Help me with clinical experience

[LOSAR]

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So after a terrible application cycle I have some feedback from schools which states I need more significant 'clinical' experience. I have over 100 hours of hospital volunteering where I had direct patient interaction (things like feeding patients, keeping them company etc.). I'm not sure what kind of experience would be beneficial for me so I'm looking for ideas. What should I do for this coming year to improve my app.

 

[MiniMoo]

Activities besides the typical hospital volunteering that fall under the "clinical experience" category: work in a nursing home, free community clinic, hospice care -- anything where you're interacting with sick individuals. Most applicants have around 150+ hours when applying.

I also took a peek at your mdapps -- are you a US citizen? If you're applying as an international, I think you have to work doubly hard in order to secure interviews/acceptances. So in your case, your MCAT/GPA might be considered a bit low. I think you should also try applying to more schools. I know that a few schools consider Canadian applicants to be OOS rather than international. It would be good to find out which those are. There are some Canadian individuals on SDN that may be able to give you better advice though since I'm not that well informed about applying as an international (bannie22 comes to mind).

 

[AH3]

I'd suggest doing some shadowing and getting a job in either a hospital or healthcare field (like the 1st poster mentioned). Doing some nonclinical volunteering may also help your app.