Anyone with little clinical experience + acceptances?

[AlanAlanine]

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[MrAgreeable]

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I have 40 hours in an OR, and about 100 in office shadowing experiences and I have rejections coming out the *****. You probably need about 1,000 hours, no lie.

 

[JTubule1386]

Noooo... you do not need 1000 hours. I did some hours in same day surgery at one hospital. About the same amount of hours in an ER of another hospital and some hours in the histo lab at the hospital and it was no where near 200 hours. I already have two acceptances and I was offered four interviews so far (I only applied to 5 schools).I did have a lot of non-clincal ECs though, but if I added them up with my clincal hours it was still no where close to 1000 hours. I don't think they expect you to have that many hours for the simple facts that you are in school and hospitals are busy places. For instance when I volunteered in the lab I could not go in the mornings because that is their busy time. So matching up their schedule to mine doesn't make for a lot of quality time for the clincal ECs. I had this same worry. Just do a doable, sufficient amount of hours of meaningful activities (inside and outside of the hospital).

 

[CourageKid]

I've spent the last two summers working at a special needs summer camp where I took care of a lot of medically complex adults and children. I have never shadowed a doctor and the last time I volunteered in a hopsital was in high school and not even mentioned on my AMCAs.

This hasn't negatively affected my chances in the least bit. Really, I think that the bottom line is that you have to show a clear reasoning to why you want to go into medicine. This might involve shadowing or doing other activities in a hosptial. But it might not. What I think is important is to understand why you want to help people and what does "helping people" actually mean to you. What you do want to achieve by practicing medicine? Obviously, this answer is going to have to be supported by some sort of evidence (ie activity or life experience) but it by no means has to be some set number of hours in a hospital.

 

[chiz2kul]

Its funny cos on everyone's MDAPP's here on sdn, pple do like hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of hours in clinical stuff...good for them...but idk how they do it.
Me?
V. v. minimal stuff lol did some ER volunteering for a couple months, and like shadowed 2 doctors for a couple weeks each.
Thats in. And I got into a couple places..
yessssssssssssssssssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Its all about how you present yourself at your interview.

 

[Jonnymed]

Its funny cos on everyone's MDAPP's here on sdn, pple do like hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of hours in clinical stuff...good for them...but idk how they do it.

You sure showed us chiz2kul. Man do I feel like a sucker for being involved with patient care all those years. If only I would have scammed the system better. What was I thinking getting a better understanding of my future profession?

 

[foodfood]

1 month shadowing, 1 semester volunteering and i have an acceptance at case. then again, i think they are very research-oriented. i never did a lot of hospital volutneering/shadowing because it makes me feel useless and unproductive, but I do a lot of volunteer work with the community.

 

[TRN1983]

Honest Question: How many of you who did minimal EC/Volunteer work have really high MCAT scores?

I have "average" EC's, my PS was said to be compelling and clear, my LOR's are supposed to be exceptional (according to the writers), my GPA is ~3.75 and MCAT = 33. On top of it, I'm the only person in my family to attend college and all of that other boloney and I'm getting very little love from schools. From what I've seen, it seems to be relatively common for someone in my position to be where I'm at.

I do think that, at least for early consideration by schools, you need to have either super high numbers or incredible EC's.

JM.02

 

[chiz2kul]

You sure showed us chiz2kul. Man do I feel like a sucker for being involved with patient care all those years. If only I would have scammed the system better. What was I thinking getting a better understanding of my future profession?

lol you're funny man. I didnt scam the system; shadowing/clinical experience plays a part to 'better understanding of your future profession', but there is much more to it, and there's much more you can do. I'm pretty sure I didnt need to perform a gazillion hours of clinical stuff to get a 'better understanding of my future profession'.

 

[JTubule1386]

I don't have super high scores, your scores are higher than mine, not by much, but they are still higher. All together I would say that I have about a full semester of clinical experience. Apparently that is a "significant amount" according to one of my interviewers. I'm with the other person who said they don't like hospital volunteering. It does make you feel useless, especially if you're with an unfriendly staff. I really did like the histo lab volunteering though. I didn't feel useless and everyone was nice. They knew I wanted to go into medicine so they let me observe most of the time I was there. I got to see a lot of cool stuff and watch them cut up a lot of tissues. TRN1983, are you getting interviews and waitlisted or no interviews at all?

 

[sylvanthus]

lol you're funny man. I didnt scam the system; shadowing/clinical experience plays a part to 'better understanding of your future profession', but there is much more to it, and there's much more you can do. I'm pretty sure I didnt need to perform a gazillion hours of clinical stuff to get a 'better understanding of my future profession'.

I wouldn't worry about peoples' "extensive" clinical experience man. Generally, it tends to involve volunteering at an ER (folding towels, answering phones, filing, and occasionally transporting a patient back into a room). I think you can gain a pretty good understanding about your future profession without doing too much of that.

 

[MrAgreeable]

Noooo... you do not need 1000 hours. I did some hours in same day surgery at one hospital. About the same amount of hours in an ER of another hospital and some hours in the histo lab at the hospital and it was no where near 200 hours. I already have two acceptances and I was offered four interviews so far (I only applied to 5 schools).I did have a lot of non-clincal ECs though, but if I added them up with my clincal hours it was still no where close to 1000 hours. I don't think they expect you to have that many hours for the simple facts that you are in school and hospitals are busy places. For instance when I volunteered in the lab I could not go in the mornings because that is their busy time. So matching up their schedule to mine doesn't make for a lot of quality time for the clincal ECs. I had this same worry. Just do a doable, sufficient amount of hours of meaningful activities (inside and outside of the hospital).

Ya your right, thank you for correcting me. I was just a little down in the dumps b/c I have been hamered in several interviews (Drexel?) about lack of clinical experience. OP--> listen to this person he/she is getting you in the right direction.

 

[gridiron227]

You sure showed us chiz2kul. Man do I feel like a sucker for being involved with patient care all those years. If only I would have scammed the system better. What was I thinking getting a better understanding of my future profession?

I mean, dude, he said "good for them," if it helped you. I'm in the same boat as chiz - honestly, I did a little shadowing, and I got nothing out of it, so I tried a different way to get exposure. If you feel shadowing is helping you get a better understanding of what being a doctor's like, that's great. I'm glad you had a more rewarding experience than I. As for me, I felt like after the first 50 hours it was just more of the same thing, and while I think that would be invaluable if I was actually getting to practice rather than simply observe the relevant skills, I wasn't, so I found what I consider better ways to spend my time. I don't see how not doing 150+ hours of shadowing constitutes "scamming the system."

 

[MrAgreeable]

Honest Question: How many of you who did minimal EC/Volunteer work have really high MCAT scores?

I have "average" EC's, my PS was said to be compelling and clear, my LOR's are supposed to be exceptional (according to the writers), my GPA is ~3.75 and MCAT = 33. On top of it, I'm the only person in my family to attend college and all of that other boloney and I'm getting very little love from schools. From what I've seen, it seems to be relatively common for someone in my position to be where I'm at.

I do think that, at least for early consideration by schools, you need to have either super high numbers or incredible EC's.

JM.02

Yeah, or you could be me with the same exact stats as you and get early interviews and early rejections.

 

[TRN1983]

I got to see a lot of cool stuff and watch them cut up a lot of tissues. TRN1983, are you getting interviews and waitlisted or no interviews at all?

I have one interview. I had a few pre-secondary rejections for OOS status, and a few post secondary, but I'm still waiting to hear back from almost 25 schools.

Meh, I'm sure it'll work out.

 

[Chemist0157]

30 hours of shadowing and 30 hours of volunteering in the ER.

8 interviews of out my 15 applications so far. It's funny; I've talked about my clinical experience during interviews, and they will ask if they were significant experiences (and they were), but they have never seemed turned off by the "low" amount. I did one afternoon a week for a semester.

 

[JTubule1386]

I'm sure you'll get into more than one school. Its just that some schools have weird acceptance process. Plus its also about applying schools that fit your resume...so maybe your resume just did not fit the schools that rejected you. I didn't have any research so I applied mostly to schools that didn't have research in their description of what they look for in applicants. But I do feel that will royally screw me with Baylor.

 

[TRN1983]

30 hours of shadowing and 30 hours of volunteering in the ER.

8 interviews of out my 15 applications so far. It's funny; I've talked about my clinical experience during interviews, and they will ask if they were significant experiences (and they were), but they have never seemed turned off by the "low" amount. I did one afternoon a week for a semester.

35 MCAT w/ a 4.0 GPA... you don't count

 

[Chemist0157]

35 MCAT w/ a 4.0 GPA... you don't count

Haha, yeah I don't really fit in with SDN and its average MCAT 47 w/ a 4.2 GPA.

I just wanted to point out that adcoms aren't going to be impressed by 1000 hours of volunteering/shadowing because they know what simple tasks we are allowed to perform. BUT these ECs are important should be meaningful because they help us make a decision that will literally affect the rest of our lives.

 

[RSAgator]

6 interviews out of 14 applications, 3.8 and 35 MCAT. I volunteered for about 3 hours a week for a year (~150 hours) in a hospital. 100 hours were in CT, 50 hours were in the ER. No shadowing (my father's a doctor so I have a pretty good idea how things work from seeing him at work).

I think few people come away with much from hospital volunteering. It tells you that you don't mind being in a hospital, and you have a limited idea of how things work. It's pretty understood that you're not going to be suturing patients or catheterizing them, but what's important is that you do take something meaningful from the experience and you can at least talk about a specific moment during your volunteering that impacted you in some way. Now my 150 hours may be on the low side, but I also think that unless you do something really significant as a clinical volunteer (become the volunteer coordinator, win an award, etc.) the 1000 hours are just a waste of time.

 

[StPlayrXtreme]

I have 40 hours in an OR, and about 100 in office shadowing experiences and I have rejections coming out the *****. You probably need about 1,000 hours, no lie.

You do not need 1000 hours of shadowing!!

I was invited to 7 interviews and 1 acceptance so far, and I volunteered about 80 hours in the ER and shadowed a total of about 10 hours.

A little exposure is good, but shadowing is incredibly common, and I don't think it will make you stand out if you do more. It shows that you had some taste of what medicine is like, but it really doesn't show any leadership ability or personal commitment unless you did something really exceptional.

So it is good to shadow, but your time is better spent doing other things than worrying about spending 1000 hours in a clinical setting. Medical school is where you will get your clinical training. Shadowing is simply a way to show that you are interested in medicine...it is nice to have, but if you shadow for 1000s of hours with mediocre grades and no other ECs, you probably won't fare to well in admissions.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Just from what I've heard from my friends, many of whom have few clinical hours, you will often still get interviews even if you have few clinical hours (some of them have 5 interviews and something like less than 100 hours of clinical), but that you will then be asked about your clinical exposure in the interview. They think it's all about how you present yourself in the interview to show that while they didn't have as MANY hours, the time they did spend was meaningful. Make sure you have a strong story that sticks in your mind about some particularly interesting patient that you can tell that will add credence to your interview.

Honestly, I'd feel kind of worried about that approach, as I think more clinical hours are important to an application, but I guess we'll see how it turns out for them in a few weeks; we're from Texas, so we won't hear from the majority of our schools until 11/15.

 

[Jersey87]

I have very little clinical experience on my AMCAS (~36 hours), and I have one acceptance and 8 interviews. I do, however, have strong MCAT scores, a clinically applicable publication, and pretty strong non-medically yet teamwork/leadership related ECs

Because of this lack of clinical experience, I've taken on some volunteering this semester so I can talk about it a bit more in my interviews. From my impression, they most importantly want to see that you understand what you're getting yourself into and understand the life of a physician.

Moral of story- It won't break your application if you don't have 1000 hours. It's not the hours that count, but what you get out of it and if you're able to carry on a decent conversation about the practice of medicine. A number of interviewers have told me that my application is incredibly strong without having heard about my additional ongoing clinical experience.

 

[mack726]

I've been an EMT for about three years now, (no shadowing experience) and at each of my three interviews I was told that I "don't really have any clinical experience." I tried to explain it away by talking about patient contact and blah blah blah, but it didn't seem to impress any of my interviewers at the time.

Apparently the "lack of experience" didn't matter all that much. (2 acceptances) There are definitely other ways of showing you're dedicated to medicine and know what's involved other than through physician shadowing.

 

[TheElement]

Just from what I've heard from my friends, many of whom have few clinical hours, you will often still get interviews even if you have few clinical hours (some of them have 5 interviews and something like less than 100 hours of clinical), but that you will then be asked about your clinical exposure in the interview.

I'm the complete opposite for me. No research, yet none of my interviewers have even brought it up. Strange I think..

 

[GoSpursGo]

I'm the complete opposite for me. No research, yet none of my interviewers have even brought it up. Strange I think..

Research just isn't as important as clinical experience. If you don't want to be involved in research as a doctor, you don't have to be; the same obviously can't be said about clinical work. Research is a very strong EC that definitely helps one's application, but you can get in without it- assuming that you're not applying to top 10 research schools like Harvard and Duke.

When it comes to "importance in applications," I'm thinking adcoms look at these factors, in this order:

1a. MCAT score*
1b. GPA*
3. Clinical Experience
4. Research
5a. Volunteerism
5b. Leadership
7. Other meaningful time-consuming activities (running a marathon, taking up a musical instrument, etc)

*-some allowances are probably made here depending on URM status and, to a lesser extent, undergrad institution and major (aka if you were an engineer or something unusually difficult).

I'm not saying that if you're stronger in the higher-numbered activities (research, volunteer, etc) than the lower-numbered (MCAT/GPA/Clinical) that you're doomed, but I think that you have to be EXCEPTIONALLY strong in the higher numbered items to make up for any weaknesses in the lower-numbered ones.

 

[MrAgreeable]

You do not need 1000 hours of shadowing!!

I was invited to 7 interviews and 1 acceptance so far, and I volunteered about 80 hours in the ER and shadowed a total of about 10 hours.

A little exposure is good, but shadowing is incredibly common, and I don't think it will make you stand out if you do more. It shows that you had some taste of what medicine is like, but it really doesn't show any leadership ability or personal commitment unless you did something really exceptional.

So it is good to shadow, but your time is better spent doing other things than worrying about spending 1000 hours in a clinical setting. Medical school is where you will get your clinical training. Shadowing is simply a way to show that you are interested in medicine...it is nice to have, but if you shadow for 1000s of hours with mediocre grades and no other ECs, you probably won't fare to well in admissions.

Yeah, I know, I already rescinded this statement earlier. I was just a little down in the dumps yesterday aboot this whole process. It was a stupid comment and I already apologized to the OP. I just think I am socially inept, b/c I am pretty sure I have the greades, MCAT, and all of the other necessary rigamoral, but I have crashed right from take off.

Again, you don't need 1000 hours, I am just a sad-sack, haha.