High school clinical experience?

[scarletgirl777]

The most nebulous requirement associated with med school apps for me is the clinical experience. I spent 3 years as a "candy striper" during high school, and this really helped solidify for me my desire to become a doctor. However, once I got to college, I decided I did not want to essentially repeat the same experience over again and did not do the 300 hours of hospital volunteering that apparently every premed does. The summer before my junior year, I did work full time as a clinical researcher in a hospital (the job entailed giving structured interviews to eligible patients in association with determining mental health and other medical outcomes) and did shadow my PI, who is a primary care physician, for half a day.

I am applying this summer, and my question is: can I refer to my high school volunteering experience? I have been told by my premed advisor that it's always bad to talk about things done in high school, but frankly I really want to show them that I did do the standard candystriping and explain the deficit in college. Also, in my high school volunteering, during most of the work I did, I was around nurses more than I was around doctors--do you think that is a huge negative? And have people who were volunteers in college had a substantively different experience where they were somehow more involved? I guess that part of my issue and part of the reason that I did other EC's instead of doing the 300 hours is that I feel that a hospital volunteer doesn't really get to do much of what a real doctor does anyway.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[brianmartin]

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you can talk meaningfully about experiences you've had. You'll probably be asked what you DID do in undergrad though.

 

[Catalystik]

You wouldn't list the high-school hospital volunteering separately in the area of the other ECs, but you can refer to it in the personal statement, which you should as it seems this was a major determining factor in your deciding to go into medicine.

One way in which you could list high school "candy striping" in the EC area, is if you do other hospital volunteerism during the college years. Then you can lump it all together and group the hours, but also detail what you did during each volunteer experience. That would mean you'd have to go back now and get more hours, but it could be in a completely different area of the hospital, like ER or Post-Op.

 

[Jolie South]

if you have clinical exposure through your research, you're probably fine. to be sure though, you could shadow your PI more than once.

anecdotally, i didn't have a ton of clinical exposure on my app. i only put down the time i spent observing at clinics in the developing country where i worked for 2 years. when asked about it in interviews, i always mentioned the clinical rotation program that i did through my high school. the interviewers seemed satisfied with that.

 

[iA-MD2013]

if you have clinical exposure through your research, you're probably fine. to be sure though, you could shadow your PI more than once.

anecdotally, i didn't have a ton of clinical exposure on my app. i only put down the time i spent observing at clinics in the developing country where i worked for 2 years. when asked about it in interviews, i always mentioned the clinical rotation program that i did through my high school. the interviewers seemed satisfied with that.

Wait, it's ok to mention clinical experience in high school? Did you list it on the primary or just mention it in the interview? I did a lot of crap in high school...it would be nice to be able to mention it somewhere 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

if you have clinical exposure through your research, you're probably fine.

Disagree. I've known several folks who have been told by schools that clinical research counts as research not clinical experience regardless of the level of patient exposure. One person (whose experience is similar to OPs) was told this in an interview and believes (from adcom feedback) that lack of bona fide clinical experience is a big part of the reason they didn't get in at many places. So no, don't assume research will meet the clinical experience "requirement", you need to do something in college on top of that to cross the t's and dot the i's.

In terms of high school stuff, you can mention it in the PS as evidence that you have been exposed to medicine and doing volunteer work since early on, but schools really want to see what you have done in college (or beyond) in terms of clinical experience. So you cannot list high school stuff as an EC, and it doesn't carry the same weight. It does tend to give a longevity component to the stuff you continued in college though, which could be a plus.

 

[Jolie South]

Disagree. I've known several folks who have been told by schools that clinical research counts as research not clinical experience regardless of the level of patient exposure. One person (whose experience is similar to OPs) was told this in an interview and believes (from adcom feedback) that lack of bona fide clinical experience is a big part of the reason they didn't get in at many places. So no, don't assume research will meet the clinical experience "requirement", you need to do something in college on top of that to cross the t's and dot the i's.

In terms of high school stuff, you can mention it in the PS as evidence that you have been exposed to medicine and doing volunteer work since early on, but schools really want to see what you have done in college (or beyond) in terms of clinical experience. So you cannot list high school stuff as an EC, and it doesn't carry the same weight. It does tend to give a longevity component to the stuff you continued in college though, which could be a plus.

oh, didn't know that. i thought clinical research was heavy on patient interaction and would count. 😱

OP, definitely get more then. you have time. find a volunteering position now or see if you can shadow your PI and other physicians regularly. when you fill out amcas, you'll be able to put it on there.

 

[scarletgirl777]

Thanks to all for the advice. I think I'm going to shadow a few different kinds of doctors for several more hours in the next couple of months. I think it will actually be more personally valuable to see what different specialties do than to repeat the general candystriping experience (what a quaint term 🙂). I'm a bit confused by how often you mean when you suggest regularly?

 

[Jolie South]

Thanks to all for the advice. I think I'm going to shadow a few different kinds of doctors for several more hours in the next couple of months. I think it will actually be more personally valuable to see what different specialties do than to repeat the general candystriping experience (what a quaint term 🙂). I'm a bit confused by how often you mean when you suggest regularly?

i meant as opposed to once. see if you can go one day every two weeks or whatever fits into your schedule.

 

[NJDIF]

when i filled out AMCAS, i was told NOT to list anything i did in high school, unless i continued it into college.

its a fine thing to bring up at an interview, but dont put it on amcas.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

when i filled out AMCAS, i was told NOT to list anything i did in high school, unless i continued it into college.

its a fine thing to bring up at an interview, but dont put it on amcas.

I agree. I think it risks giving the appearance that you're trying to "pad" your ECs because you didn't do enough during college.

 

[Jolie South]

Wait, it's ok to mention clinical experience in high school? Did you list it on the primary or just mention it in the interview? I did a lot of crap in high school...it would be nice to be able to mention it somewhere 🙂

no i mentioned it in interviews. as law2doc said, you could probably draw from your experiences for your PS though as they have probably had an impact on your desire to enter medicine.

OP-do you have any nonclinical volunteering that you've done in college? what were your other ECs?

 

[scarletgirl777]

My other volunteering/activism-related ECs are:

• 2 years of being in the leadership of a mentorship program
• 3 years of miscellaneous (paid) tutoring for various organizations
• 2 years of being in the leadership of an organization that strives to raise health awareness and perform health screenings. activities took place in homeless shelters, not hospitals, and was not under the supervision of health professionals
• 2 one-week service trips: 1 to build homes, 1 for HIV education

I'm not worried about having enough general service activitieson my resume, I was just worried about whether they fit the right definition of clinical experience.

 

[LizzyM]

My other volunteering/activism-related ECs are:

• 2 years of being in the leadership of a mentorship program
• 3 years of miscellaneous (paid) tutoring for various organizations
• 2 years of being in the leadership of an organization that strives to raise eye health awareness and test for refractive errors. activities took place in homeless shelters, not hospitals, and was not under the supervision of health professionals
• 2 one-week service trips: 1 to build homes, 1 for HIV education

I'm not worried about having enough general service activitieson my resume, I was just worried about whether they fit the right definition of clinical experience.

Do a little more shadowing and you should be fine. If I asked you to tell me about an unforgetable patient, would you have something to tell me?

 

[Doctorverardoll]

Upon my applying to medical school, I had a research heavy app. I spent 2 years (soon to be 3) in a clinical research setting (Circadian Research, some sleep disorders, mostly healthy) and environmental microbiology.

I had only shadowed a few doctors for a few hours each. While my lack of "clinical" was never brought up (obv. focus on my research, other ECs), I do think it adds to the case for my WLs, esp since I am intersted in primary care.

 

[SnoPearl]

Like you, I lacked clinical experience in college (mostly because I didn't develop an interest to medicine until the last year of college). You can see my MDapp for the other activities I did do, some of which were done only in the year of my application because that's when I developed my interest. I did put my high school hospital volunteering into my ECs section, not to "pad" my resume so to speak, but rather to show that yes, I have had this kind of experience. I honestly don't think doing hospital volunteering in high school is any different from doing it in college, in terms of the experience that you get. Because it's on my AMCAS app, I got asked about it at many schools, and I talk about it being a meaningful experience in terms of seeing how the hospital staff works to serve the patients and their families. I can't say whether or not this affected my applications to more competitive schools, but it certainly didn't prevent me from getting interviews and acceptances.

p.s. Regarding mentioning this experience in your PS - I found that my interviewers rarely remembered the details of my PS (only the overarching sentiment). Unless you plan on dedicating a paragraph to this experience, putting it in your PS probably won't achieve much.

 

[Depakote]

Don't list it in your EC's section. It's too old to be worth it.

If it really built a foundation that your followed up on, leading to bigger and better experiences, go ahead and refer to it in your personal statement. This is what I did, but only devoted a sentence or two to it. Go ahead and use it to show a trend, but don't think what you did in HS is going to hold any value as a stand-alone activity.

 

[jscg]

Wait, so you can only put HS hospital volunteering on you AMCAS if you do more volunteering in college? I did 200 hours in HS and if that's the case, I think I'll be contacting the hospital near my school very soon!

 

[146233]

Wait, so you can only put HS hospital volunteering on you AMCAS if you do more volunteering in college? I did 200 hours in HS and if that's the case, I think I'll be contacting the hospital near my school very soon!

The extracurricular activities you list are supposed to be those you did while in college. The only exception to that is for an activity you started in high school but continued through college.

 

[ryandote]

.

 

[146233]

BTW, i earned my Eagle Scout award when I was 16-17, but I put it on my AMCAS. (I actually put it in conjunction with some volunteering I did as a Scoutmaster... I don't know if I would have burned a whole spot just for the Eagle). There have been a few big debates on here about Scouting, but I don't regret putting it on there at all. I was asked quite a few times on my interview trail about it, and I feel like it was a positive thing. So there.

I did too. I even wore my Eagle lapel pin on one of my interviews and was asked about it in the first 5 minutes.

 

[ryandote]

.

 

[146233]

Shoulda thought of that. Have your ever been invited to the Eagle's Nest?

No, what is that? (I got my Eagle in 1996.)

 

[LizzyM]

Since you two hijacked the thread, I'm going to comment on Eagle Scout. Some adcom members love it, some loath it (because they know you did it in HS) unless you extended your Scouting activities into your college years.

Yes, it will be a conversation starter because everyone knows what it is and how to pronounce it and if you want an easy ice breaker or if the conversation drags, go with a question about the Eagle Scout project. I've never met anyone who wasn't enthusiastic when it comes to talking about the project and although it is seldom (ever) science or medicine related, it helps calm the appliant's nerves (thank God, she's asking me something I can talk about easily) and helps us both survive the interview.

Lesson: Just because you were asked about it at the interview doesn't make it a good EC or something that belonged on your application in the first place (on the other hand, you did get an interview with it on the application...).