do adcoms take into consideration what year you are in?

[havil]

i finished my junior year, so obv i would have less time to work on my app or get as many hours in as someone who would have finished up their gap year.

do adcoms take this into account?

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[LunaOri]

Yes, but you still have to have the minimum number of hours in each area to avoid being screened out. Do you have clinical, volunteer, and shadowing hours?

 

[havil]

Yes, but you still have to have the minimum number of hours in each area to avoid being screened out. Do you have clinical, volunteer, and shadowing hours?

Ya I have like 500 clinical, 1k non clinical volunteering, 100 shadowing

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Whether you are 16, 21, or 51, a marathon is still just over 26 miles. Of course we want to consider other things about your personal journey and circumstances, but the fundamentals stay the same.

 

[Goro]

i finished my junior year, so obv i would have less time to work on my app or get as many hours in as someone who would have finished up their gap year.

do adcoms take this into account?

It all depends upon what your app looks like. Projected hours do NOT count.

You should apply when you have the best possible app.

 

[eigen]

i finished my junior year, so obv i would have less time to work on my app or get as many hours in as someone who would have finished up their gap year.

I think the immediate question would be "If you're less prepared because you're applying early, why are you rushing rather than applying in two years?"

 

[havil]

It all depends upon what your app looks like. Projected hours do NOT count.

You should apply when you have the best possible app.

broo goro you know what my app looks like


509/3.96

250hrs chem lab research volunteer;

100hrs hospice volunteer

120hrs hospital patient visiting at surgery clinic

170hrs blood pressure taker volunteer

150hrs hotline crisi texter

80hrs coach for specail olympics volunteer

350hrsfood bank volunteer

150hrs soup kitchen voluteer

80hrs math tutor

180hrs VP at mental health club

180hrs student athlete mentor

200hrs job (pretty boring stuff just reading/sifting through paper)

150hrs volunteer for advocacy group for mental health (writing op eds and what not)

400hrs hobby; weight lifting

100hrs shadowing 2 diff specialies

 

[havil]

I think the immediate question would be "If you're less prepared because you're applying early, why are you rushing rather than applying in two years?"

its not that i am less prepared, its just the very real fact that i dont have an extra 2 years under my belt

 

[eigen]

its not that i am less prepared, its just the very real fact that i dont have an extra 2 years under my belt

If your preparation is exactly the same, then why do the 2 extra years matter? I guess now I'm confused as to what you're asking.
What you said originally suggested you were asking if admissions committees would "cut you slack" so to speak for having less preparation:

so obv i would have less time to work on my app or get as many hours in as someone who would have finished up their gap year.

 

[saiyan.uzumaki17]

It all depends upon what your app looks like. Projected hours do NOT count.

You should apply when you have the best possible app.

would what I do during the summer of applying (like a Summer SURP) matter for my app?

 

[Goro]

would what I do during the summer of applying (like a Summer SURP) matter for my app?

That will be reviewer specific

 

[saiyan.uzumaki17]

That will be reviewer specific

Could I ask how you personally view it when reviewing apps? Particularly if it's something like (NIH SIP, Hopkins SIP, and other prestigious SURPS).. Thank you.

 

[Goro]

Could I ask how you personally view it when reviewing apps? Particularly if it's something like (NIH SIP, Hopkins SIP, and other prestigious SURPS).. Thank you.

It's a plus

 

[Dee2daK]

its not that i am less prepared, its just the very real fact that i dont have an extra 2 years under my belt

In the immortal words of Indiana Jones..

It’s not the years, it’s the mileage

You could also look at it from the perspective that years could be a detriment.. Having that time where you aren’t in school, may or may not have a family to support, etc. means that you have more time to support an application, sure - but what about the people who apply who didn’t do some of those things when they had the time? Older applicants such as myself have to consider what we have done and whether it’s going to be enough, due to a perception of more “free time” when not in school, or times that we didn’t go out and feed the babies, clothe the hungry, and feed the naked - is this enough dedication to the benefit of others, or are we just making lip service?

Nearly all schools push this idea of considering the applicant holistically. Part of that is comparing you vs your peers, for example - not you vs me. Nobody expects you to have thousands of hours of patient care time, for example, and my 40k+ recorded activity hours don’t automatically make me a stronger applicant than a 22 year old with a fraction of that. If they did, I would have had a lot more interviews and a lot more A’s. It’s all considered within the context of you where you’re at now, and perhaps (small) assumptions about what you’ll continue to do during senior year.

broo goro you know what my app looks like

@Goro sees so many WAMCs and responds to so many threads here that I guarantee your numbers have been forgotten.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

would what I do during the summer of applying (like a Summer SURP) matter for my app?

Depends when you finish and if you are invited to an interview to update your file.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

This really depends on the school. Some schools will have the same standards for a traditional student and one who had 5 gap years, while others schools will definitely have higher standards for the gap year(s) students

 

[candbgirl]

its not that i am less prepared, its just the very real fact that i dont have an extra 2 years under my belt

But that’s your choice. You want to apply early and that’s okay. But keep building your application in case you have to reapply.(Only40 % of all applicants are accepted each cycle and of that number half are accepted at one school.)
Your application should stand alone as the best possible you.
So keep building that application.
Good luck.

 

[Goro]

New here... can someone advise what minimum hours are needed to avoid being screened out... and per area?

clinical work?
volunteer work? (is this to be non clinical)
research work?

etc.

150 clinical exposure. Can be paid ir volunteer
150 nonclinical
Shadowing 50ish
Research, hard to say. It's more of what you do and, what you learn, what you produce

 

[DadofThreeBoys]

150 clinical exposure. Can be paid ir volunteer
150 nonclinical
Shadowing 50ish
Research, hard to say. It's more of what you do and, what you learn, what you produce

Appreciate the reply!!! I'm doing background work to understand what's what for my young one.

He is targeting by application time:
1000 clinical (~400 to date... as a rising college sophomore)
400 research (0 to date... but seem meaningful research experience is his objective... but no leads yet)
100 shadow (~60 to date)
200 volunteer other (~50 to date ... church, senior centers, etc.)

Target is to meet the minimums and then focus on QUALITY experiences for self-reflection, good learning, etc.

Does this generally seem like a good GPS setting for now?

 

[LunaOri]

Yes, but it is best to have non-clinical volunteering that focuses on helping the underserved or people unlike himself.
Why not encourage him to make his own account here so he can communicate with us directly?

 

[eigen]

Appreciate the reply!!! I'm doing background work to understand what's what for my young one.

He is targeting by application time:
1000 clinical (~400 to date... as a rising college sophomore)
400 research (0 to date... but seem meaningful research experience is his objective... but no leads yet)
100 shadow (~60 to date)
200 volunteer other (~50 to date ... church, senior centers, etc.)

Target is to meet the minimums and then focus on QUALITY experiences for self-reflection, good learning, etc.

Does this generally seem like a good GPS setting for now?

The biggest thing I will encourage, broadly, is to... not do work for your college age (or even high school age) student. Instead, put the onus on them to do the research with you as background support.

The number one stumbling block I encounter more and more commonly in first-semester freshman is a complete reliance on parents, almost always coupled with parental overinvolvement. I can't tell you how common it is for me to get emails (and phone calls) from my college students parents, despite the fact that legally, I can't talk to them about their kids, and more practically, will not engage with them. I also have parents sit in on (and direct) their college students course registration appointments. Our campus facilities department is increasingly fielding calls from parents, rather than students.

It's great to want to support your (adult) children. But you do more for them, long term, by letting them learn how to do things on their own than you do from intervening on their behalf.

I realize now that this was a longer tangent than I intended, but I'm seeing so many students fail when they could be successful due to over-involved parents.

 

[pablo213]

Appreciate the reply!!! I'm doing background work to understand what's what for my young one.

He is targeting by application time:
1000 clinical (~400 to date... as a rising college sophomore)
400 research (0 to date... but seem meaningful research experience is his objective... but no leads yet)
100 shadow (~60 to date)
200 volunteer other (~50 to date ... church, senior centers, etc.)

Target is to meet the minimums and then focus on QUALITY experiences for self-reflection, good learning, etc.

Does this generally seem like a good GPS setting for now?

Agree with Luna. I would decrease the clinical a bit to like 750 if time is limited (1k is the ideal), boost the nonclinical volunteering to 350 ish or more in an underserved setting specifically. Make sure the shadowing is at least partly in primary care. Research hours are murky. Productivity is the most important thing IMO. 1 poster or publication with 300 hours is worth more than like 600 hours with neither. It's sus when you have 20 hours and a poster though (as with all extremes).