how important is non-clinical volunteer experience

[wjin06]

How important is non-clinical volunteer experience? Say, you just shadow a lot so you got the clinical stuff down, but then you do only a year or consistent volunteering.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Stick1360]

Yah good question, I have a lot of shadowing and hospital volunteering hours too and very little non clinical.

 

[michigator04]

Do it. It's more important than many on SDN like to believe.

 

[paranoid_eyes]

Do it. It's more important than many on SDN like to believe.

agree.

 

[Textuality]

In my opinion, the priority list goes: good grades/scores, clinical experience, research work/volunteering/notable EC. I think how important it is also depends on the med schools you're applying to and how many other EC's you have in general. Some schools place a heavy emphasis on community involvement and look for non-medical volunteering, other schools put more emphasis on research, etc. And if you have a lot of EC's, and some are already non medical (like competitive sports), I think you'd be ok.

I think if it's something you want to do, and you find a project you really love doing and spending time on, then by all means go for it! But I don't think there's a need to join a volunteering club and do it once and awhile just to put it on your resume at the expense of doing an EC that you thoroughly enjoy.

Just my two cents. I personally didn't have any non medical volunteering at all, but did A LOT of clinical work, and I ended up with some good acceptances. (Granted, many were at research heavy schools)