how much volunteering and clinical experience is necessary

[NewKidin2block]

haven't receive interview from any schools yet, I think it's due to my lack of volunteering and clinical experience. I have tons of research experience and good MCAT scores. Do people know how much volunteering and clinical are needed?

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[omegaxx]

haven't receive interview from any schools yet, I think it's due to my lack of volunteering and clinical experience. I have tons of research experience and good MCAT scores. Do people know how much volunteering and clinical are needed?

As much as it takes for you to demonstrate, in your PS and interviews, that you understand what doctors do and can rationalize why you prefer medicine over research.

 

[armybound]

some is better than none, more is better than less.. I don't think there's a set minimum requirement.

I'd guess at least 50 hours would be a good start

 

[halal meat]

How would you document volunteering hours?

I just use a spreadsheet, listing Date, Time spent and Activity.

Then right after the listed activity, my supervisor would sign it.

Is this acceptable?

 

[mikeinsd]

i never documented anything, and was never asked to prove that I did anything, and like everyone else said, you need enough. There is no magic number... even the 50 hours mentioned above is worthless if you didnt learn anything from it, because that is what the med schools want, to see that you did something and that you learned from it

what is the nature of the experience you do have? who is this supervisor person, how long have you been doing it, etc... this info would help people give you suggestions that would be a little more tailored to your app

 

[Anastasis]

If you really have decent stats and yet you haven't gotten any interviews then it very well might be because you lack clinical experience (now cue all the people who will swear they got in with no experience - but obviously that's not working for the OP). I would try to find a free clinic (generally they're going to let you get away with more than a hospital setting where you're basically glorified slave labor. Though that might be good prep for 3rd yr rotations ) As lizzy puts it: Can you smell patients? Then that's good clinical experience. I'd do that full time for a few weeks or at least one day/afternoon a week for a semester (sounds like you're thinking about reapplying - that's really all you're going to have time for before you fill out AMCAS again this summer). I'm a big proponent of nonmedical volunteering as well but sounds like you don't have a lot of time, plus you're not really interested else you would have done this before now, so I'd stick with clinical volunteering.