520+ MCAT, 4.0 GPA, Telehealth as clinical experience?

[deleted1085995]

***

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Kmani6]

Definitely enough. Try to rack up as many hours as you can in those few months and you should be good! If you could get 200 hours of clinical volunteer paired with your care coordinator position, great stats, and longitudinal non-clinical, you will be in great shape. How is your research and what are your plans for your gap year?

 

[LindaAccepted]

Hi everyone! I'm currently a senior in college, planning on taking 1 gap year before medical school. I feel confident about my stats (520+ MCAT, 4.0 GPA) and have been volunteering consistently in a non-clinical setting since freshman year, but am worried that not having enough clinical experience is a major weakness in my application.
The only somewhat "clinical" experience that I have is being employed as a care coordinator (~500 hours) for a telehealth company during a year of the pandemic. My work involved dealing with patient issues that came in via text and phone calls (support calls, figuring out medication issues, etc.) Even though I was interacting directly with patients (and the work was meaningful to me), I'm unsure of whether telehealth would count as a meaningful clinical experience for adcoms.
If I supplement this experience with volunteering at a clinic in-person from Jan - May 2022, would this be sufficient to make up for the hole in my application?

In-person clinical experience will really complement your telehealth experience, and it's important for your application to also have worked in more traditional and typical clinical settings. How much is "enough"? That's probably somewhat in the eye of the beholder. but if you start in January and volunteer 10 hours per week from January -May, you'll have over 200 hours. And then keep up that volunteering so that you'll be able to write about it in secondaries and discuss as an ongoing activity in interviews. Obviously if 10 hours is too much, do what you can do, but don't think of stopping in May unless you're going to start something else even more substantial.

 

[deleted1085995]

Definitely enough. Try to rack up as many hours as you can in those few months and you should be good! If you could get 200 hours of clinical volunteer paired with your care coordinator position, great stats, and longitudinal non-clinical, you will be in great shape. How is your research and what are your plans for your gap year?

This is so reassuring to hear, thank you! I don't have any publications or anything impressive, but have some research experience from freshman summer and am currently working on a research project for my senior thesis. I'll be working in healthcare consulting during my gap year to save up some money for med school, and planning on continuing clinical volunteering.

 

[deleted1085995]

In-person clinical experience will really complement your telehealth experience, and it's important for your application to also have worked in more traditional and typical clinical settings. How much is "enough"? That's probably somewhat in the eye of the beholder. but if you start in January and volunteer 10 hours per week from January -May, you'll have over 200 hours. And then keep up that volunteering so that you'll be able to write about it in secondaries and discuss as an ongoing activity in interviews. Obviously if 10 hours is too much, do what you can do, but don't think of stopping in May unless you're going to start something else even more substantial.

Thank you so much for your insight! I'll definitely look into clinical volunteering opportunities that I can begin in January and continue past May.

 

[Kmani6]

This is so reassuring to hear, thank you! I don't have any publications or anything impressive, but have some research experience from freshman summer and am currently working on a research project for my senior thesis. I'll be working in healthcare consulting during my gap year to save up some money for med school, and planning on continuing clinical volunteering.

Great. I would recommend you stick with whatever position you pick up through your gap year, and then project clinical hours as well.

Also, healthcare consulting will definitely be a unique activity to have, so that’s a solid plan. With quality writing you should have a good shot at T20 schools.

 

[LindaAccepted]

Thank you so much for your insight! I'll definitely look into clinical volunteering opportunities that I can begin in January and continue past May.

You're most welcome. Good luck!