High school clinical experience

[Sarak510]

Hi guys,
I know that high school experiences are a big no-no on the amca app, but for secondaries should we bother to mention it when they specifically ask for "clinical experiences". I'm only asking b/c I volunteered at a hospital for a long period of time during high school and it is semi-relevant to who I am today. Any opinions would help.

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[xpinchx]

Hi guys,
I know that high school experiences are a big no-no on the amca app, but for secondaries should we bother to mention it when they specifically ask for "clinical experiences". I'm only asking b/c I volunteered at a hospital for a long period of time during high school and it is semi-relevant to who I am today. Any opinions would help.

So it was volunteer and clinical experience for a long period of time and it made a significant impact in creating the person you are today. Absolutely not, keep that crap off of your resume.

Seriously though, why are you asking? I've never heard of keeping high-school ECs off the list, they just don't want to hear about your HS GPA, honors, drama club, etc.

 

[Falco2525]

Hi guys,
I know that high school experiences are a big no-no on the amca app, but for secondaries should we bother to mention it when they specifically ask for "clinical experiences". I'm only asking b/c I volunteered at a hospital for a long period of time during high school and it is semi-relevant to who I am today. Any opinions would help.

I disagree...if it helps explain what made you decide you wanted to be a physicians and this is relevant to your reason then include it...if not dont

 

[Doctor Farty]

Are you that lazy? You really need to list it all. If you don't and they find out that you are lying on your application then you are SOL. Sorry, princess, but that is the way things are.

 

[HumbleMD]

I hope you talked about it in your Personal Statment. If they were asking for specific hours of clinical experience, I might leave it off (usually they'll give a time frame anyways). Otherwise, I'd say go ahead. Read the secondary closely though, as usually they say whether to include HS stuff or not.

 

[docdude]

my only question is - you don't have any more recent similar experiences? If you say that it shaped who you are today - what are you doing today? There are some applications that absolutely no - like some UCs, where they underline, bold and italicize that it's the last 3 years, punto. Others can be flexible. But it would honestly look odd if you put clinical experience from highschool than have nothing afterwards. I volunteered at Shriners Hospitals in high school but actually worked for them later in college - I didn't put down the high school stuff, but put down the college experience and explained the volunteering in the little blurb. So I think it really depends...

 

[8744]

Hi guys,
I know that high school experiences are a big no-no on the amca app, but for secondaries should we bother to mention it when they specifically ask for "clinical experiences". I'm only asking b/c I volunteered at a hospital for a long period of time during high school and it is semi-relevant to who I am today. Any opinions would help.

I wouldn't mention it. Would you want soembody at your medical school who was a gunner in the ninth grade?

 

[ADeadLois]

So it was volunteer and clinical experience for a long period of time and it made a significant impact in creating the person you are today. Absolutely not, keep that crap off of your resume.

Seriously though, why are you asking? I've never heard of keeping high-school ECs off the list, they just don't want to hear about your HS GPA, honors, drama club, etc.

No, they don't want to hear about high school ECs. They specifically ask for post-secondary experiences

To the OP, I would not include it unless you continued it throughout college. Otherwise, it looks like you're padding your application. It's ok to bring it up in your PS, but you should have more recent clinical experience to talk about.

 

[cnoevil]

No, they don't want to hear about high school ECs. They specifically ask for post-secondary experiences

To the OP, I would not include it unless you continued it throughout college. Otherwise, it looks like you're padding your application. It's ok to bring it up in your PS, but you should have more recent clinical experience to talk about.

Where on the AMCAS does it say do not list high school experiences....I think that if it was a significant experience and it was something that influenced her to be a doctor, I would include it.

 

[stiffany]

Where on the AMCAS does it say do not list high school experiences....I think that if it was a significant experience and it was something that influenced her to be a doctor, I would include it.

Yea, I shadowed a physician about 20 hours a week during my senior year in high school and it had a huge influence on my understanding of being a doctor, hospital life, etcetera. I still remain in contact with the physician through monthly emails and twice yearly meetings/shadowing days. While it's not as intense and I don't have a regular shadowing experience to highlight during college (just some scattered shadowing and a thesis project involving discussions with patients), I thought it was important to show this lengthy introduction even though it wasn't part of my college career. If it's important to you OP, put it in a personal statement/essay and talk about how it and further clinical experiences/exposure (even if less intense) helped drive your motivation for pursuing a clinical career.

 

[ADeadLois]

Where on the AMCAS does it say do not list high school experiences....I think that if it was a significant experience and it was something that influenced her to be a doctor, I would include it.

AMCAS often refers to the section as "Post-Secondary Experiences". If you had an experience that started in high school that carried over into college, then you should definitely include it. However, if you only participated in the activity while in high school, then it does not belong in this section. Secondaries and PS are fair game in theory (although a lot of secondaries also specify post-secondary only)...just keep in mind that adcoms will put more importance on more experiences while in college.

Bottom line: If your answer to "why medicine" is based on experiences from high school, you will have to do a good job convincing the adcom (i.e. through more recent experiences) that you have recent clinical experience that has furthered your interest in the field.

 

[cnoevil]

AMCAS often refers to the section as "Post-Secondary Experiences". If you had an experience that started in high school that carried over into college, then you should definitely include it. However, if you only participated in the activity while in high school, then it does not belong in this section. Secondaries and PS are fair game in theory (although a lot of secondaries also specify post-secondary only)...just keep in mind that adcoms will put more importance on more experiences while in college.

Bottom line: If your answer to "why medicine" is based on experiences from high school, you will have to do a good job convincing the adcom (i.e. through more recent experiences) that you have recent clinical experience that has furthered your interest in the field.

Once again I ask, where does it say "post secondary experiences only" on the AMCAS application? I just looked at my app and it says in big letters -EXPERIENCES. I concur that adcoms will probably put more importance on things that you did in college, but your life does not start there. Maybe that first high school experience is what sparked your interest in medicine...maybe adcoms want to see that being a doctor is your life long dream and that you were thinking about it in high school. I'm not saying pad up your application with a bunch of stuff that you did in high school, but if you have a significant experience, I dont see a problem in including it.

 

[MrMet31]

I listed experiences that I had while in high school (keep in mind I'm 24 now) as a member of my local ambulance corps. I also talked about the volunteer work I had done since I was in 8th grade. Most of my interviewers loved it because they "could see the development of my personality and my commitment to helping others" (their words, not mine). Did it negatively affect me? I received my acceptance letter nearly a month ago. My advice is if your experiences are relevant and help to elucidate the reasons you have for wanting to go into medicine, then by all means include them on your application.

 

[ADeadLois]

Once again I ask, where does it say "post secondary experiences only" on the AMCAS application? I just looked at my app and it says in big letters -EXPERIENCES. I concur that adcoms will probably put more importance on things that you did in college, but your life does not start there. Maybe that first high school experience is what sparked your interest in medicine...maybe adcoms want to see that being a doctor is your life long dream and that you were thinking about it in high school. I'm not saying pad up your application with a bunch of stuff that you did in high school, but if you have a significant experience, I dont see a problem in including it.

http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/2007applicationworksheet.pdf

Page 9.

I agree with your assessment on high school experiences. My point was that you need experiences in addition to those you had in high school if you refer to them in your application. Your answer to "why medicine" should not be based solely on high school experiences. And those experiences (those which were exclusive to high school) do not go on the AMCAS work/experiences section.