Does everyone need 1000+ hours?

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

I've been browsing the WAMC page for some time now and then checking the OP's later posts to see if they were accepted. So far it seems that even if you have top stats, the people who get accepted have 1000+ hours in something whether it is research or clinical experience or have something that makes them stand out like being a comedian or running a non-profit. Is this true? I have also read posts that say you only need 100-200 hrs. in each category. For reference, here are my stats:

GPA: 3.89
MCAT: First practice diagnostic 509
Clinical experience: Medical assistant 600 hrs. Chaplain 400 hrs.
Research: 300 hrs. Poster presentation at university symposium
Volunteering: 400 hrs. Yardwork; health talks and music for nursing home; massage for arthritis
Shadowing: 300 hrs. Lifestyle medicine
Leadership: 300 hrs. Event coordinator for club, Sabbath school teacher, biochemistry TA, student association village senator, worship group leader, volunteer leader, SA senate secretary
Other Employment: 800 hrs. Landscaping, administrative secretarial work, home cleaning
Other Extracurriculars: Violin, piano, choir, running, birdwatching, reading

Target School: Loma Linda University or any MD

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[GoSpursGo]

Somewhere in the 150-200+ hours each for clinical experience and nonclinical volunteer hours is pretty necessary. Seems like you likely meet that, though I question the value of some of your volunteering like "yardwork" being not particularly interactive with others.

Your MCAT is going to have a much greater impact on your chances at this point than anything else.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

Somewhere in the 150-200+ hours each for clinical experience and nonclinical volunteer hours is pretty necessary. Seems like you likely meet that, though I question the value of some of your volunteering like "yardwork" being not particularly interactive with others.

Your MCAT is going to have a much greater impact on your chances at this point than anything else.

I guess I was wondering if, pending a good MCAT score, I would still need to take a gap year to beef up my extracurriculars.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Welcome to the forums!

What you need depends on why you need the hours or the benefit you get from the activity so that the hours reflect your interests. For example, 300 hours shadowing lifestyle medicine instead of the minimum 50 hours points to something.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

Somewhere in the 150-200+ hours each for clinical experience and nonclinical volunteer hours is pretty necessary. Seems like you likely meet that, though I question the value of some of your volunteering like "yardwork" being not particularly interactive with others.

Your MCAT is going to have a much greater impact on your chances at this point than anything else.

What would be the best volunteering activities?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I guess I was wondering if, pending a good MCAT score, I would still need to take a gap year to beef up my extracurriculars.

Doesn't seem like it, but again the "what" matters as much as the hours

 

[LunaOri]

What would be the best volunteering activities?

Anything that shows your dedication to helping the underserved. Prison, homeless shelter, food bank, soup kitchen, etc.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

Anything that shows your dedication to helping the underserved. Prison, homeless shelter, food bank, soup kitchen, etc.

Okay

 

[LizzyM]

Get into situations where you are face-to-face with individuals (or groups) that need help. The very typical volunteer activities include food banks, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, tutoring services to adults for ESL or GED, Big Brother/Big Sister, services to migrants and immigrants.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

So basically my school has a volunteer program where every week we go out into the community to serve in some way. Oftentimes this means visiting elderly people's homes and doing their yardwork or cleaning their homes. Sometimes we do yardwork with the people if they are able. They are always very grateful for help. We can also help them with healthy living if they are interested and support them spiritually. Other times we go door to door with surveys to see what the community needs are and how we can help. One semester during COVID we just cleared brush on the campus trails. I'm not sure what counts here. Maybe not what happened during COVID but the other community work?

 

[cj_cregg]

100-200 hours in each category is the bare minimum needed to basically avoid an automatic rejection. I would put candidates with this range of hours in the "maybe will get an acceptance" bucket. 500+ hours of service and 500+ of clinical experience combined with an otherwise strong application and appropriate school list puts you in the "likely to get accepted" bucket in my opinion. Many candidates do have 1000+ hours in these categories.

Looking over your experiences, you have a really good start - good numbers in all categories. The two things I see lacking are:
- Shadowing in any other specialty/setting. I'm assuming your chaplain is in the inpatient setting, and not sure what specialty you're an MA for. If you do not have exposure through those roles, I'd consider shadowing a primary care doctor, an ER doctor, and probably an inpatient hospitalist/specialist for just one day to get a sense of different settings of care and different specialties. Your hours of shadowing are MORE than enough, but we do want to see that you have been exposed to multiple different areas of medicine.
- Service/other experience with truly underserved people, ideally longitudinal, and outside of your comfort zone. I am much less impressed by applicants doing service in own their own neighborhood or church community than I am by applicants who are intentionally putting themselves in places they would not normally go with people they would not normally meet. Seek out experiences working with the homeless, the impoverished, immigrants (even undocumented ones!) and refugees, the severely disabled and mentally ill, the abused, the incarcerated. Aside from helping your application, these folks will be your patients someday, and gaining an understanding of their experiences outside of your clinic/hospital walls will help you take better care of them.

I am not sure if you're planning to apply this summer or sometime later. Certainly your application is adequate as is (assuming appropriate school list and decent MCAT) and you may get in somewhere or even multiple schools. However, with some additional experience, I think your application would be much more competitive and give you greater opportunity to choose a school that is a good fit for you and your interests. I do think you could reasonably get that amount of experience in a year.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

100-200 hours in each category is the bare minimum needed to basically avoid an automatic rejection. I would put candidates with this range of hours in the "maybe will get an acceptance" bucket. 500+ hours of service and 500+ of clinical experience combined with an otherwise strong application and appropriate school list puts you in the "likely to get accepted" bucket in my opinion. Many candidates do have 1000+ hours in these categories.

Looking over your experiences, you have a really good start - good numbers in all categories. The two things I see lacking are:
- Shadowing in any other specialty/setting. I'm assuming your chaplain is in the inpatient setting, and not sure what specialty you're an MA for. If you do not have exposure through those roles, I'd consider shadowing a primary care doctor, an ER doctor, and probably an inpatient hospitalist/specialist for just one day to get a sense of different settings of care and different specialties. Your hours of shadowing are MORE than enough, but we do want to see that you have been exposed to multiple different areas of medicine.
- Service/other experience with truly underserved people, ideally longitudinal, and outside of your comfort zone. I am much less impressed by applicants doing service in own their own neighborhood or church community than I am by applicants who are intentionally putting themselves in places they would not normally go with people they would not normally meet. Seek out experiences working with the homeless, the impoverished, immigrants (even undocumented ones!) and refugees, the severely disabled and mentally ill, the abused, the incarcerated. Aside from helping your application, these folks will be your patients someday, and gaining an understanding of their experiences outside of your clinic/hospital walls will help you take better care of them.

I am not sure if you're planning to apply this summer or sometime later. Certainly your application is adequate as is (assuming appropriate school list and decent MCAT) and you may get in somewhere or even multiple schools. However, with some additional experience, I think your application would be much more competitive and give you greater opportunity to choose a school that is a good fit for you and your interests. I do think you could reasonably get that amount of experience in a year.

How many additional hours over what time frame would I need to focus on the especially underserved volunteering area?

 

[cj_cregg]

How many additional hours over what time frame would I need to focus on the especially underserved volunteering area?

I think if you would do even just a few hours of nonclinical volunteering a week over the course of a year to get 50-100 hrs, that would be a nice boost to your application. Obviously, more is better as long as it is not at the expense of your grades/MCAT and your mental/physical health.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

I started some more nonclinical volunteering for homeless and low-income people that will hopefully add up to 50+ hours. I'm also wondering about my current job. My role as a chaplain in a clinical setting, where I provide spiritual support to patients and contribute to their moral and psychological well-being, might be a unique form of clinical experience. I am deeply passionate about this work and am considering dedicating more hours to it, potentially accumulating over 1000 hours by the time of matriculation. I am eager to know if you think it is good considering it is not strictly medical.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Assuming you're a hospital chaplain, that's definitely clinical.

Keep in mind that "projected" hours don't count, so "by time of matriculation" is meaningless. If you're worried about your number of hours but are working full time in a job that is getting you 30+ hours/wk, you might benefit from delaying your application until early-mid July so that they are no longer "projected."

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

Assuming you're a hospital chaplain, that's definitely clinical.

Keep in mind that "projected" hours don't count, so "by time of matriculation" is meaningless. If you're worried about your number of hours but are working full time in a job that is getting you 30+ hours/wk, you might benefit from delaying your application until early-mid July so that they are no longer "projected."

I already have a decent amount of clinical experience already, just not over 1000. Would it be bad to mention projected hours I would have after I finish my classes if it is significantly more than what I already have?

 

[GoSpursGo]

I already have a decent amount of clinical experience already, just not over 1000. Would it be bad to mention projected hours I would have after I finish my classes if it is significantly more than what I already have?

Nothing "wrong" with listing projected hours as long as you already have plenty to know what you're getting yourself into.

 

[DestinyRoseAndrews]

Nothing "wrong" with listing projected hours as long as you already have plenty to know what you're getting yourself into.

Sounds good!