How many hours of research is ideal for medical school? (+a question about hobbies)

[s.nd]

Hi everyone,


Hope you are well!

I have a question regarding research hours and would be very grateful if you could help me 🙂

I was wondering how many hours of research is ideal for medical school (for top 10 school, for example). I am a sophomore and consistently go to the lab around 9h/week (I go during the breaks as well), and after some estimation, I figured that I will have around 545 hours of research by the time I apply to med school. I read in some threads that the ideal hours is around 1000, but it's a bit hard for me to reach 1000 because I started research last semester (I couldn't come to the U.S. to study in person last year due to the covid situation so couldn't do research). I was wondering if 545 is not good enough and whether I need to do more.

I also had a question about the "hobbies" section of the application: should I have achievements in a field to mention that activity as a hobby? I do belly dancing and also recently started playing the piano I love doing both of these activities for fun but I don't have any awards/achievements. Should I just not mention them in my application?

Any help is appreciated!

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[chilly_md]

For the top 10 schools, the more research hours or achievements such as posters and publications, the better. But it is generally not a good idea to focus on getting into them as admissions is very difficult. There are many schools that value research less and your 545 would be more than enough.

Hobbies can be listed without achievements. It is good to have 1 slot for that to show your interests outside medicine and academics.

You mentioned that you couldn’t come to the US to study in person last year. If you are an international student, there are only certain schools that accept those students and it would be wise to look into that to see how strong of an applicant you need to be as well as any unique things you should know.

 

[ihoop24]

Productivity of research > hours. 200 hours with a poster and pub is better than 500 hours without anything.