Do I need more clinical experience/hospital shadowing for MD?

[tentomruler]

3.3 GPA (strong trend upwards)

34 MCAT (13B, 11P, 10V)

50 hours shadowing physicians
50 hours volunteering at a hospital over 2 summers
50 hours volunteering at a wheelchair tennis leagues and sports camp
internship at Pfizer developing an ELISA for the detection of BVDV
lab assistant for micro lab
assistant summer tennis coach
started own deck staining company
tutoring EC's

Currently, I'm doing a two year stint with AmeriCorps. I'm working at a college-access organization where I tutor low-income youth in science and math. Along with this, I founded an ACT-prep math tutoring program within the program and ran two large summer programs.

The thing is, with the exception of a couple of shadowing experiences, I haven't touched the hospital or clinical environment for the last year and 2 months. Do I need to get back into the hospital before I apply the summer of 2013? My non-healthcare related ECs are solid, but I feel like I'm lacking on clinical experience/hospital volunteering. Is that which is bolded too little?

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[Aerus]

Eh, if you want to analyze it that deeply, 100 is usually the magic number as far as clinical volunteering hours go. However, if you've already gotten meaningful experiences from that volunteering, then I guess 50 is fine. Keep in mind adcoms like it better if you volunteer over a long period of time (4 hours a week for 2-3 years is better than 500 hours all within a few months)

Your shadowing hours are plenty, as long as they cover a broad range of specialties. For example, 20 hours of PCP, 20 hours of surgery, and 10 hours of ER is much better than 50 hours of ER.

If you still have time left, I recommend working on your GPA, but that's a different story for another time.

 

[Lollygag]

I'm not sure if 50 hours volunteering at a wheelchair tennis league/sport's camp technically would count as clinical experience. I mean it might, but it seems a bit borderline it would depend on what exactly you were doing. If you can get some extra clinical I would try but if it's not feasible you should be okay.

 

[Blackhawkdown24]

Troll! He's the same person that created that ridiculous thread in the " what are my chances" section. Search him, he has a thread titled "1.2 gpa, 7 MCAT"
Trollllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Aerus]

I'm not sure if 50 hours volunteering at a wheelchair tennis league/sport's camp technically would count as clinical experience. I mean it might, but it seems a bit borderline it would depend on what exactly you were doing. If you can get some extra clinical I would try but if it's not feasible you should be okay.

Yeah, I don't think it counts either. That's why I still see him as having only 50 clinical hours. But hey, it still counts as nonclinical volunteering!

 

[circulus vitios]

Eh, if you want to analyze it that deeply, 100 is usually the magic number as far as clinical volunteering hours go. However, if you've already gotten meaningful experiences from that volunteering, then I guess 50 is fine. Keep in mind adcoms like it better if you volunteer over a long period of time (4 hours a week for 2-3 years is better than 500 hours all within a few months)

Your shadowing hours are plenty, as long as they cover a broad range of specialties. For example, 20 hours of PCP, 20 hours of surgery, and 10 hours of ER is much better than 50 hours of ER.

If you still have time left, I recommend working on your GPA, but that's a different story for another time.

No it's not. It's just a number that gets thrown around like canon.

 

[Aerus]

No it's not. It's just a number that gets thrown around like canon.

Note that I never said "Adcoms want to see at least 100 or else it will look bad."

The fact that it's three digits gives it that extra bump, similar to the psychological difference between a 4.0 and a 3.9 or an SAT essay that uses up all the lines; it's all psychological.

 

[music2doc]

I was talking with another med student recently and it turns out several other top 40 schools want the "500+ hours of clinical experience" as well. We were talking about why she was turned down at a school where her stats were clearly above average (by a solid 8 LizzyM points). Clinical experience is important. In her case, a friend sat on the adcom there and was able to get her the exact reasons for her rejection (pre-interview). They simply did not feel her clinical experience was adequate as it was mostly in the year prior and was "not enough" as they wanted 500 hours minimum.

 

[RomanTaylor]

I was talking with another med student recently and it turns out several other top 40 schools want the "500+ hours of clinical experience" as well. We were talking about why she was turned down at a school where her stats were clearly above average (by a solid 8 LizzyM points). Clinical experience is important. In her case, a friend sat on the adcom there and was able to get her the exact reasons for her rejection (pre-interview). They simply did not feel her clinical experience was adequate as it was mostly in the year prior and was "not enough" as they wanted 500 hours minimum.

Goodness, I guess my 6 years as a hospital corpsman should cover that...hopefully.

I am not really gunning for a top 40 school, though, I just want any Allopathic medical school in Florida. If I get that, I will be happy.

 

[487806]

Troll! He's the same person that created that ridiculous thread in the " what are my chances" section. Search him, he has a thread titled "1.2 gpa, 7 MCAT"
Trollllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This coming from a troll boasting about 40 MCAT and whether the world is ending in 2012...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=956397

 

[Blackhawkdown24]

This coming from a troll boasting about 40 MCAT and whether the world is ending in 2012...

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=956397

Don't hate. And yes he is a troll. I could care less if you don't believe me.

 

[487806]

Don't hate. And yes he is a troll. I could care less if you don't believe me.

Not hating. There's probably more credible evidence out there to verify OP is a troll. Let's see how this thread goes.