Clinical Experiences Too Old?

[colucho19]

Sorry if the post gets lengthy!

I'm a non-trad student and have been out of undergrad for 5+ years now. I have always been on the premed path but my application has been delayed because I was waiting to fix my immigration status and get a green card before applying to avoid the hurdles and cost of applying as an international student. Luckily, that's been resolved so I am working on putting my app together for 2026.

All of my clinical experience took place in 2017-2021, I accumulated about 7000 hours working as a medical scribe and medical interpreter and about 400 hrs of clinical volunteering. However, I moved on from that job to work in labs and now management for clinical trials (all internal work for the company and not patient-facing at all) since I needed to make more money and did not know when my immigration status would be resolved. We all know the scribe pay isn't really enough to afford life as an independent adult lol

I consider all my clinical experiences to be very meaningful and some of the most important points of my application. However, I worry they are considered too old. Would schools look down on my app because of this or has anyone been in a similar position?

I'm currently working full time + doing non-clinical volunteering so finding additional time to add even more clinical experience would be tough.

Thanks!

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[LizzyM]

Your clinical experiences are meant to give you an idea of whether you'd want to work in a clinical setting for the next 30-40 years. If you explain in the description of your work and activities that you took the job in pharma because you needed to support yourself after college graduation, the adcoms will understand. Do a bit of shadowing now, as things have changed over the years.... be sure you are going in with eyes wide open as to the challenges of medical practice today. That will be a refresh of your prior experiences. Sick folks don't change much over the decades but the management of their care has.

 

[Dr.Freedman MedEdits]

This is the type of background information that would be important to include in your overall narrative as part of your personal statement. I also see this as a perfect topic for the "other impactful experiences" section of AMCAS. Medical schools will appreciate your tenacity and perseverance. I agree that it would be beneficial to gain some additional patient facing experience during your application year whether through shadowing or medically-related community service.