Is 150 nonclinical volunteering adequate?

[pinkbowbunny]

More specifically: Is 150 hours of nonclinical volunteering that helps an underserved population (soup kitchen, homeless shelter, food bank, etc.) sufficient?

My nonclinical volunteering (soup kitchen) has a lot of personal significance to me. I will have 150 hours of this by the time of my application this upcoming cycle.

I have some other nonclinical volunteering (additional ~150 hours), but it is within my comfort zone and is more education and awareness focused.

I am wondering if the 150 hours at the soup kitchen, or if having "only" 150 hours will be insufficient.

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[Goro]

Almost bare minimum these days. Shoot for 200 and you'll be fine.

 

[LizzyM]

How long have you been pre-med? More will be expected the longer you have been on this path. Also, some adcoms might factor in whatever else you have going on (there are only 168 hours in a week).

 

[pinkbowbunny]

How long have you been pre-med? More will be expected the longer you have been on this path. Also, some adcoms might factor in whatever else you have going on (there are only 168 hours in a week).

I have been premed since freshman year of college, and I am now a senior. I will also have anticipated hours, but I understand these do not really "count" so to speak.

By what else I have going on, do you mean having a higher number of hours for other activities?

 

[LizzyM]

Fewer hours might be viewed as okay if you were also a D1 athlete, or were working 30 hr/week supporting your orphan siblings. The point some will make is that if you are attracted to medicine because it affords you the opportunity to "help people" you should be taking opportunities to help people with the skills you have now, and not be getting something (such as clinical experience) out of it but solely to "do good". A senior pre-med has been in college for about 200 weeks so the idea is that you should have been able to help the most needy in the community for an average of 1 hour per week for 4 years. You are a little under but you were also doing other things. A holistic review will sort that all out.

 

[pinkbowbunny]

@LizzyM For context I am not a D1 athlete, etc. I do have higher hours in other aspects of my application such as clinical experience (800-900 hours across two long-term experiences). I do not think this is what you mean when you say holistic review, but please correct me if I have misunderstood. I do have other non clinical volunteering but it is not directly helping the underserved in the same way. If you would like more details feel free to message me! I also have a WAMC post.

 

[LindaAccepted]

More specifically: Is 150 hours of nonclinical volunteering that helps an underserved population (soup kitchen, homeless shelter, food bank, etc.) sufficient?

My nonclinical volunteering (soup kitchen) has a lot of personal significance to me. I will have 150 hours of this by the time of my application this upcoming cycle.

I have some other nonclinical volunteering (additional ~150 hours), but it is within my comfort zone and is more education and awareness focused.

I am wondering if the 150 hours at the soup kitchen, or if having "only" 150 hours will be insufficient.

"Adequate" is a tough word. And a minimalist one too.

The 150 hours should prevent you from getting screened out by those schools that screen at 150 hours of non-clinical experience. Will it make you a competitive candidate at those many schools that emphasize service to the underserved? If there are a lot of applicants with more such experience, you could be at a competitive disadvantage.

Bottom line: Don't stop what you're doing because you have 150 hours in June or now.. You may have more to say when secondaries come out or when you're invited to interview.

Finally, it's not just the number of hours that count. The results you achieve and the reflection you present via your application will also determine if what you've done is "adequate."

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Nothing you do with service orientation is truly enough. The problems are intractible and stubborn (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation).

From my analysis at the admissions desk and experiences reported here, 150 hours at submission is needed to avoid getting screened out at most schools. But some schools want MUCH MORE (Rush, Loyola, and the other Jesuit schools), so don't stop. You might be okay if you get close to 150 but have a strong mission fit, but I can't guarantee anything for all schools.

250 at submission for high metrics applicants keeps your file on pace with others in this pool. You should get more of you can.

 

[pinkbowbunny]

Nothing you do with service orientation is truly enough. The problems are intractible and stubborn (food distribution, shelter volunteer, job and tax preparation, legal support, transportation services, or housing rehabilitation).

From my analysis at the admissions desk and experiences reported here, 150 hours at submission is needed to avoid getting screened out at most schools. But some schools want MUCH MORE (Rush, Loyola, and the other Jesuit schools), so don't stop. You might be okay if you get close to 150 but have a strong mission fit, but I can't guarantee anything for all schools.

250 at submission for high metrics applicants keeps your file on pace with others in this pool. You should get more of you can.

Thank you, I will absolutely continue my work with the soup kitchen and get my hours up.

 

[Chipmunk435]

I had maybe 60 hours and was accepted into multiple T20s, applications are truly holistic. SDN had me very scared I was going to get pre-II Rs from everywhere. They give some great advice but don't freak out as long as other parts of your app are strong. Obviously my experience is N=1 and they have read many more apps I have.

 

[snorkmaiden6]

I had around 115 volunteering hours total. All non clinical, zero clinical volunteering. All these “hard and fast rules” you see on SDN aren’t so hard and fast if the activities you do are meaningful and it shows. I guess I don’t know if more volunteering would have gotten me into more schools, but I’m happy with my cycle. And more importantly, I’m happy that I didn’t overload myself with activities I wasn’t passionate about or didn’t have time for just to meet hour quotas found online. Some of the advice here is really good and the hours stated are good to aim for, but I wouldn’t feel discouraged if you don’t hit all the typical check boxes.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Understand that the advice is based on probabilities. There are applicants with low GPA's and high MCATs who argue their MCAT's were more important than their GPA's. That doesn't mean this applies to everyone and all schools. There may be a GPA cutoff, but a committee will choose someone if they have a strong mission fit.

Admissions is always an artform and not a science. The whole picture is important, but those of us who do this professionally should not hide important trends from applicants.

But to the point, if you have zero, start now. If you have fewer than 150 hours, keep going. If you are going for a top brand school, do more. Have something that you can always improve on if you have to reapply.