How does it look to have no non clinical volunteering?

[SolarBear]

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Hi SDN, I have spent a lot of time volunteering at a free clinic near me where I triage and talk to the patients before they see the doctor. However I have no non clinical community volunteer experience worth mentioning on my application. How much would this hurt my chances?

I ask this question because on the msar I saw that around 90% have community non clinical volunteering at most schools as well as 90% having clinical volunteering

 

[AttemptingScholar]

1. These are that stats you are applying with. Too late to do much now.
2. As you can see, it's very uncommon to get in with no nonclinical volunteering. If the time spent at the clinic is substantial, as are other ECs, it can be slightly made up for. You may be asked to explain it, however. It won't sink you, but it will raise some questions.

 

[COMED2468]

Very much agree with the statement above about having to apply with what you've got regardless.

I'd suggest finding time to volunteer during the next year. Not only will it give you something to talk about at interviews (and depending on the school it might be worth an update later in the cycle), but it can be a real perspective check to reach into others' lives when you're stressing about and waiting for the cycle's outcomes.

 

[SolarBear]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I dont have a great reason why I dont have it, it was just one of those things I never got around to. I had heard somewhere that non clinical volunteering is more important if you get your clinical experience from paid work (to show altruism), and I had reasoned that since my clinical experience was working at a free clinic with underserved populations this would show altruism and not having non clinical volunteering wouldn't be quite as bad. Any thoughts?

 

[SolarBear]

Thanks again for the reply. Also I remembered I volunteered at a help desk at a hospital. Since this is clearly not clinical volunteering would it count as non clinical community service volunteering?

 

[SolarBear]

Ehhhhhh, I would say this could possibly be considered clinical. Were you interacting with patients and families at all?

Sort of. Mainly it was patients families asking where things were such as where their patient family member was or where the cafeteria was, etc

 

[kbac13]

I'll be quite honest. I applied with little to none non-clinical volunteering and I was accepted to 3 schools. I did have a ton of research and clinical volunteering though. So there is some "balancing out" I guess.

 

[SolarBear]

I'll be quite honest. I applied with little to none non-clinical volunteering and I was accepted to 3 schools. I did have a ton of research and clinical volunteering though. So there is some "balancing out" I guess.

Was the rest of your application extremely strong?

 

[LizzyM]

If it was taking place in a hospital and you were interacting with patients and/or patients' families, then it might be counted as clinical.
Applying without any non-clinical volunteering puts you in the bottom 10% of applicants with regard to non-clinical service. You can apply and take your chances but you might try to make non-clinical volunteering a priority this year just in case you need to reapply and because it is good for you (as mentioned above, helping others in need helps your emotional health) and good for your community.

 

[jcorpsmanMD]

I had very little non-clinical volunteering (ex. 100ish hours), it didn't seem to hurt me, nobody ever mentioned it. But like others said, it doesn't matter anymore, good luck!

 

[laxbrah20]

Hi SDN, I have spent a lot of time volunteering at a free clinic near me where I triage and talk to the patients before they see the doctor. However I have no non clinical community volunteer experience worth mentioning on my application. How much would this hurt my chances?

I ask this question because on the msar I saw that around 90% have community non clinical volunteering at most schools as well as 90% having clinical volunteering

It certainly doesn't help your chances, but as many have said before it won't stop you from getting into medical school. Try to get involved with something now so you can mention it in your secondaries and updates.

 

[Huggy]

n=1, but I only had ~40 hours of non-clinical volunteering and it was never brought up in any of the interviews I attended.

I do think that you should start volunteering in a non-clinical setting as soon as possible and continue throughout the year in case you have to reapply next cycle. As for this cycle, it can serve as a decent update post-interview.

 

[Henchman21]

Always take n=1 with a grain of salt, but I only had ~50 hours of non-clinical volunteering and was accepted at three schools. However, I was asked about it at one of these (that has a very strong primary care/community focus). Still, considering the way he worded the question, I believe his concern was more with my volunteering being a while back rather than insufficient involvement.

 

[domo125]

Going off of that, is it good to say explicitly in your primary that you're planning on getting started with non-clinical this coming academic year? I also have around 50, but said that this coming year I would make it a priority to not just do random, as-they-come events but something regular as well.