Concerned about not enough clinical experience

[jhonyguy04]

I am worried that I dont have enough clinical experience. I have 240 hours of volunteering, but absolutely no research. In the volunteering, I recorded patients, and excorted them to places, but I dont know if that is enough. I have also worked in a retail pharmacy for almost 2 years. I dont know if that counts as clinical. I also volunteered for people for animals and tsnami relief effort. Tutored as well.My gpa is 3.9, I dont know my mcat scores yet, but say it it was a 34, is my clinical experience or overrall experience strong enough??

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[RochChalk]

3.9, 34 MCAT, and 240 hrs volunteering will get you MD somewhere unless you totally bomb interviews or something.

 

[Stratego]

About 40% of applicants do not have a research experience. It isn't essential. If your work in a pharmacy involved you educating patients about their meds, then that component would count as "clinical." If not, then it is still significant employment that you should list. Tutoring is valued. You are strong in community service and above average in clinical, but I am concerned you do not mention physician shadowing, another important component of a good application. This need not be extensive as 8-40 hours for each of 2-3 doctors is enough. Could you get some of that in before applying?

 

[camaras2480]

3.9 and 34 will get you interviews, for sure. Pick some later days for the interviews to give yourself time to do shadowing. In addition, if possible, start any research project anywhere. That way, when you go to interview, you can say you have been shadowing, and doing research for the past 6 months. Don't go start research in September and interview in October. That 1 month of research is meaningless.

 

[jhonyguy04]

well my pre-med advisor said research is not neccessary. that is why i didnt research. but I do think I need to do some shadowing. I def have time before the interview so iam going to try to get this in.thanks for the insight.

 

[camaras2480]

well my pre-med advisor said research is not neccessary. that is why i didnt research. but I do think I need to do some shadowing. I def have time before the interview so iam going to try to get this in.thanks for the insight.

It is true that research is definitely not a required criteria. But just about every school likes to see it. Granted, it is probably too late to start now. That being said, perhaps shadowing is the way to go, since it seems you don't really have that either. Just make sure that whatever you do is substantial and can be discussed in depth at your interview.