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Started by apollodorus
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I don't get why you claim to be a firefighter as being clinical. Why can't you say you were an EMT?
Your clinical experience seems limited. 30 hours of shadowing and no other hours working in a hospital, hospice, or clinic setting? Maybe being an EMT is clinical, but it doesn't overcome my perception. Not having a variety of clinical experiences, especially in hospital settings, puts your application at risk of getting screened out.
Non-clinical volunteering for literacy is nice, but it doesn't address more service orientation like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. If anything, it feels to me like it's just a natural extension of your humanities interests, so it could be construed as an academic endeavor, just as being a math/science tutor for similar children would be for a science major. That means with zero service orientation hours, you are at risk of being screened out at most schools.
Your activities during your gap year would be great (military... definitely counts towards the non-clinical volunteering service orientation bucket), but realize their full impact to help your application cannot be realized until next cycle (1 year later).
Your clinical experience seems limited. 30 hours of shadowing and no other hours working in a hospital, hospice, or clinic setting? Maybe being an EMT is clinical, but it doesn't overcome my perception. Not having a variety of clinical experiences, especially in hospital settings, puts your application at risk of getting screened out.
Non-clinical volunteering for literacy is nice, but it doesn't address more service orientation like food distribution, shelter volunteer, job/tax preparation, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation. If anything, it feels to me like it's just a natural extension of your humanities interests, so it could be construed as an academic endeavor, just as being a math/science tutor for similar children would be for a science major. That means with zero service orientation hours, you are at risk of being screened out at most schools.
Your activities during your gap year would be great (military... definitely counts towards the non-clinical volunteering service orientation bucket), but realize their full impact to help your application cannot be realized until next cycle (1 year later).
apollodorus
Full Member
Thank you for your reply! I believe EMT work is recognized as clinical experience? Please correct me if I am wrong. Near the beginning of my time in college I was deciding between hospital volunteering (which I did in highschool) and EMT work for clinical volunteering experience, and people were saying that it did count as clinical experience, but I could be wrong. As for the non clinical volunteering, the organization works with disadvantaged kids primarily in third to fifth grade and includes a variety of other services in addition to help reading, such as food and a place to have fun after school; I would hope this addresses a commitment to service. I will reevaluate my application considering your feedback, thank you again!
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You should accumulate another 20 hours of physician shadowing and 150+ hours of non clinical volunteering such as food bank, homeless shelter, etc. before you submit your application. Otherwise, you could be screened out at some schools. You have too many reaches on your list. I suggest these schools with your stats and current ECs:
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Tech
UVA
West Virginia
Wake Forest
USF Morsani
Miami
NOVA MD
Belmont
Alice Walton
TCU
Rosalind Franklin
Illinois
Medical College Wisconsin
Iowa
Arizona (Phoenix)
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
George Washington
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Hofstra
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Tufts
Methodist (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)
Virginia Commonwealth
Eastern Virginia
Virginia Tech
UVA
West Virginia
Wake Forest
USF Morsani
Miami
NOVA MD
Belmont
Alice Walton
TCU
Rosalind Franklin
Illinois
Medical College Wisconsin
Iowa
Arizona (Phoenix)
Western Michigan
Oakland Beaumont
George Washington
Penn State
Drexel
Temple
Jefferson
Hofstra
New York Medical College
Hackensack
Albany
Vermont
Quinnipiac
UMass
Tufts
Methodist (when it opens)
Roseman (when it opens)
In my opinion, it should be counted as clinical experience, but your characterization as being a volunteer firefighter didn't make sense. That said, not all EMT work is equally clinical (see events management EMT vs. community EMT). You need opportunities to see physicians in action whether it's face-to-face with patients or in an interprofessional team. EMT's don't always get that opportunity. So it's good for patient-facing healthcare experience, but you need more physician shadowing and interaction if you want to show us what you know about what physicians do (and why you want to be one).
Helping disadvantaged kids is common among prehealth applicants. Again, it's a worthy endeavor, but it won't separate you in the application process.
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