How important is a Clinical Medical Job ?

[2026PreMed]

Hello all.

I am already racking up Clinical Volunteer hours and will be collecting non-clinical hours and research hours soon.

Assuming I have these in good quantities by my application date (2026) would a medical job really help or would I be better off investing the time into GPA/MCAT.

Additionally if I do not have a Clinical Medical Job will it hurt my application ? Will adcoms look at me differently ?

Thanks 🙂

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[Mr.Smile12]

You have to walk and chew gum at the same time. You must invest time to improving your GPA/MCAT while maintaining a commitment to serve others in need and become familiar with how healthcare works.

 

[Goro]

Hello all.

I am already racking up Clinical Volunteer hours and will be collecting non-clinical hours and research hours soon.

Assuming I have these in good quantities by my application date (2026) would a medical job really help or would I be better off investing the time into GPA/MCAT.

Additionally if I do not have a Clinical Medical Job will it hurt my application ? Will adcoms look at me differently ?

Thanks 🙂

Medical schools do not require employment in medicine. All they want is patient contact experience, which can be employment or volunteer.

The whole idea is to get you to know what you are getting into, and to show us that you really want to be around sick people for the next 30 to 40 years.

I believe having employment experience is a good thing.

 

[LizzyM]

Having employment experience is a good thing but it need not be clinical employment (if something pays better or is of greater interest to you or requires a shorter commute, don't feel obligated to take a clinical job). That said, if you end up with a clinical job, it will help you accumulate many clinical hours in a relatively short period of time and that can be a plus.

 

[2026PreMed]

Having employment experience is a good thing but it need not be clinical employment (if something pays better or is of greater interest to you or requires a shorter commute, don't feel obligated to take a clinical job). That said, if you end up with a clinical job, it will help you accumulate many clinical hours in a relatively short period of time and that can be a plus.

So are clinical volunteer hours and clinical job hours interchangeable ? The med schools I have been looking at count them as separate attributes to an application

 

[LizzyM]

Schools may ask you to report them separately and might more highly value employment over volunteerism given that the expectations/responsibilities of employees are higher than they are of volunteers but the point is that you won't get admitted to med school if you have not had *some* clinical experience and that experience can be either volunteer or paid and many applicants have both.

 

[2026PreMed]

Schools may ask you to report them separately and might more highly value employment over volunteerism given that the expectations/responsibilities of employees are higher than they are of volunteers but the point is that you won't get admitted to med school if you have not had *some* clinical experience and that experience can be either volunteer or paid and many applicants have both.

Thank you for your response.

Would it be better for me to stay at my current position as a clinical volunteer and go for 1000+ hours or should I try to split it with a medical job. Additionaly how many hours is recommended for the clinical category all together ?

 

[LizzyM]

Thank you for your response.

Would it be better for me to stay at my current position as a clinical volunteer and go for 1000+ hours or should I try to split it with a medical job. Additionaly how many hours is recommended for the clinical category all together ?

1,000 hours as a volunteer? That is wild. If you have that much free time, it might be better to work for a paycheck given that the work is generally more demanding and stimulating than the roles filled by volunteers.

I think that 250 hours are considered a minimum for clinical experience. Some schools may look for more.

 

[2026PreMed]

1,000 hours as a volunteer? That is wild. If you have that much free time, it might be better to work for a paycheck given that the work is generally more demanding and stimulating than the roles filled by volunteers.

I think that 250 hours are considered a minimum for clinical experience. Some schools may look for more.

Is the 250 just minimum to apply or to have a chance at getting in ? Also just curious but why then do med schools report their students having much higher numbers ? For example this is a Medical School I wish to apply to : https://health.ucdavis.edu/mdprogram/admissions/pdfs/Matriculant-Demographics.pdf

The hours are in the thousands for many categories. Are these numbers inflated in anyway or is this what is expected by med schools for students.

Thank you

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Paid clinical employment is more important if you want to be a physician assistant. You have to rack up thousands of hours there.

Is the 250 just minimum to apply or to have a chance at getting in ? Also just curious but why then do med schools report their students having much higher numbers ?

For me, 150 is a threshold minimum at most schools, and 250 for the more competitive pools. It's like a 3.0 GPA... schools report their matriculants will have much higher numbers. Much of our advice is evidence/data-based. That said, the numbers are self-reported, so you can believe them as much as you want. Medical schools have no reason to alter the numbers.

By the way, I prefer they publish medians and midranges. The curve for activity hours reported by applicants is not a normal distribution, so average does not have the statistical validity to represent the pool.

 

[2026PreMed]

Paid clinical employment is more important if you want to be a physician assistant. You have to rack up thousands of hours there.


For me, 150 is a threshold minimum at most schools, and 250 for the more competitive pools. It's like a 3.0 GPA... schools report their matriculants will have much higher numbers. Much of our advice is evidence/data-based. That said, the numbers are self-reported, so you can believe them as much as you want. Medical schools have no reason to alter the numbers.

By the way, I prefer they publish medians and midranges. The curve for activity hours reported by applicants is not a normal distribution, so average does not have the statistical validity to represent the pool.

I see. Does this normal distribution rule run true for GPA as well ? I have heard many claim that a 3.7 is minimum for any med school.

Additionally is there any benefit to going past 250 and "blowing a category out of the water" so to speak ? For example if I gain 600-700 hours of volunteering would this have any noticeable effect vs 250 ?

I do not mean any offence to your comment in any way but for the life of me I cannot possibly mentally conceive that 250 would suffice anywhere given the immense and oftentimes brutal competition to get into medical school. Surely there must be many applicants with 1000-2000+ hours in these categories ? Most of my friends additionally have told me that they have over 1000 hours of volunteering as well so it cannot be that uncommon ?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I see. Does this normal distribution rule run true for GPA as well ? I have heard many claim that a 3.7 is minimum for any med school.

Additionally is there any benefit to going past 250 and "blowing a category out of the water" so to speak ? For example if I gain 600-700 hours of volunteering would this have any noticeable effect vs 250 ?

I do not mean any offence to your comment in any way but for the life of me I cannot possibly mentally conceive that 250 would suffice anywhere given the immense and oftentimes brutal competition to get into medical school. Surely there must be many applicants with 1000-2000+ hours in these categories ? Most of my friends additionally have told me that they have over 1000 hours of volunteering as well so it cannot be that uncommon ?

You can definitely expect GPA to be skewed towards 4.0 in the application pool and the matriculant pool. Medical school just attracts that many applicants who have done very well in college courses.

There is a reason why gap/growth years are valued: having near 1000+ hours is only possible with more part-time or full-time work. It shows commitment.

 

[bikes&bones]

Hello all.

I am already racking up Clinical Volunteer hours and will be collecting non-clinical hours and research hours soon.

Assuming I have these in good quantities by my application date (2026) would a medical job really help or would I be better off investing the time into GPA/MCAT.

Additionally if I do not have a Clinical Medical Job will it hurt my application ? Will adcoms look at me differently ?

Thanks 🙂

More experience is often best as having both clinical volunteering and job experience. Many jobs involve a certification which is another point on the resume. Additionally, most of the time employees have a greater scope of practice than a volunteer. Having a job shows commitment and reliability. You also get to see the trenches of healthcare and have more interactions with staff. This can help you understand all the roles of various staff. Working in the hospital setting, it is usually pretty obvious when physicians lack knowledge in nursing.
Yet, having plenty of clinical volunteering will diminish the need for a clinical job on your application, especially for schools placing a high value on volunteerism. Just let your passion for volunteering and research ring.