how much clinical experience?

[marctam86]

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Hi, im a junior, hoping to apply to mdphd programs this summer. By that time, ill have had 5 summers (3 in one lab, 2 in another) and 2 schoolyears of research (in same lab) down, but no clinical experience/volunteering (other than tutoring). I have other non medical ec's, but im curious to know exactly how necessary it is for us to have clinical exposure (with research and classes as time consuming as they are).

Any insight is appreciated

 

[gbwillner]

Hi, im a junior, hoping to apply to mdphd programs this summer. By that time, ill have had 5 summers (3 in one lab, 2 in another) and 2 schoolyears of research (in same lab) down, but no clinical experience/volunteering (other than tutoring). I have other non medical ec's, but im curious to know exactly how necessary it is for us to have clinical exposure (with research and classes as time consuming as they are).

Any insight is appreciated

Good question. It's not really necessary at all for MSTPs. The research counts. At some programs, for the MD side, they really want to see that you've put in some effort to volunteer. If you apply MSTP, the research counts towards this at most places.

As an example I can tell you I never volunteered a single day to cleaning up blood in the ER or hanging out at the old folks' home. I did "shadow" a doctor ONCE and I was in a pre-medical honorary thingie, which gave me some opportunity to do those things (well, I had to to stay in it- I usually just went to the social events, but I remember seeing the old folks ONCE and visiting a physical therapy center ONCE. I may also have done other things (just ONCE though). I strongly recommend those pre-med honoraries. They are also a good source of information.

 

[Neuronix]

I have other non medical ec's, but im curious to know exactly how necessary it is for us to have clinical exposure (with research and classes as time consuming as they are).

We've had many debates on this topic over the years that you can probably find with a search.

They distill down to: some programs care, most don't care. Even at ones that require the MD program to sign off on you, they usually make exceptions for MD/PhD students. Everyone makes a strong argument that this isn't true at UCSF for example, i.e. that you'll need good volunteer experience to get the MD approval, but I have no idea. I know several people in my program who otherwise weren't stellar beyond the usual admitted student and didn't have any clinical exposure before they started. Some adcoms feel it's essential since you're getting an MD as well. If you want to hedge your bets, you could do say 5 hours a week for half a year or even a semester (the 50-100 hour total thing) at the local ER.

I had an interviewing applicant at dinner last year tell me she was mad at me for telling people not to worry about doing volunteering 😀. I don't blame her, personally I think you should have some volunteering experience before starting. But, that being said I'm here to report that it's way down on the list for most MD/PhD adcoms.

 

[Vader]

I would at minimum do some shadowing to see if medicine is something you would even like. Doesn't have to be a huge time committment. Otherwise, how would you know that going through medical school would be worth it for you?

I was able to shadow my PI in clinical and in the hospital, as well as volunteer in a couple of clinical settings without becoming too burdensome.