How many volunteer hours are solid?

[Master Thinker]

Yes you can project hours you haven’t done yet that you plan to complete before matriculation. The way it works is that you put an end date that is later that’s how they know some of it is projected. For example when I applied this cycle, I could list end dates as far out as July or Aug of 2018.

Also, this may just be me but with anything I projected, I took how many hours I thought I would do in the next year and cut it, usually by about half, because things come up or you’re out traveling for interviews or you get a new gap year job which affects your availability for other things, or you move for med school earlier than you think you will or whatever form of “life happens” comes to pass. It seemed safer to low ball any projected hours than to be insincere or have to explain myself later.

Ah okay, thanks for the clarification

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[Goro]

@LizzyM @Goro

Have you ever encountered people who made up their volunteer experiences? People who stated they had 100s of hours at a hospital or something non-clinical and then were later found out to be fake?

We have, for shadowing, volunteering and research. When you ask people for details, they suddenly can't remember. Imagine that!

 

[Stagg737]

I’m always super worried about people thinking I’m lying about my hours. I spent an entire summer volunteering full time (8 hour days) M-Sa.
Then during undergrad I had nearly a full time job while at school. I’ve got over 7k hours of clinical hours and counting.

I wouldn't be worried. I had a fraternity brother with over 10k clinical hours by the time he applied for medical school (worked in college, went to grad school, worked for a year, etc). As long as you give your schedule (ie 8 hour days 6 days a week for X weeks/months/years) and can talk about it in an interview it shouldn't be an issue.

I was told by my premed advisor that ~100 hours of clinical volunteering was average but best aim for >150 hrs clinical and ~40 hrs shadowing.

Your advisor may be correct for a specific school, but not overall. For example, when I applied my school expected applicants to have done 75 hours of shadowing and my class's average was over 100. I know of several schools who say average clinical volunteer/work hours is around 400. To give that context, 100 hours is 2.5 weeks of full-time employment (or one week if you're a surgery resident), work full-time in a clinical setting for 1 summer (~10 weeks) and you just hit 400 hours.

Frankly, I'm always shocked when schools only ask for 100-200 clinical/shadowing hours, even for students with amazing GPAs and MCAT scores, given how many physicians wish they'd pursued a different career. It always blows my mind when I talk to people who hate what they do in their clinical rotations and residency because they didn't know what medicine is actually like.

 

[freedoctor17]

I wouldn't be worried. I had a fraternity brother with over 10k clinical hours by the time he applied for medical school (worked in college, went to grad school, worked for a year, etc). As long as you give your schedule (ie 8 hour days 6 days a week for X weeks/months/years) and can talk about it in an interview it shouldn't be an issue.



Your advisor may be correct for a specific school, but not overall. For example, when I applied my school expected applicants to have done 75 hours of shadowing and my class's average was over 100. I know of several schools who say average clinical volunteer/work hours is around 400. To give that context, 100 hours is 2.5 weeks of full-time employment (or one week if you're a surgery resident), work full-time in a clinical setting for 1 summer (~10 weeks) and you just hit 400 hours.

Frankly, I'm always shocked when schools only ask for 100-200 clinical/shadowing hours, even for students with amazing GPAs and MCAT scores, given how many physicians wish they'd pursued a different career. It always blows my mind when I talk to people who hate what they do in their clinical rotations and residency because they didn't know what medicine is actually like.

I was shadowing a doctor and he introduced me to another doctor who was telling me to not go to med school lol. He was like go to PA school instead

 

[calivianya]

Interesting. I have 400+ clinical volunteering hours, split between two different hospital units (one adult, one peds) and my most recent interviewer gave me a hard time about not having more hours, specifically why I didn’t have any non-hospital clinical volunteering. He prob has a point that it would be good to diversify more but I definitely had the feeling he didn’t think I had enough hours.

Not unusual behavior. I had the same thing come up during one of my interviews. >10,000 hours paid clinical experience, >150 hours clinical volunteering... and I still got grilled on my community service, which wasn't much (<30 hours). I always thought adcoms liked diversity... how does 10,000+ clinical hours not count as diversity, if supposedly >1,000 is unusual/extraordinary?

And, for the record, why don't adcoms take into account the fact that some of us have to put food on the table/keep our lights on? Sorry for my lack of community service; I was trying to pay my mortgage with my full time job where I sometimes work up to 72 hours/week (6 12-hour shifts). I would like to see these people work six 12s in seven days and still make time for community service. I have racked up 11 straight days before (132 hours in 11 days), but I guess I'm supposed to take amphetamines to stay awake so I can feed people at a soup kitchen, too.

I've determined you've got to check all the boxes before any sort of different or unusual pre-med experience counts for MD schools. DO schools are a little more forgiving of applicants having real lives.

 

[PopeKnope23]

Sorry to jump in! But I've been volunteering at a free clinic since September (tried to start earlier, but it took them all summer to get back to me). I am there when the MD's are there, which is only once a week for about 3 hours. By the time July-ish rolls around, I will have about 75-80 hours total with them. Are they going to ask why I didn't start earlier?

I also have about 30 hours of ER volunteering back from Summer of 2016. However, I didn't enjoy the experience. I would round on patients for about 45 min, and the rest of the time I would literally sit there, no matter how much I asked for things to do. The people there completely ignored me. I loved the patient interaction, but it was rather limited. Will adcoms look down upon my stopping of this volunteering and waiting so long to start another clinical vol experience? What I'm doing now is so so fun. The docs are a lot of fun to work with, and teach us. I get hands on patient experience (it's where I learned to take bp, haha). I wish I could get more hours, but the MD's only come for that one night. I've contemplated going back to the ER, but I know I would be doing that just to get more clinical hours, not because I was passionate about the experience. Thoughts?

 

[Toutie]

Sorry to jump in! But I've been volunteering at a free clinic since September (tried to start earlier, but it took them all summer to get back to me). I am there when the MD's are there, which is only once a week for about 3 hours. By the time July-ish rolls around, I will have about 75-80 hours total with them. Are they going to ask why I didn't start earlier?

I also have about 30 hours of ER volunteering back from Summer of 2016. However, I didn't enjoy the experience. I would round on patients for about 45 min, and the rest of the time I would literally sit there, no matter how much I asked for things to do. The people there completely ignored me. I loved the patient interaction, but it was rather limited. Will adcoms look down upon my stopping of this volunteering and waiting so long to start another clinical vol experience? What I'm doing now is so so fun. The docs are a lot of fun to work with, and teach us. I get hands on patient experience (it's where I learned to take bp, haha). I wish I could get more hours, but the MD's only come for that one night. I've contemplated going back to the ER, but I know I would be doing that just to get more clinical hours, not because I was passionate about the experience. Thoughts?

Isn't the free clinic open when the Drs aren't there? Why can't you get additional hours then?

 

[PopeKnope23]

Isn't the free clinic open when the Drs aren't there? Why can't you get additional hours then?

The NP that comes does not welcome students, unfortunately. Other than that we only have dentists and chiropractors that come.

 

[RaspberrySlushy]

We have, for shadowing, volunteering and research. When you ask people for details, they suddenly can't remember. Imagine that!

Omg this has really happened?? Guess I shouldn’t be so surprised but wow.

 

[Goro]

Omg this has really happened?? Guess I shouldn’t be so surprised but wow.

Yup.

 

[zurc2014]

I’m always super worried about people thinking I’m lying about my hours. I spent an entire summer volunteering full time (8 hour days) M-Sa.
Then during undergrad I had nearly a full time job while at school. I’ve got over 7k hours of clinical hours and counting.

No one is going to think you are lying. I had those kind of hours for a lot of things (ie. clinical, research, ect) No one batted an eye. I wouldnt worry about adcoms not believing you.

 

[Turkishking]

I have over 450+ clinical with a leadership position, and I’m still working on areas of my application. I would assume 200+ of clinical volunteering is above the threshold of being cookie-cutter. 400+ phenomenal.

 

[Sadlyanon]

@gonnif @Goro @LizzyM

Hello,
I know this form is old, but on the application is it okay to group shadowing and clinical hours together? I have a job as ophthalmic tech with about 1200 hours so far according to my pay stubs. During my training (unpaid) I was shadowing but not really sure about how many hours did for shadowing. Also, since this started out originally as clinical volunteering non-paid work experience how does that differentiate from the others as well. I dont want to be dishonest for double counting but I also dont want to use three slots for this one activity that could be listed as: 1.clinical volunteering non paid, 2.shadowing, and 3.clinical experience.

 

[LizzyM]

List employment as employment. If you have 1200 hours of paid work experience in a clinical setting, you have enough of that, and need not even add the clinical volunteering unless you really want to.
List shadowing as shadowing. You can group shadowing of more than one specialty in one box.
List clinical volunteering as clinical volunteering. If you have non-clinical volunteering all the better.

That's three boxes out of 15.

 

[Sadlyanon]

List employment as employment. If you have 1200 hours of paid work experience in a clinical setting, you have enough of that, and need not even add the clinical volunteering unless you really want to.
List shadowing as shadowing. You can group shadowing of more than one specialty in one box.
List clinical volunteering as clinical volunteering. If you have non-clinical volunteering all the better.

That's three boxes out of 15.

Thank you for the clarification!! I did it wrong last year, glad to know the difference!

 

[DBNBRUIN94]

sorry this may have been asked before but is it frowned upon if i dont have any "shadowing" experience?
-so ive been an ED scribe for some time and will have around 1500-2000 hours of scribing but like its definitely clinical/essentially shadowing +more, but its not technically shadowing so will that hurt me?
-i also have around 200+ clinical volunteering at a free clinic and ~100+ non-clinical in health insurance at the clinic and at a halfway house type place

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

At least 1000 in solid, another thousand each in liquid and gas. Plus 500 in plasma. You can skip BEC if you want to but why would you?

 

[LizzyM]

sorry this may have been asked before but is it frowned upon if i dont have any "shadowing" experience?
-so ive been an ED scribe for some time and will have around 1500-2000 hours of scribing but like its definitely clinical/essentially shadowing +more, but its not technically shadowing so will that hurt me?
-i also have around 200+ clinical volunteering at a free clinic and ~100+ non-clinical in health insurance at the clinic and at a halfway house type place

You have only seen physicians in the ED and you have not seen the portion of the physician's work week that is outside of the direct patient care role (granted the ED doesn't have as much of that sort of thing as internists and family medicine docs do-- following up on lab results, calling patients at home, electronic messaging, insurance pre-authorization, etc.).

You might be okay with what you've done but it is not for nothing that AMCAS now has a tag specifically for shadowing.

 

[LoveBeingHuman:)]

List employment as employment. If you have 1200 hours of paid work experience in a clinical setting, you have enough of that, and need not even add the clinical volunteering unless you really want to.
List shadowing as shadowing. You can group shadowing of more than one specialty in one box.
List clinical volunteering as clinical volunteering. If you have non-clinical volunteering all the better.

That's three boxes out of 15.

Few questions about non-clinical volunteering:

Is all non-clinical volunteering created equal?
How many applicants do you see who have non-clinical vs. those who do not (percentage wise)?

 

[DrRiker]

sorry this may have been asked before but is it frowned upon if i dont have any "shadowing" experience?
-so ive been an ED scribe for some time and will have around 1500-2000 hours of scribing but like its definitely clinical/essentially shadowing +more, but its not technically shadowing so will that hurt me?
-i also have around 200+ clinical volunteering at a free clinic and ~100+ non-clinical in health insurance at the clinic and at a halfway house type place

Being a scribe is quite similar to shadowing. In theory you'd be okay. However, some schools have 10000+ applicants to sort through. It's really easy to narrow down a list by deleting anyone beneath a certain threshold.

Few questions about non-clinical volunteering:

Is all non-clinical volunteering created equal?
How many applicants do you see who have non-clinical vs. those who do not (percentage wise)?

Page 3 of this will be useful:
https://www.aamc.org/download/434596/data/usingmcatdata2016.pdf
Community service that combines other elements listed there will be better than other volunteering

 

[DBNBRUIN94]

following up on lab results, calling patients at home, electronic messaging, insurance pre-authorization,

I actually see 2/3 of what you've mentioned every now and then in the ED. But regardless, thanks! that makes sense.

Being a scribe is quite similar to shadowing. In theory you'd be okay. However, some schools have 10000+ applicants to sort through. It's really easy to narrow down a list by deleting anyone beneath a certain threshold.

I see, thanks for the input! it seems like i should start shadowing a physician.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

You have only seen physicians in the ED and you have not seen the portion of the physician's work week that is outside of the direct patient care role (granted the ED doesn't have as much of that sort of thing as internists and family medicine docs do-- following up on lab results, calling patients at home, electronic messaging, insurance pre-authorization, etc.).

You might be okay with what you've done but it is not for nothing that AMCAS now has a tag specifically for shadowing.

Would various clinical experiences in different departments within a hospital be of similar value to shadowing several different doctors?

In other words,

volunteer in one department consistently, and shadow several docs,

or

volunteer in several different types of departments, shadow only one doc

 

[de Ribas]

Would various clinical experiences in different departments within a hospital be of similar value to shadowing several different doctors?

In other words,

volunteer in one department consistently, and shadow several docs,

or

volunteer in several different types of departments, shadow only one doc

volunteering does not equal shadowing.

shadowing one doc does not equal shadowing various docs.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

volunteering does not equal shadowing.

shadowing one doc does not equal shadowing various docs.

Thank you. Nirvana... achieved.

 

[DrRiker]

Thank you. Nirvana... achieved.

Nirvana.... nevermind.

 

[ak-aka-dak]

@LizzyM @Goro @gonnif Is it frowned upon or does it raise eyebrows for an applicant to have only 75-100 hours for each non-clinical EC that has been spread out over 5 years? One EC was monthly and not during the summer, and one was 2 to 3 hours on sporadic Saturdays with a grassroots organization that was not consistent with when help was needed. Sometimes there would be months off at a time. How should these be listed on the application?

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM @Goro @gonnif Is it frowned upon or does it raise eyebrows for an applicant to have only 75-100 hours for each non-clinical EC that has been spread out over 5 years? One EC was monthly and not during the summer, and one was 2 to 3 hours on sporadic Saturdays with a grassroots organization that was not consistent with when help was needed. Sometimes there would be months off at a time. How should these be listed on the application?

I'd list the school year activity with start and end dates for each school year.
Separately, I'd recount the grassroots organization. Give start and end dates and in the description say something to the effect that you worked on [insert #] Saturdays as needed during the years that you were involved with this cause. Then describe what you did for the organization...

 

[Deleted member 737595]

volunteering is doing something for others
shadowing is something doing for yourself
you can mention observation of physicians while volunteering

This is what I mean. Volunteering is more important I feel like, and it can have the double whammy of observing physicians.

Then again @LizzyM says that clinical volunteering is more of a selfish deed vs non-clinical which is purely for others... so there's that

 

[LizzyM]

This is what I mean. Volunteering is more important I feel like, and it can have the double whammy of observing physicians.

Then again @LizzyM says that clinical volunteering is more of a selfish deed vs non-clinical which is purely for others... so there's that

whenever you get the "two birds/one stone" mentality, the adcom may give you credit for only one bird.

 

[de Ribas]

Volunteering is more important I feel like, and it can have the double whammy of observing physicians.

not all volunteering opportunities allow to observe physicians.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

not all volunteering opportunities allow to observe physicians.

Agreed.

Is that Élie Metchnikoff as your profile pic? If so, I have the highest respect in the world for you.

 

[de Ribas]

Agreed.

Is that Élie Metchnikoff as your profile pic? If so, I have the highest respect in the world for you.

yes, that's him.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

yes, that's him.

 

[Jack-Kennedy35]

(suboptimal, decent, exceptional)
1. clinical hours (work or volunteer): 99, 150, 1,000+ (employment)
2. non-clinical volunteering hours: 99, 150, 1,000+ (full-time gap year)
3. shadowing hours: 8, 40, 80

Hey @LizzyM are these hours, specifically for clinical and non clinical volunteering, the recommended amount for each activity or the group as a whole?

 

[LizzyM]

Hey @LizzyM are these hours, specifically for clinical and non clinical volunteering, the recommended amount for each activity or the group as a whole?

For each category: clinical//non-clinical volunteering//shadowing.

 

[Jack-Kennedy35]

For each category: clinical//non-clinical volunteering//shadowing.

Thanks for your reply @LizzyM ! I have one more question if you don’t mind.If we did a particular extracurricular activity while in school and after graduating, continued to perform similar tasks with a different organization can I group the two into one section as they entitled, for the most part, similar tasks?

 

[deleted555445]

If you have substantial clinical exposure and non-clinical volunteering, is it a death sentence to apply with no clinical volunteering? I did about 100 hours in a hospital 8 years ago (non-trad), but I really didn’t feel like I helped anyone the entire time I was there bringing people food and water. I probably won’t list that experience on AMCAS since it is so outdated.

I have over 1,000 hours volunteering with 2 national organizations, with leadership in each, but neither would be considered clinical. One could argue one organization is clinical, due to half the role taking place in a hospital, but with no planned patient contact, so probably not.

On the other side I have extensive exposure to the life of various specialties of MD through shadowing, including PCP, and continue to pursue more when I find the opportunity. If I added clinical volunteering, I don’t think I would be helping people as much as I can in my other roles, and don’t think I would develop or learn much about the world of medicine. Is this going to be a big hole in my application?

 

[mindlight1]

If you have substantial clinical exposure and non-clinical volunteering, is it a death sentence to apply with no clinical volunteering? I did about 100 hours in a hospital 8 years ago (non-trad), but I really didn’t feel like I helped anyone the entire time I was there bringing people food and water. I probably won’t list that experience on AMCAS since it is so outdated.

I have over 1,000 hours volunteering with 2 national organizations, with leadership in each, but neither would be considered clinical. One could argue one organization is clinical, due to half the role taking place in a hospital, but with no planned patient contact, so probably not.

On the other side I have extensive exposure to the life of various specialties of MD through shadowing, including PCP, and continue to pursue more when I find the opportunity. If I added clinical volunteering, I don’t think I would be helping people as much as I can in my other roles, and don’t think I would develop or learn much about the world of medicine. Is this going to be a big hole in my application?

I think you will be doing yourself a big disservice by not having clinical volunteering on your app.

 

[LizzyM]

I think you will be doing yourself a big disservice by not having clinical volunteering on your app.

clinical volunteering is not required if one has had a paid clinical experience. That said, non-clinical volunteering is important.

 

[mindlight1]

clinical volunteering is not required if one has had a paid clinical experience. That said, non-clinical volunteering is important.

Yes, I should have said clinical experience, which is missing.

 

[deleted555445]

Yes, I should have said clinical experience, which is missing.

Is shadowing part of clinical experience, or is patient care in some manner required?

Edit: Additional thoughts. What I imagined the purpose of clinical exposure was determining whether or not you would enjoy the job when you got through all the training, which I think shadowing allows you to do. Then, in addition you should demonstrate you are active in the community and care about helping, which volunteering would show. If they overlap, then you kill two birds with one stone, like as a volunteer scribe. But leaving a non clinical volunteering job I’ve been doing for a few years just to check a box by getting 100 hours somewhere else doesn’t seem like something admissions committees would reward, but I obviously don’t know what the right answer would be.

 

[mindlight1]

Is shadowing part of clinical experience, or is patient care in some manner required?

Edit: Additional thoughts. What I imagined the purpose of clinical exposure was determining whether or not you would enjoy the job when you got through all the training, which I think shadowing allows you to do. Then, in addition you should demonstrate you are active in the community and care about helping, which volunteering would show. If they overlap, then you kill two birds with one stone, like as a volunteer scribe. But leaving a non clinical volunteering job I’ve been doing for a few years just to check a box by getting 100 hours somewhere else doesn’t seem like something admissions committees would reward, but I obviously don’t know what the right answer would be.

If you do a search here, you'll see that the adcoms are looking for 3 distinct categories - shadowing, clinical experience (either work or volunteering or a combo of both) and nonclinical volunteering. The rationale for these: shadowing helps to show the daily life of a doctor, clinical experience gives you the opportunity to interact with patients and develop an understanding the treatment team, and nonclinical volunteering (esp involving the underserved/disadvantaged) shows the schools you have a heart.

This is the expectation and I think having an element missing can hurt you. You may not agree with the rationale but that is not the point. Heck, I am a middle-aged physician and I never had any shadowing or clinical experience before applying years ago. But this is what is expected today.

 

[deleted555445]

If you do a search here, you'll see that the adcoms are looking for 3 distinct categories - shadowing, clinical experience (either work or volunteering or a combo of both) and nonclinical volunteering. The rationale for these: shadowing helps to show the daily life of a doctor, clinical experience gives you the opportunity to interact with patients and develop an understanding the treatment team, and nonclinical volunteering (esp involving the underserved/disadvantaged) shows the schools you have a heart.

This is the expectation and I think having an element missing can hurt you. You may not agree with the rationale but that is not the point. Heck, I am a middle-aged physician and I never had any shadowing or clinical experience before applying years ago. But this is what is expected today.

I understand from reading around here that clinical volunteering is expected, I'm just trying to understand why better. I don't know if this was unique to me, but in my shadowing experience I interacted with patients a ton more than when I had my "clinical volunteering" way back when. Most had a long relationship with the doctor I was shadowing, and would tell me about their illnesses, their relationship with him, etc, while he was examining them. When I volunteered, I would walk around and offer patients water for 90% of my time, and was discouraged from spending too much time chatting with anyone.

As a slightly older (not old though) applicant, I'm trying to balance a full-time industry research job, a second part-time job in the military reserve, coursework at a local university to up my GPA, and my current volunteer commitments, not to mention real-person time with my fiance. The only reasonable way I could add clinical volunteering would be to quit my current volunteer job and try to find a volunteering position that is flexible for nights and weekends (people have recommended potentially hospice). I get that it would check the box, but I just really have a hard time believing that any rational committee member would want me to leave a volunteer position where I help people to a job where my contributions are probably going to be minimal at best, given I don't have any certifications that allow me to treat patients. In fact, I would worry it would be viewed negatively as a box-checking position, which would call into question the motivations for any community service I have done.

I'm not trying to be argumentative, I'm genuinely looking for advice, which I have already received, and which is making me think I should maybe take a sick day and get a CNA license, to at least have a better experience than last time. I'm just putting my thoughts out there to see how other people feel about whether box-checking (i.e. bringing water to patients on a post-op floor) clinical volunteering has more value than non-clinical volunteering with direct impact to undeserved communities.

Edit: Thank you to both @mindlight1 and @LizzyM for the above advice, by the way.

 

[On_The_Way_Up]

What is a safe amount of:

1. clinical volunteering hours
2. non-clinical volunteering hours
3. shadowing hours

that would make an applicant competitive for each tier? (top, mid, bottom) @Goro @gonnif @LizzyM @gyngyn

Also is research important for mid and lower tier or is it only top tier that cares?

1. 300+
2. 300+
3. 100

To be amongst the top. But at some schools it might be more.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Interesting. I have 400+ clinical volunteering hours, split between two different hospital units (one adult, one peds) and my most recent interviewer gave me a hard time about not having more hours, specifically why I didn’t have any non-hospital clinical volunteering. He prob has a point that it would be good to diversify more but I definitely had the feeling he didn’t think I had enough hours.

Was this Rush, by any chance?

 

[Hopefulpremed123]

Thanks for your reply @LizzyM ! I have one more question if you don’t mind.If we did a particular extracurricular activity while in school and after graduating, continued to perform similar tasks with a different organization, can I group the two into one section as they entitled, for the most part, similar tasks?

@LizzyM I have a similar inquiry! What is your take on the matter?

 

[LizzyM]

@LizzyM If we did a particular extracurricular activity while in school and, after graduating, continued to perform similar tasks with a different organization, can I group the two into one section as they entitled, for the most part, similar tasks?What is your take on the matter?

The only problem I see here is that they were different organizations, perhaps different cities, different contacts. I'm not sure, from a technical standpoint, how you would combine the two unless you included a statement in the text box saying, "After graduation I have continued to [activity] with [new organization] for about x hrs/wk."

 

[GameOfZones]

(suboptimal, decent, exceptional)
1. clinical hours (work or volunteer): 99, 150, 1,000+ (employment)
2. non-clinical volunteering hours: 99, 150, 1,000+ (full-time gap year)
3. shadowing hours: 8, 40, 80

How, if at all, does this change with COVID causing activities to end in March? I would have had over 150 hours non-clinical volunteering from my activities if they continued through June, for example, but since they paused in March, I'm well short of that number now.

 

[KnightDoc]

How, if at all, does this change with COVID causing activities to end in March? I would have had over 150 hours non-clinical volunteering from my activities if they continued through June, for example, but since they paused in March, I'm well short of that number now.

I highly doubt COVID is going to change expectations, certainly not for the 150 hours. You will be competing with way more than enough candidates who had way more than this number of hours before March, so the schools will have no incentive to make allowances for people who waited until the last minute to get their hours in. Do what you think is best for you, but a lot of people are going to push applications back a year because of this.

 

[GameOfZones]

I highly doubt COVID is going to change expectations, certainly not for the 150 hours. You will be competing with way more than enough candidates who had way more than this number of hours before March, so the schools will have no incentive to make allowances for people who waited until the last minute to get their hours in. Do what you think is best for you, but a lot of people are going to push applications back a year because of this.

Maybe so. My takeaways from the experiences are still strong and I can write and speak about them well. it's just whether the hours will satisfy an adcom. Every other aspect of my app is great, I'm certainly not gonna push back a year because I have 100 hours nonclinical instead of 150