Clinial Experience volunteer hours

[NP545]

What tends to be the cutoff for volunteer hours in clinical settings?
Can someone give me a rough estimate of how many hours med schools look for?

And also, shadowing...how many hours (estimate)

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[Boolean]

What tends to be the cutoff for volunteer hours in clinical settings?
Can someone give me a rough estimate of how many hours med schools look for?

And also, shadowing...how many hours (estimate)

You typically want triple digits in both categories (at least 100)

 

[terp720]

You typically want triple digits in both categories (at least 100)

Idk about this.. most people on here typically say you don't need 100 hours shadowing.

 

[Spinach Dip]

Somewhere between 50 and 500.

From my discussions and observations, anything less than 50 doesn't show a true dedication, while adding more stops meaning as much after 500. (aka, 1000 is not twice as impressive as 500.)

 

[Mt Kilimanjaro]

What tends to be the cutoff for volunteer hours in clinical settings?
Can someone give me a rough estimate of how many hours med schools look for?

And also, shadowing...how many hours (estimate)

You're on a roll this morning.

Read this: https://www.meded.umn.edu/futuredocs/documents/The-Hand-of-a-Phenomenal-Pre-Med.pdf

 

[Boolean]

Idk about this.. most people on here typically say you don't need 100 hours shadowing.

Really? Most of the premed advisors I've talked to say 100 is a pretty stable baseline

 

[Planes2Doc]

Shadowing can be treated like a checkbox item. Once you have enough, it doesn't matter. Just try to get over 24 with multiple specialties.

As for volunteering, you want to make it look as legitimate as possible. There's nothing ADCOMs hate more in this area than a box-checker. They also don't like to see people who got all their hours within a few months of applying. So here's what to do. Make sure you have over 100 hours when you apply, and DO NOT DROP THE ACTIVITY BEFORE FILLING OUT AMCAS. You want to make sure tht you've listed the activity as "current." It won't look good if you're not volunteering while you're interviewing. Once you have an acceptance in hand, then you don't have to think twice about dropping it.

 

[Boolean]

Shadowing can be treated like a checkbox item. Once you have enough, it doesn't matter. Just try to get over 24 with multiple specialties.

As for volunteering, you want to make it look as legitimate as possible. There's nothing ADCOMs hate more in this area than a box-checker. They also don't like to see people who got all their hours within a few months of applying. So here's what to do. Make sure you have over 100 hours when you apply, and DO NOT DROP THE ACTIVITY BEFORE FILLING OUT AMCAS. You want to make sure tht you've listed the activity as "current." It won't look good if you're not volunteering while you're interviewing. Once you have an acceptance in hand, then you don't have to think twice about dropping it.

24 total or 24 per specialty?

 

[Planes2Doc]

24 total or 24 per specialty?

24 total hours. Though you should probably get closer to 50. It doesn't have to be crazy. There comes a certain point where you aren't getting much more out of shadowing. Unlike volunteering, it doesn't need to be an ongoing activity with an absurd number of hours.

 

[Boolean]

24 total hours. Though you should probably get closer to 50. It doesn't have to be crazy. There comes a certain point where you aren't getting much more out of shadowing. Unlike volunteering, it doesn't need to be an ongoing activity with an absurd number of hours.

I see. Thank you for the clarification!