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Yes you should move to part-time in order to spend more time on non-clinical volunteering. Goal is to apply one time with the best possible application. You have ~4 months to support your community. Look for part-time Americorps volunteer positions.
 
I’m not qualified to give you advice, but if you are having trouble finding a consistent non-clinical volunteer opportunity, you should try to hit up nearby homeless shelters. They may host a lot of niche programs that fit what you’re looking for (you may need to volunteer at the shelter first though). For me, my homeless shelter reached out to me about a “volunteer leader” position where I can volunteer minimum 4 hrs/week.
 
Hi again!

First, if you need to work to support yourself, it won't help you if you cut that lifeline. If you can cut those hours anymore go part-time, then we can see.

Yes, it might raise some concerns if you cram some volunteering in, but your need to work for financial support, you can have a reason. It may not supersede the volunteering expectations, however. In short, you know you are short... at least work on it and learn from it.

Despite what many stats-motivated applicants may think, you don't need 1000 hours in each work/activities bucket for a strong medical school application, depending on your school list. Quality is important too.
 
Mr.Smile12 said:
Hi again!

First, if you need to work to support yourself, it won't help you if you cut that lifeline. If you can cut those hours anymore go part-time, then we can see.

Yes, it might raise some concerns if you cram some volunteering in, but your need to work for financial support, you can have a reason. It may not supersede the volunteering expectations, however. In short, you know you are short... at least work on it and learn from it.

Despite what many stats-motivated applicants may think, you don't need 1000 hours in each work/activities bucket for a strong medical school application, depending on your school list. Quality is important too.
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Hi - thanks so much again for your response! Honestly it was your comment on my last post that was a wake-up call for me, which I really appreciate. Although I'm fortunate enough to have family support, I previously had little to no transportation outside of a few places, so I was working to buy a car for myself. The lack of transportation also really limited my ability to do much beyond my campus/work. Thankfully, I saved up enough just recently and now have more freedom to go elsewhere.

Long story short, though I'd prefer not to drop to part-time, I think that is what I'll have to end up doing as it would be much more expensive to have to re-apply. I just want to make sure that it would be worth it to drop my hours, so I really appreciate the feedback.
 
confusedcurls said:
I made a post a month or two ago about my stats and my main issue is that my non-clinical volunteering hours are very low. For reference, I have >1000 paid clinical hours, 50 clinical volunteering, and >1000 research; probably will have hundreds more in both clinical & research hours by May. However, I only have a meager amount of non-clinical volunteering scattered across different activities. It's to the point where I might have a total of 100 hours in everything but none of them are consistent activities done at a single place. (I know, this is really bad. That's why I'm trying to fix it).

I'm kind of scrambling to make sure I get enough meaningful volunteering hours on time. Even getting 150 by May in one activity is looking to be difficult due to my work schedule. I was wondering about a couple of things:
1. Is it going to look bad that the majority of my hours for non-clinical volunteering are from the 5 months before May?
2. Even if I get to 150-200 hours by May, my non-clinical volunteering is going to be significantly lower than my clinical and research hours. Is this a red flag?
3. Should I drop from full-time to part-time at my job as a medical assistant in order to attempt to volunteer more consistently? The issue is that even though my work schedule is flexible enough, I can't squeeze in more than a couple hours a week as it is right now. I also end up really exhausted and drained and have had no time for anything else because I'm constantly running around.

I also have no shadowing hours as of right now and somehow need to get in hours for that before May as well. I'd really appreciate any advice or suggestions. My plan is to continue volunteering at my local food bank and build up significant hours there.
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You might not be ready to apply. You have no shadowing hours and seemingly no plan to get them(you only need 50 including some with a primary care doc). Combine that with low nonclinical volunteering you might need to think about not applying this upcoming cycle. If you can’t squeeze 5 hours a week out of your schedule for service, you need to reevaluate your activities. What are you doing when you are “constantly running around” that only allows you to not “squeeze in more than a couple hours a week…”? Why are you so exhausted and drained? Maybe you need to see your doctor and see if there is something wrong causing this exhaustion. As @Goro always says “ med school is a furnace”. If you are struggling now you will be consumed in med school.
 
candbgirl said:
You might not be ready to apply. You have no shadowing hours and seemingly no plan to get them(you only need 50 including some with a primary care doc). Combine that with low nonclinical volunteering you might need to think about not applying this upcoming cycle. If you can’t squeeze 5 hours a week out of your schedule for service, you need to reevaluate your activities. What are you doing when you are “constantly running around” that only allows you to not “squeeze in more than a couple hours a week…”? Why are you so exhausted and drained? Maybe you need to see your doctor and see if there is something wrong causing this exhaustion. As @Goro always says “ med school is a furnace”. If you are struggling now you will be consumed in med school.
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Thanks for the response. I don't mean to sound rude or defensive, but you just made a bunch of assumptions about my schedule and my life that you (nor anyone else here) know enough about. I am already taking a gap year and am exhausted because I'm working full-time, combined with chronic health issues that I am already seeing a bunch of doctors for. That's why I'm considering dropping to part-time and the reason I posted here was for advice related to that; not to be told I can't make it through medical school if I'm struggling now. I'm obviously reconsidering my activities and schedule, hence this post.

My question is, do you think I would still not be ready to apply even if I completed ~150 hours volunteering (again, I have some activities from before, they're just on campus/mainly involve tutoring so I would like to branch out) and shadowing by May? I have been trying to shadow primary care doctors for months now. None of the clinics in my region allow it. Obviously, I'm going to keep trying. It has just been very difficult.
 
confusedcurls said:
Thanks for the response. I don't mean to sound rude or defensive, but you just made a bunch of assumptions about my schedule and my life that you (nor anyone else here) know enough about. I am already taking a gap year and am exhausted because I'm working full-time, combined with chronic health issues that I am already seeing a bunch of doctors for. That's why I'm considering dropping to part-time and the reason I posted here was for advice related to that; not to be told I can't make it through medical school if I'm struggling now. I'm obviously reconsidering my activities and schedule, hence this post.

My question is, do you think I would still not be ready to apply even if I completed ~150 hours volunteering (again, I have some activities from before, they're just on campus/mainly involve tutoring so I would like to branch out) and shadowing by May? I have been trying to shadow primary care doctors for months now. None of the clinics in my region allow it. Obviously, I'm going to keep trying. It has just been very difficult.
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Your easiest way to get shadowing hours would be to ask the doctor you work for, or one of their partners, to allow you to shadow them. Why would they say no?
If you were able to drop from a 5 day week to a 4 day week, even temporarily, you could get the 40-50 hours of shadowing done pretty quickly.
No matter how good your grades are, you will not be considered a complete applicant without some shadowing.
 
confusedcurls said:
Thanks for the response. I don't mean to sound rude or defensive, but you just made a bunch of assumptions about my schedule and my life that you (nor anyone else here) know enough about. I am already taking a gap year and am exhausted because I'm working full-time, combined with chronic health issues that I am already seeing a bunch of doctors for. That's why I'm considering dropping to part-time and the reason I posted here was for advice related to that; not to be told I can't make it through medical school if I'm struggling now. I'm obviously reconsidering my activities and schedule, hence this post.

My question is, do you think I would still not be ready to apply even if I completed ~150 hours volunteering (again, I have some activities from before, they're just on campus/mainly involve tutoring so I would like to branch out) and shadowing by May? I have been trying to shadow primary care doctors for months now. None of the clinics in my region allow it. Obviously, I'm going to keep trying. It has just been very difficult.
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Sorry you took offense. I have chronic health issues too and it’s something I have to deal,with every single day. It took me awhile to figure out but you really have to find out what works best for you. Only you know what you are physically and emotionally capable of on a day to day basis.

If you get the extra hours you probably will have enough nonclinical hours. But as @wysdoc suggested you will not be considered a complete applicant without shadowing.

Every cycle only around 40% of all applicants are accepted to medical school. Of this number, about half are accepted to one school. This means 60% of all applicants are rejected each cycle, including some with stellar applications. You only want to apply one time with the best possible application.

Good luck as you move forward but remember to take care of yourself first.
 
Hi — I haven't read this previous comment about the necessity of non-clinical volunteering. Why is it so necessary? I think I've heard that it proves that you expand your interaction beyond the medical field but that can't be all; is it really worth dropping paid-clinical hours for? I'm also in a similar boat (I haven't non-clinical volunteered since highschool). Should I drop some of my other activities for non-clinical volunteerting?
 
dr_dong said:
Hi — I haven't read this previous comment about the necessity of non-clinical volunteering. Why is it so necessary? I think I've heard that it proves that you expand your interaction beyond the medical field but that can't be all; is it really worth dropping paid-clinical hours for? I'm also in a similar boat (I haven't non-clinical volunteered since highschool). Should I drop some of my other activities for non-clinical volunteerting?
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Medicine is a service profession so you should be able to show your altruism through activities serving the unserved/underserved in your community. You need to step outside of your comfort zone, get off campus and learn to deal with people very unlike yourself. As a physician you will be dealing with people at their worst many with lots of social issues in addition to their health issues.
 
@Mr.Smile12 Hi again - I had a few questions regarding my non-clinical hours (again) and wanted to get your opinion since your advice regarding service hours was really helpful. First, I counted my hours in more detail (rather than just an estimate as last time), and I have ~100 hours of volunteering an assisted living center. Most of my hours come from spending time with a geriatric patient, though not administering anything medical. Around a third of these hours come from volunteering at the hospice office. I was wondering how I should list this activity...should I lump my hours together? Can I label it all as non-clinical, considering I'm low on my non-clinical hours in contrast to my 1k+ clinical hours?

I was also wondering how low is too low to include in the application. I have about 20 hours volunteering at a women's center's office. My hours are low because I fill in slots that were left empty in the schedule. I also have around ~50 hours each from different clubs on campus that I was involved with. The clubs are unrelated but since it's not a lot of hours per club, can I lump them together?

Lastly, is the soft requirement of 150 non-clinical service hours cumulative across all activities, or one? Since my post, I have accumulated 60 hours at a local food bank which I am hoping to increase to 100 by the end of May. Combined with my hospice hours, my hours will hopefully be >150. I'm aware the experiences matter more than the bare numbers, and I think I'll be able to write about them in a meaningful way. I'm just worried of being immediately screened out due to only the numbers.
 
confusedcurls said:
Lastly, is the soft requirement of 150 non-clinical service hours cumulative across all activities, or one?
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In my experience, it applies to the category. Ideally you need to have at least 150 hours to avoid elimination due to low hours. The more you have, the more you could mission match with service oriented schools. Note that the adcoms can assign categories at their discretion when screening your application.
 
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