Help with School List

[hopefuldocta]

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[Microbug]

The weakness in your app is pretty obvious:
No shadowing, huge research committemnet which is good but no meaningful non-clinical volunteering (school related stuff doesn’t really count, people look more for things like serving the underprivileged). Shadowing and volunteering is more important than research, unless you’re going MDPHD. I think you can have an excellent app if you get some shadowing and volunteering in but as of right now you’re doing yourself and your great stats a disservice by not having those things. Do them and you can aim for Top20s.

 

[hopefulv3]

@Microbug do you think a couple of months but about 150 hours is enough for top school? Also what kind of nonclinical are you looking for?

 

[Microbug]

I think 150 shadowing is fine, but try to get multiple specialities including primary care. For non clinical volunteering, I mean things like soup kitchen or homeless shelter or something like that, tutoring underprivileged kids? To show your altruistic side.

@Microbug do you think a couple of months but about 150 hours is enough for top school? Also what kind of nonclinical are you looking for?

 

[candbgirl]

Why did you wait so long to start getting the ECs you need? Many schools will see right through your attempt to spend the next couple of months box checking. You need shadowing, clinical experience and nonclinical experience. Fifty hours of shadowing including some with a primary care doc is necessary. You also need at least 150+ hours in patient contact activities. How do you know you want to spend the next 35 years working with and helping the sick, injured and dying? Are you going to tell ADCOMS that you just know? You also need the same number of hours for nonclinical experience. This means helping the unserved and underserved in your community. You should step out side of your comfort zone and help out at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, volunteering with disabled kids. You know service to others that need your help. As @Goro says, most of the applicants have hundreds or even thousand of hours in all of these areas. You don’t seem to have any. . Hopefully you are planning to apply in a June 2019 so you have time to get busy and get what you need. It would be sad to waste a great set of stats because you didn’t have a comprehensive application to submit.

 

[Goro]

1. Clinical experience:
   - Clinical Research Assistant: 500 hours (assist with patient data input and assist physicians)
   - Clinic Assistant: 100 hours (work at a free clinic for low income patients)

?

Teaching moment: the bolded is NOT clinical experience. it's research. Even if you're going and interviewing the patients, then they're not patients, they're subjects. And you're certainly not providing any service to them.

Candbgirl provided a spot-on critique of your app deficits. Our work is done here.

 

[gyngyn]

40 hours of shadowing would be fine (especially in an office based practice, bonus for primary care).

 

[hopefuldocta]

@Goro - as part of the program for research, I was able to shadow for approximately 50 hours the doctors on their rounds (although it is not the focus of the experience). I also have the work as a clinic assistant which is very personal patient contact.

Is that not enough experience to apply?

I also have the hours teaching fitness to underserved populations? Would that not be sufficient for my app?

 

[Microbug]

@Goro - as part of the program for research, I was able to shadow for approximately 50 hours the doctors on their rounds (although it is not the focus of the experience). I also have the work as a clinic assistant which is very personal patient contact.

Is that not enough experience to apply?

I also have the hours teaching fitness to underserved populations? Would that not be sufficient for my app?

How many hours of teaching fitness?

 

[hopefuldocta]

How many hours of teaching fitness?

About 100, although now I serve as president of the club and train members in teaching skills

Microbug, you think I need shadowing even though I work in a clinic which is a much more intimate setting anyway, and volunteer/act as a research assistant in the hospital?

I thought that I was fine on the clinical experience and community service so this is kind of a shock to me

Thanks 🙂

 

[Goro]

@Goro - as part of the program for research, I was able to shadow for approximately 50 hours the doctors on their rounds (although it is not the focus of the experience). I also have the work as a clinic assistant which is very personal patient contact.

Is that not enough experience to apply?

I also have the hours teaching fitness to underserved populations? Would that not be sufficient for my app?

Shadowing is NOT patient contact experience.
What did you do as "clinical assistant"? How many hours?

 

[hopefuldocta]

Shadowing is NOT patient contact experience.
What did you do as "clinical assistant"? How many hours?

Clinic assisting I took patient vitals and their histories and input information into the electronic system. Also recorded chief complaint and assisted nursing staff with blood glucose tests, etc.

I expect to have about 150 hours by the time I apply

 

[Microbug]

About 100, although now I serve as president of the club and train members in teaching skills

Microbug, you think I need shadowing even though I work in a clinic which is a much more intimate setting anyway, and volunteer/act as a research assistant in the hospital?

I thought that I was fine on the clinical experience and community service so this is kind of a shock to me

Thanks 🙂

I think you will need some more nonclincal volunteering. The reason I say this is I have a friend with great stats like you, tons of teaching, clinical volunteering, leadership with research also, and she was waitlisted everywhere, most likely from the lack of non clinical volunteering.
Clinical assistant is not the same as shadowing. Do you have experience shadowing physicians in different fields, or just one? Like others have said, try to get in some primary care shadowing also. I would hate to see someone with great stats like you fall short of a top school due to things you can fix.

 

[Goro]

Clinic assisting I took patient vitals and their histories and input information into the electronic system. Also recorded chief complaint and assisted nursing staff with blood glucose tests, etc.

I expect to have about 150 hours by the time I apply

With your stats and where you want to aim, you need more.

Look, Medicine is a service profession. You need to convince Adcoms that you know what you're getting into, and show off your altrusim.

Of SDNers who have shared whereand how they got into Really Top Schools, they have hundreds and even 1000s of clinical volunteering/experience and/or non-clinical service. While quantity sometimes has a quality on its own, quality > quantity.

Stats get you to the door, but ECs get you through.

Not all volunteering needs to be in a hospital. Think hospice, Planned Parenthood, nursing homes, rehab facilities, crisis hotlines, camps for sick children, or clinics.

Some types of volunteer activities are more appealing than others. Volunteering in a nice suburban hospital is all very well and good and all, but doesn't show that you're willing to dig in and get your hands dirty in the same way that working with the developmentally disabled (or homeless, the dying, or Alzheimers or mentally ill or elderly or ESL or domestic, rural impoverished) does. The uncomfortable situations are the ones that really demonstrate your altruism and get you 'brownie points'. Plus, they frankly teach you more -- they develop your compassion and humanity in ways comfortable situations can't.

 

[Microbug]

Thanks so much for your help. One last question: do you think I can list my publication as "under review" when I submit? Given that my app is so research focused, I think it would help a lot. Also do you think that I should put triathlons as an activity?

Are you sure you’re not applying mdphd lol.
You can group activities in AMCAS, I grouped all my shadowing together even though they’re from different hospitals. So you can group research together. I listed a paper that’s in preparation and not even submitted and it was fine

 

[Goro]

Thanks so much for your help. One last question: do you think I can list my publication as "under review" when I submit? Given that my app is so research focused, I think it would help a lot. Also do you think that I should put triathlons as an activity?

"Submitted" would more accurate. Although it doesn't impress anyone unless it's "in press"

 

[Microbug]

"Submitted" would more accurate. Although it doesn't impress anyone unless it's "in press"

I think the exception would be if your PI is a big name or HHMI or something, then people know that if you submit a paper, it will probably be published.