extra-curriculars and volunteering

[Shinobiz11]

Hey y'all, I got a question. What are the are the base amount of hours I should do for volunteering and does it matter how many EC's I do? I plan to be in 2-3 clubs and I have 23 hours in the ER right now and a lot more at my mosque (maybe more than 500 lol). Plus I plan to play music, is this fine for extra-curriculars or should I do anything else besides research? I play soccer and basketball as well.

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[TexasMDtobe]

There is no base amount of hours for volunteering or EC's. The schools just want to know that you are an active member of your community and have been exposed to enough clinical medicine that you aren't applying blindly.

That said, I think its better to have fewer EC's that you are deeply involved with as opposed to tons of EC's with very shallow involvement. Length of involvement also plays a role. Volunteering at 5 places for a few weeks isn't as desirable as volunteering at 1 place for several years (depending on the situation of course). If you get really involved in one of your EC's, you may even be able to get a LOR from it.

As for myself, I had about 500 hours of volunteering (including patient contact and physician shadowing) over the course of 1.5 years at 1 place, and got a LOR from the supervisor. Good luck. . .

 

[sylvanthus]

Focus on getting some more clinical experience and shadow physicians. The numerous clubs people list on their applications, I think, get largely ignored. Medical schools want to see that you have honestly looked at what being a physician will entail.

If you have time I would even suggest getting a CNA or EMT license and actually working in the medical field. But, that is totally dependent on how soon your application is going to be turned in. Don't bother to get a certification unless you plan on using it, schools will see right through that.

Hope that helps.

 

[apumic]

Throw away your "Premed Checklist."

Some schools want as much as 500+ hrs clinical, probably several hundred hours volunteer, some research (12+ mos ongoing) & other unique interests/hobbies/etc. Regardless, the checklist approach is just plain a bad idea. Get out of that habit!

 

[Shinobiz11]

thank you very much

 

[jpatel]

I think people on SDN really do go crazy on how much ECs you actually need. I talked to the ad committee yesterday for some very decent school. And he said about 60-70 hours of volunteer and some shadowing is good enough.