Is 1-1.5 Years of Volunteering, ECs, etc. Too Little?

[polyglotdoctor]

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tl;dr: I have very little ECs/volunteering/research right now as a sophomore in college. I have 1.5 years to gather experience. I am worried since many pre-meds have 3-4 years experience. Is 1.5 years too little?

Hello everyone.

I am a second year in college (about to finish my first quarter/semester), and I am very concerned that I have essentially no extracurricular activities aside from being President in a Spanish club, being a non-leadership member in a singing club, and 85 hours of hospital volunteering.

Since most say that it's a good idea to complete and submit my applications by the start of summer before senior year, I only have 1.5 years to engage in substantial ECs, community volunteering, clinical volunteering, etc.

My question is this. How would adcoms view 1-1.5 years of volunteering/EC/research experience? Would they question me about what I've been doing for the first 1.5 years of college and why I haven't done anything particularly useful? Can a meaningful 1-1.5 years experience be competitive next to other applicants who may have 3-4 years of equally meaningful experience?

Of course, hours are probably more important than the actual time period, but it is much better to say that you've done x hundred hours of work over 3 years (shows commitment) than that you've done x hundred hours in 6 months, for example.


I am planning on working in a soup kitchen and homeless shelter because I want to help people in those underserved populations, and maybe volunteer/work in a health clinic as well. I am also planning on joining a research lab soon.

I may also begin Kendo as another extracurricular, but this is mostly a personal hobby/enjoyment and not directly related to med school applications.

 

[LizzyM]

President of Spanish Club: leadership
Member of singing club: hobby (or club membership-- I can't remember if that is a category)
Hospital Volunteer: volunteer, clinical

That's three things for your application right there.
Now you'll add
Research: that's a category in the experience section... one summer full time or a year of part-time engagement (typically junior year) is fine.
Soup kitchen/homeless shelter: volunteer, non-clinical 1.5 years and continuing through your senior year
Health clinic: volunteer, clinical

You should also try to set up some shadowing sometime over the next 12 months. That's also a category in the experience section.

So, you have 7 items in the experience section and some of them will have been long term including your engagement in the singing club.
Not sure what Kendo is but if it is a hobby, you can list that too.



If you present your research or get research funding that will go in the experience section. If you want to highlight an award you can put that in the experience section.

tl;dr You are fine.

 

[snowballll]

Do what you can in the next 1.5 years (make sure to get clinical volunteer hours/experience like shadowing, hospital volunteering, scribing etc.) and I think you'll be fine. I didn't really start gathering clinical experiences until my last year of college so by the time I applied I had a little less than 1.5 years of hospital volunteering, a few months working at a private office, and several months of shadowing. The only EC I was involved in throughout all my college years was a sport and one other non-clinical volunteer thing. Now, I did have two years of research under my belt, a 3.8+ GPA, and a 516+ MCAT so if you can keep your GPA up and do well when you take the MCAT, I don't think you'll need to worry too much about the people who have several hundred hours. There really is no set formula for what you need to get into medical school. Also, to ease your mind, of the interviews I've attended so far, I wasn't questioned once about why I had only done a certain activity for so long and even have a few acceptances in hand.

So although I can only speak from my experience with this, you can still stack up against those superstar applicants who have been volunteering for years. It's more important what you get out of the experience (which you'll highlight in AMCAS/secondaries/interviews). Good luck! 🙂