for roughly 40ish hours by the semester's end -when I start applying for medical school.

Reason for lack of volunteering: I was pretty set on going into chemical engineering and only after taking the MCAT (Fall 2015) did I switch to the pre med track 100%. I will graduate on time as I have made sure to take the proper science classes each semester.

My concern: is this enough volunteering and shadowing?

What I would like to say regarding shadowing is the following; many applicants I talk to say they have completed 50+,100+ hours of shadowing and to me it doesn't make sense why one would need to shadow for so long. One is only observing what the physician does when they shadow and observation is not a true experience that can help someone learn significantly. Without actually practicing you cannot learn -more than a certain amount- about how to do something, no matter how much observation takes place. From my 20ish hours of shadowing, I believe I have learned all I can learn from the respective physicians. Maybe I can shadow a few more different types of doctors, but I am not sure how beneficial this will be.

Bringing me to my main concern, will 40ish hours of hospital volunteering be respectable enough given my other stats and circumstances to get me interviews? I will most definitely continue volunteering through the summer and my final two semesters, bringing my hours up above 100, but the admissions committees will not be able to see my hours passed this spring semester.

Am I in trouble? Any suggestions about what I can do to further improve my application? Please help! :/

Edit: Forgot to mention, I have been a paid on-campus grader for 3 semesters now and have tutored students in several subjects.

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No to both. Successful applicants have > 50 hrs shadowing and > 100 hrs clinical and non-clinical volunteering each. If need be, do a gap year.

Thanks! hmm but not all applicants who've met that criteria are accepted. Maybe due to other factors on their application.
 
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Shadowing is a tad bit low, but I would say if you can write eloquently enough about it and talk about what you've observed and reflected upon, you should be okay. If you want to be safe, 10-20 more hours is a good number to aim for.

40 hours of clinical experience is not enough. I would say 100 is the "number" to hit (though I really hate trying to standardize the number of hours as not all hours are equal), but 40 is quite low. How are you going to convince adcoms you want to work with sick people for the rest of your professional career if the number of hours you've spent volunteering is half what a resident works in a single week?

Also, @Goro, I (and others I know) had far fewer than 100 hours of non-clinical volunteering, just FYI. Again, I personally don't like putting hard numbers on these things, but I wouldn't say 100 non-clinical volunteering hours is the "number to hit"
 
Wedge, you know you were outstanding your own right!

Shadowing is a tad bit low, but I would say if you can write eloquently enough about it and talk about what you've observed and reflected upon, you should be okay. If you want to be safe, 10-20 more hours is a good number to aim for.

40 hours of clinical experience is not enough. I would say 100 is the "number" to hit (though I really hate trying to standardize the number of hours as not all hours are equal), but 40 is quite low. How are you going to convince adcoms you want to work with sick people for the rest of your professional career if the number of hours you've spent volunteering is half what a resident works in a single week?

Also, @Goro, I (and others I know) had far fewer than 100 hours of non-clinical volunteering, just FYI. Again, I personally don't like putting hard numbers on these things, but I wouldn't say 100 non-clinical volunteering hours is the "number to hit"
 
Wedge, you know you were outstanding your own right!

Perhaps, but I don't think that most successful applicants have >100 hours of non-clinical service. Maybe 50 (which I still didn't even have...), but again, I think that not all hours are equal. I know that my relatively few hours were valuable hours, whereas in a different position, I could have volunteered for, say, 200 hours, and gotten far less accomplished.
 
An admissions officer mentioned to me that while clinical/non-clinical hours are *always* important, the mission of the school that evaluates you may have an impact on whether you would receive an II in your specific situation. For example, if a school places an emphasis on training physicians who wish to treat the underserved, they may rank clinical volunteering higher on a hypothetical preference list relative to research. The opposite may be true for a research-focused medical school whose physicians are often involved in academic medicine.
 
An admissions officer mentioned to me that while clinical/non-clinical hours are *always* important, the mission of the school that evaluates you may have an impact on whether you would receive an II in your specific situation. For example, if a school places an emphasis on training physicians who wish to treat the underserved, they may rank clinical volunteering higher on a hypothetical preference list relative to research. The opposite may be true for a research-focused medical school whose physicians are often involved in academic medicine.

Yes, this is true, but less important doesn't mean not important.
 
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So you spent an entire semester thinking about clinical experience but not doing it? What a waste. I mean I can tell you enjoy science but I can't really justify anything on your app that says you love medicine. Or really know what medicine is. It's a service industry where you work with people and communities using science to serve humanitarian goals. Where's your service? Where's your clinical exposure? Where's your work helping people who are sick? You sound perfect for research. Now go show how involved you want to be in medicine.
 
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So you spent an entire semester thinking about clinical experience but not doing it? What a waste. I mean I can tell you enjoy science but I can't really justify anything on your app that says you love medicine. Or really know what medicine is. It's a service industry where you work with people and communities using science to serve humanitarian goals. Where's your service? Where's your clinical exposure? Where's your work helping people who are sick? You sound perfect for research. Now go show how involved you want to be in medicine.

I understand what you are saying but disagree with your implication that I purposely held off on getting clinical experience. I was never fully set on medicine until half-way through this past semester. Ever since then, I have been trying all I can to show my love for medicine -I haven't had enough time. Do you think if I can get considerable work done this spring, I'll be in a better spot for apps? I know I'll still be lacking in clinical exposure relative to the average applicant, but I am hoping my above-average academic results (especially for an engineering major) can get me into interviews. From what I've heard, GPA/MCAT is still weighed the most when considering applicants -I just need a chance to explain myself during interviews and believe that is where I can show my passion for medicine.
 
I understand what you are saying but disagree with your implication that I purposely held off on getting clinical experience. I was never fully set on medicine until half-way through this past semester. Ever since then, I have been trying all I can to show my love for medicine -I haven't had enough time. Do you think if I can get considerable work done this spring, I'll be in a better spot for apps? I know I'll still be lacking in clinical exposure relative to the average applicant, but I am hoping my above-average academic results (especially for an engineering major) can get me into interviews. From what I've heard, GPA/MCAT is still weighed the most when considering applicants -I just need a chance to explain myself during interviews and believe that is where I can show my passion for medicine.
I suggest you jump headfirst into clinical exposure. Get close to one hundred hours and continue it after you've sent in your primary. A few shifts a week and maybe some service. You can try to work in an ER or hospice or free clinic, etc. Your academics are pretty good. Great GPA, solid MCAT. But there are plenty of applicants each year that don't get in because of clinical exposure and experience. If you make it your priority right now, you may be in good position. If you wait a year and craft your profile, you'll be in a far better position. Just remember that there are going to be close 10,000 applicants with same or better stats than you but with better clinical exposure and ECs. Solid engineering GPA too, but schools don't really care about major. They'll probably weigh the psychology major with a 3.9 pretty close to yours.
 
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