Is there a "magic formula" for ECs?

[Mavs88]

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I suppose this is the most variable and subjective part of an application....

What types of activities do you think are optimal and/or close to being a requirement? can you rank importance?

-Clinical Volunteering
-Shadowing
-Non-Clinical Volunteering
-Leadership
-Research
-Working a job

Any others?

My profile may look something like this by application time:

-150+ hours volunteering b/t 4 departments in hospital
-60-ish hours shadowing a few docs
-mentor at elementary school for 2 years
-volunteer at a wildlife rehab center 1 year
-SI leader (1.5 yrs)
-Summer Research Internship (400 hrs)
-Have had a job in the past.

Unless I am mistaken, my ECs are about the average student...correct? Should I be looking to improve anywhere? Are there other topics/areas to expand to?

Thanks!

 

[Lamel]

Clinical experience (via volunteering or job) and shadowing are at the tip top. Then non-clinical volunteering and research. Then the rest.

 

[darkjedi]

Your ECs look good. Don't be afraid to pursue non-medical interests as those can serve as unique points in your application.

Shadowing is critical as is some form of volunteering. Leadership and research are good pluses to have on your application, and become very important to critical for more upper-tier/research heavy schools.

 

[nemo123]

Clinical exposure is the most important and the others vary depending on what you're aiming for. There is no magic formula, but do what you enjoy and what you're passionate about (whether is it directly or indirectly related to medicine) because that's how you build your ECs and find more opportunities to improve on them.

 

[allantois]

You got it all. I think your stats are well above average (well, depending on what schools you are aiming for). Just keep doing what you are doing.

 

[Mavs88]

Thank you all for the input!

I was considering a long term research/lab position, but have found I am not passionate about it at all and will be better served pursuing some of the above activities further. I'm not applying top-heavy at all (except a couple, just b/c IS preference).

 

[Catalystik]

My profile may look something like this by application time:

-150+ hours volunteering b/t 4 departments in hospital
-60-ish hours shadowing a few docs
-mentor at elementary school for 2 years
-volunteer at a wildlife rehab center 1 year
-SI leader (1.5 yrs)
-Summer Research Internship (400 hrs)
-Have had a job in the past.

Unless I am mistaken, my ECs are about the average student...correct? Should I be looking to improve anywhere? Are there other topics/areas to expand to?

I think that your ECs are coming along well. Your research is (will be) below average duration-wise (though good hours-wise) but your nonmedical community service is (will be) far above average. Peer leadership and Teaching are other good categories to fill. What do you do as a SI leader?

 

[Time Table]

After perusing this forum for so long, I've gathered that the list would look something like this:

1) Shadowing - 50-125 hours over a handful of specialties, primary care exposure recommended
1) Clinical Volunteering/exposure - 100-200 hours can be at a hospital or clinic. Work through scribe, EMT, volunteer, etc.
3) Non-clinical Volunteering - many different places to volunteer, search for volunteering opportunities in your area
4) Leadership - Club leader, starting an organization, etc.
5) Research - For a top 20 school, flip this with (4) Leadership. Look for publication opportunities, awards, poster presentations at conferences. Need a heavy dose for top 20 and research schools.
6) Tutoring - TA, tutoring underprivileged children, etc.
7) Awards - publications, scholarships, poster presentations, conference invites/presentations there

By no means is this list exhaustive, but it should give you a good idea to strive for.

 

[Mavs88]

I think that your ECs are coming along well. Your research is (will be) below average duration-wise (though good hours-wise) but your nonmedical community service is (will be) far above average. Peer leadership and Teaching are other good categories to fill. What do you do as a SI leader?

I cover Ochem I as an SI leader. I attend the class with the students and hold 2 review sessions every week for practice on the material being covered. So, that would be part of leadership and teaching I believe. On a side not, I love it. My favorite EC.

 

[Catalystik]

I cover Ochem I as an SI leader. I attend the class with the students and hold 2 review sessions every week for practice on the material being covered. So, that would be part of leadership and teaching I believe. On a side not, I love it. My favorite EC.

I suggest listing what you've described under Teaching. If you recruit, train, schedule, and monitor other discussion leaders eventually, then I'd call it peer leadership.

 

[allantois]

I suggest listing what you've described under Teaching. If you recruit, train, schedule, and monitor other discussion leaders eventually, then I'd call it peer leadership.

That'd be good but it's usually a graduate student who gets to do that. I'm confused as to what are some common leadership positions out there.

 

[Catalystik]

I'm confused as to what are some common leadership positions out there.

Here's some easier ideas:

1) President of a club. Led meetings. Start some new initiatives. 2) Start common-interest club eg card playing, sport, adventure, campus cleanup, and make it grow. 3) Train, schedule, oversee freshman mentors. 4) Initiate food drive among your friends and collect donations for a food pantry. 5) Member of student senate. 6) successfully campaigning for a change on campus. 7) Shift supervisor, trainer of new employees or lab volunteers. 8) Team captain. 9) Chair of frat or charity subcommittee. 10) Start a business, managing a group of others to whom tasks are delegated. 11) Chief Editor of school paper or science journal.

 

[deleted407021]

Here's some easier ideas:

1) President of a club. Led meetings. Start some new initiatives. 2) Start common-interest club eg card playing, sport, adventure, campus cleanup, and make it grow. 3) Train, schedule, oversee freshman mentors. 4) Initiate food drive among your friends and collect donations for a food pantry. 5) Member of student senate. 6) successfully campaigning for a change on campus. 7) Shift supervisor, trainer of new employees or lab volunteers. 8) Team captain. 9) Chair of frat or charity subcommittee. 10) Start a business, managing a group of others to whom tasks are delegated. 11) Chief Editor of school paper or science journal.

I'm taking on the job of lab coordinator for the free clinic I've been at for over a year. At face value, would you see that as a leadership position?

 

[darkjedi]

I'm taking on the job of lab coordinator for the free clinic I've been at for over a year. At face value, would you see that as a leadership position?

whats the job description?

 

[deleted407021]

whats the job description?

Management of scheduling all lab appointments, organization of data and lab results as well as informing patients of any important changes noted by the physician. Work closely with the clinic and medical directors to optimize the process.

I'm basically in charge of making certain lab information goes where it's needed, patients are scheduled and that our MA has something to do most of thd time. I'm aware that that may involve a certain level of "butt kicking".


Also, sorry for hijacking the thread, but would Big Brothers Big Sisters be a good community service option, even though I'd just be working with one person?

 

[Time Table]

Also, sorry for hijacking the thread, but would Big Brothers Big Sisters be a good community service option, even though I'd just be working with one person?

It would look great, just remember it is a one year commitment. So If you Live nearby, it would be good to try out. There are many volunteering opportunities in your neighborhood, just search online, or ask around.

 

[Planes2Doc]

Yes, there is a magical formula as long as you're willing to accept that the pre-med process is a means to an end, and not some idealistic journey.

For non-research schools: Clinical volunteering + Shadowing +/- Non-clinical volunteering = Medical school acceptance
For research schools: Clinical volunteering + Shadowing + Research = Medical school acceptance

This is assuming you have good grades and MCAT of course. AMCAS has changed since I applied. Back in the day, you were asked to write hours per week for your ECs. Today, you only put in the total number of hours. This makes it easier to add in those sporadic ECs which might set you apart, but only happen once every few weeks or months. This is a welcome change, and applicants should take advantage of it.

 

[Planes2Doc]

What types of activities do you think are optimal and/or close to being a requirement? can you rank importance?

-Clinical Volunteering

In my opinion, clinical volunteering is the best bang for the buck. It sucks that you don't get paid, but you can't beat working four hours per week and checking the boxes for both clinical experience and volunteering. Depending on what happens during your shift, you might have a lot of down time to either study, or to shadow physicians. You can double-dip the hours and double-count both volunteering and shadowing. It's a killer deal! It sucks not to be paid since you're usually doing scut work, but it's the cost of applying to medical school. It's nice to make money, but the money you'd earn today is pocket change compared to future earnings. You can't beat the minimal impact that clinical volunteering has on grades and the MCAT. Make sure you have a long duration, since ADCOMs love to see longevity.

-Shadowing

Shadowing is a must. Try to shadow a few specialties and get around fifty or so hours. You don't have to go overboard with this. This is an obvious check-box item, and ADCOMs won't give you any issues for treating it like one.

-Non-Clinical Volunteering

It's not essential but I'd recommend doing it because other people are doing it. Ever since AMCAS did away with the hours per week section, non-clinical volunteering is now even more attractive since all you need are total hours, and it doesn't matter how sporadic the activity is. In fact, it's usually the more sporadic ones that are more genuinely enjoyable than the weekly activities.

-Leadership

I guess you can embellish your volunteer ECs to show that you acted as a leader. I can't think of any specific "leadership" activities that I or any fellow classmates or friends have done.

-Research

Research is a must if you're applying to research-heavy schools. If you're not, it's still a good idea to have since other people will do it. If you're applying to non-research heavy MD schools or DO schools, a summer of research should be fine. Make sure it doesn't get in the way of grades and your MCAT score.

-Working a job

I'm extremely against working entry-level clinical jobs. They are dime a dozen. They won't make you stand out, but will require a significantly greater commitment than clinical volunteering. Sure it's nice to get paid, but like I said, the money you make is pocket change compared to future earnings. On SDN, you hear about the successful applicants who also held jobs. You don't really hear about the people that put work ahead of grades, and ended up failing the pre-med process. I knew people who personally were effected by this. When you're working 12 hour shifts through an entire weekend, you might do worse on Monday's exam compared to someone who volunteers once per week and had the whole weekend to study. SDN will only show you the success stories, but there are too many people whose grades and MCAT take a beating from this. Also, sure you might get some great clinical experiences, but as a physician, you have an entire lifetime to get these experiences. There's no rush. I realize people on here are quick to defend their jobs, but from what I've seen on the other side, it's not worth the commitment you put in. There's far better use of your time.

 

[Mavs88]

Thanks for the thorough reply, Planes2doc!

 

[Planes2Doc]

Thanks for the thorough reply, Planes2doc!

No problem! Good luck! You're on the right track! 🙂

 

[BeancheBlanco]

You covered all the bases. It's really not that interesting to rank the importance of all the types of EC. If you are missing any of them, it will be a huge mark against you and if you are uniquely great any one of them, it will be a huge mark for you. For you, your research and clinical experience seem good enough, but won't stand out. Your non-clinical experience seems above average though, especially if you did all of that in college (no gap years?).

Management of scheduling all lab appointments, organization of data and lab results as well as informing patients of any important changes noted by the physician. Work closely with the clinic and medical directors to optimize the process.

I'm basically in charge of making certain lab information goes where it's needed, patients are scheduled and that our MA has something to do most of thd time. I'm aware that that may involve a certain level of "butt kicking".

sounds more like an administrative position than a leadership position to me.

 

[mrh125]

clinical volunteering/shadowing is #1 if you dont have that you're toast.

 

[allantois]

It's not essential but I'd recommend doing it because other people are doing it. Ever since AMCAS did away with the hours per week section, non-clinical volunteering is now even more attractive since all you need are total hours, and it doesn't matter how sporadic the activity is. In fact, it's usually the more sporadic ones that are more genuinely enjoyable than the weekly activities.




Research is a must if you're applying to research-heavy schools. If you're not, it's still a good idea to have since other people will do it. If you're applying to non-research heavy MD schools or DO schools, a summer of research should be fine. Make sure it doesn't get in the way of grades and your MCAT score.



There's no rush. I realize people on here are quick to defend their jobs, but from what I've seen on the other side, it's not worth the commitment you put in. There's far better use of your time.

I would love to point out that it is us pre-meds( or those before us), who started all this craziness with going above and beyond in ECs. I wonder if some day, having a clinical job will be one of those unwritten requirements.

 

[Planes2Doc]

I would love to point out that it is us pre-meds( or those before us), who started all this craziness with going above and beyond in ECs. I wonder if some day, having a clinical job will be one of those non-written requirements.

Unfortunately that's true. I highly doubt clinical jobs will become an unwritten requirement, as medical school is nothing like PA school (paid clinical work is required) since the latter is considered a fast-track approach. Plus the large time commitment will kill the grades of many who attempt to do it.

Pre-meds started this craziness, and they can also put an end to it... Remember, beyond the classes and MCAT, there aren't any other written requirements for medical school. Like I've said countless times, if there were oversight over these ECs, you'd see volunteer hours drop like rocks across the board to realistic levels.

 

[pizza1994]

can someone explain whats the difference between clinical volunteering vs shadowing vs non-clinical volunteering?

sorry im relatively new in terms of experience. the only volunteering i have is 1 work volunteering at a special needs club. and thats cause I really really like it and find it fun! but thats about it. in high school i did hospital volunteering but hated it and quit because of boring paperwork....dont know if I shoudl start again

 

[Planes2Doc]

can someone explain whats the difference between clinical volunteering vs shadowing vs non-clinical volunteering?

sorry im relatively new in terms of experience. the only volunteering i have is 1 work volunteering at a special needs club. and thats cause I really really like it and find it fun! but thats about it. in high school i did hospital volunteering but hated it and quit because of boring paperwork....dont know if I shoudl start again

Clinical volunteering: Volunteering in a clinical setting, such as a hospital, free clinic, nursing home, hospice, etc... You're expected to do tasks.
Non-clinical volunteering: Volunteering in a non-clinical setting, such as a soup kitchen, food bank, tutoring underprivileged youth, etc... You're expected to do tasks.
Shadowing: You passively follow a physician in his or her daily duties. You're not expected to do tasks.

Also volunteering is supposed to show your altruism and how you at least pretend to care about serving others.

I realized that you hated hospital volunteering, and sadly, most people do. If you genuinely want to help others or find meaningful experiences, then you can find other experiences that are non-clinical as long as you still have clinical experience. If your main focus is to get into medical school, then I'd try to find hospital volunteering. Put in your time, and quit when you're accepted. A lot of times the staff couldn't care less what volunteers are doing, and as long as you're not being asked to do something, you can spend that time studying or using it as personal free time. Always be respectful of the staff, but with the current system in place, there's no need or benefit to being proactive in the clinical volunteer setting.

 

[sharkbyte]

Always be respectful of the staff, but with the current system in place, there's no need or benefit to being proactive in the clinical volunteer setting.

I completely agree. While volunteering there are so many times when I ask the nurses or docs to give me something to do and they don't have anything for me and they also get slightly annoyed, so I just keep quiet and walk around the hospital to find something to do or help out at the front desk or something. It's really not a great system. This is why I want to scribe during my gap year, because it seems to provide you with an involved task + gives you the opportunity to get direct clinical experience.

 

[pizza1994]

Clinical volunteering: Volunteering in a clinical setting, such as a hospital, free clinic, nursing home, hospice, etc... You're expected to do tasks.
Non-clinical volunteering: Volunteering in a non-clinical setting, such as a soup kitchen, food bank, tutoring underprivileged youth, etc... You're expected to do tasks.
Shadowing: You passively follow a physician in his or her daily duties. You're not expected to do tasks.

Also volunteering is supposed to show your altruism and how you at least pretend to care about serving others.

I realized that you hated hospital volunteering, and sadly, most people do. If you genuinely want to help others or find meaningful experiences, then you can find other experiences that are non-clinical as long as you still have clinical experience. If your main focus is to get into medical school, then I'd try to find hospital volunteering. Put in your time, and quit when you're accepted. A lot of times the staff couldn't care less what volunteers are doing, and as long as you're not being asked to do something, you can spend that time studying or using it as personal free time. Always be respectful of the staff, but with the current system in place, there's no need or benefit to being proactive in the clinical volunteer setting.

you are so helpful! Thanks for replying 🙂 yeah I did hospital volunteering wayyy back in high school and danggg sometimes you know what i used to do? I signed in and left and kept the hour clock thing ticking......fml so boring. I mainly quit cause I also realized I wouldnt get a reference letter from there are so I found there was no point.....

I can only see myself get reference letters from non-clinical volunteering cause thats all I have done and I actually enjoy it. do people get references from hospitals or is it more like a logging thing where you say " I did 100 hours at X hospital"?

 

[Planes2Doc]

you are so helpful! Thanks for replying 🙂 yeah I did hospital volunteering wayyy back in high school and danggg sometimes you know what i used to do? I signed in and left and kept the hour clock thing ticking......fml so boring. I mainly quit cause I also realized I wouldnt get a reference letter from there are so I found there was no point.....

I can only see myself get reference letters from non-clinical volunteering cause thats all I have done and I actually enjoy it. do people get references from hospitals or is it more like a logging thing where you say " I did 100 hours at X hospital"?

I didn't get any LORs from my volunteering gigs. During orientation, the volunteer coordinator explicitly stated that she nor her secretary would write any LORs. But if we befriended any staff members, we were more than welcome to ask them. I'm not sure if pre-meds are supposed to get them from volunteering or not. Otherwise, you just need verifiable hours. Since ECs are based on the honor system (because they aren't official requirements anyhow), it's unlikely that they will verify. But if they do and found out you lied, you will be in hot water. It's not worth lying.

Signing in and ditching isn't honest, but then again remembering how I was treated at a suburban ED with no pre-meds, so I don't blame most of them when they do this kind of stuff. I can only imagine how poorly pre-meds are treated at hospitals that are full of them... It's a product of the vicious system that was developed over the years. Anyway, instead of signing in and ditching, it might be a better use of your time to study there. If you sign in and ditch and then get caught hundreds of hours later, I believe you'll have to forfeit those hours since putting them on your application will be too risky.

What year are you? If you volunteered as a high school senior and continued it into college, then you can those hours as well on your AMCAS. I hope you find something you like or don't end up suffering too much with hospital volunteering. Best of luck!!!

 

[AspiringERMD]

I completely agree. While volunteering there are so many times when I ask the nurses or docs to give me something to do and they don't have anything for me and they also get slightly annoyed, so I just keep quiet and walk around the hospital to find something to do or help out at the front desk or something. It's really not a great system. This is why I want to scribe during my gap year, because it seems to provide you with an involved task + gives you the opportunity to get direct clinical experience.

I volunteer at a free clinic for the uninsured, and there are so many tasks for me to do that I have to be careful not to lose track, and occasionally have to tell nurses and doctors to find someone else to help for a bit because I'm already struggling to juggle the four tasks I have. Try finding a free clinic to work for!

 

[Ace Khalifa]

In my opinion, clinical volunteering is the best bang for the buck. It sucks that you don't get paid, but you can't beat working four hours per week and checking the boxes for both clinical experience and volunteering. Depending on what happens during your shift, you might have a lot of down time to either study, or to shadow physicians. You can double-dip the hours and double-count both volunteering and shadowing. It's a killer deal! It sucks not to be paid since you're usually doing scut work, but it's the cost of applying to medical school. It's nice to make money, but the money you'd earn today is pocket change compared to future earnings. You can't beat the minimal impact that clinical volunteering has on grades and the MCAT. Make sure you have a long duration, since ADCOMs love to see longevity.



Shadowing is a must. Try to shadow a few specialties and get around fifty or so hours. You don't have to go overboard with this. This is an obvious check-box item, and ADCOMs won't give you any issues for treating it like one.



It's not essential but I'd recommend doing it because other people are doing it. Ever since AMCAS did away with the hours per week section, non-clinical volunteering is now even more attractive since all you need are total hours, and it doesn't matter how sporadic the activity is. In fact, it's usually the more sporadic ones that are more genuinely enjoyable than the weekly activities.



I guess you can embellish your volunteer ECs to show that you acted as a leader. I can't think of any specific "leadership" activities that I or any fellow classmates or friends have done.



Research is a must if you're applying to research-heavy schools. If you're not, it's still a good idea to have since other people will do it. If you're applying to non-research heavy MD schools or DO schools, a summer of research should be fine. Make sure it doesn't get in the way of grades and your MCAT score.



I'm extremely against working entry-level clinical jobs. They are dime a dozen. They won't make you stand out, but will require a significantly greater commitment than clinical volunteering. Sure it's nice to get paid, but like I said, the money you make is pocket change compared to future earnings. On SDN, you hear about the successful applicants who also held jobs. You don't really hear about the people that put work ahead of grades, and ended up failing the pre-med process. I knew people who personally were effected by this. When you're working 12 hour shifts through an entire weekend, you might do worse on Monday's exam compared to someone who volunteers once per week and had the whole weekend to study. SDN will only show you the success stories, but there are too many people whose grades and MCAT take a beating from this. Also, sure you might get some great clinical experiences, but as a physician, you have an entire lifetime to get these experiences. There's no rush. I realize people on here are quick to defend their jobs, but from what I've seen on the other side, it's not worth the commitment you put in. There's far better use of your time.

This is all-around solid advice for anyone who has trouble prioritizing EC's. I would like to add a caveat for "working entry-level clinical jobs." It'll be harder to do so while you're also taking classes and studying for the MCAT. However, I work as an ER scribe full-time right now during my gap/application year (no more classes to worry about) and that's totally manageable. I'd say that "clinical volunteering" is the best EC to do if you're still a premed student who hasn't graduated. For nontraditional applicants and others like me taking 1-2 gap years, I believe it's safe to replace "clinical volunteering" with "clinical experience."

 

[Ace Khalifa]

You covered all the bases. It's really not that interesting to rank the importance of all the types of EC. If you are missing any of them, it will be a huge mark against you and if you are uniquely great any one of them, it will be a huge mark for you. For you, your research and clinical experience seem good enough, but won't stand out. Your non-clinical experience seems above average though, especially if you did all of that in college (no gap years?).

I'd like to add another caveat and say that there are applicants every year who get into medical school with no research experience or no nonmedical volunteering. It all depends on what you're passionate about. For me, it was community service thru APO, so I dedicated my undergrad years to that organization, became a strong leader within my chapter, and helped improve it as well as rack up a lot of hours doing fun service events. I have no research experience, but I also only applied to schools that emphasized their love for community service and undervalued research (or at least tried to using MSAR strategically). Wash U is my alma mater and the only top 20 I applied to, my other "reach" schools are Emory, Baylor, UVA, and UNC (I have IS status for UNC, so slight advantage there).

OP, you have good EC's all around. I think you'd be a strong applicant at most places. You certainly have a better chance than I do at the top 20's because you have research while I don't.

 

[Ace Khalifa]

I completely agree. While volunteering there are so many times when I ask the nurses or docs to give me something to do and they don't have anything for me and they also get slightly annoyed, so I just keep quiet and walk around the hospital to find something to do or help out at the front desk or something. It's really not a great system. This is why I want to scribe during my gap year, because it seems to provide you with an involved task + gives you the opportunity to get direct clinical experience.

Working as a scribe is the way to go! You totally feel like you're contributing positively to the field of medicine.

 

[DocConk]

Yes, there is a magical formula as long as you're willing to accept that the pre-med process is a means to an end, and not some idealistic journey.

For non-research schools: Clinical volunteering + Shadowing +/- Non-clinical volunteering = Medical school acceptance
For research schools: Clinical volunteering + Shadowing + Research = Medical school acceptance

This is assuming you have good grades and MCAT of course. AMCAS has changed since I applied. Back in the day, you were asked to write hours per week for your ECs. Today, you only put in the total number of hours. This makes it easier to add in those sporadic ECs which might set you apart, but only happen once every few weeks or months. This is a welcome change, and applicants should take advantage of it.

From everything I've read, there is no prompt on the AMCAS which asks you about clinical volunteering, but instead your clinical experience.

They want to see that you know to some capacity what you are getting yourself into, and therefore must be confident that you've seen a lot of what your life would really be like as a physician. Whether or not you are paid for this experience is moot, and to some degree, the fact that you're paid to interact with patients in a hospital makes you considerably more responsible for the care that patients receive. @Planes2Doc you also stated that basic entry clinical jobs are 'dime a dozen' for med-school applicants. I would say that while this is probably true, it's not like most applicants don't have some degree of clinical volunteering, so I believe that type of clinical experience is just as 'dime a dozen,' if not more-so.

To me, it's nowadays more about the experience's longevity and how well you can communicate the impact that the clinical experience had on you on your application, and whether or not you can articulate this impact in a self-reflecting manner, assuming you land an interview.

Volunteering is volunteering, and you should have a solid amount, but it needn't be clinical if you've already got a ton of clinical experience as a paid CNA/EMT/Scribe/whatever.

 

[Spinach Dip]

I might be letting the cat out of the bag with this one, but this is how adcoms choose between applicants...

 

[Planes2Doc]

From everything I've read, there is no prompt on the AMCAS which asks you about clinical volunteering, but instead your clinical experience.

They want to see that you know to some capacity what you are getting yourself into, and therefore must be confident that you've seen a lot of what your life would really be like as a physician. Whether or not you are paid for this experience is moot, and to some degree, the fact that you're paid to interact with patients in a hospital makes you considerably more responsible for the care that patients receive. @Planes2Doc you also stated that basic entry clinical jobs are 'dime a dozen' for med-school applicants. I would say that while this is probably true, it's not like most applicants don't have some degree of clinical volunteering, so I believe that type of clinical experience is just as 'dime a dozen,' if not more-so.

To me, it's nowadays more about the experience's longevity and how well you can communicate the impact that the clinical experience had on you on your application, and whether or not you can articulate this impact in a self-reflecting manner, assuming you land an interview.

Volunteering is volunteering, and you should have a solid amount, but it needn't be clinical if you've already got a ton of clinical experience as a paid CNA/EMT/Scribe/whatever.

The reason I say this is because typically clinical volunteering is 3 to 4 hours once weekly. It's very manageable and shouldn't have negative impact on your grades. On the contrary, clinical jobs might involve multiple 12 hour shifts per week. I can't imagine that this will go too well with your study schedule.

Yes, both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs are dime a dozen. Neither clinical volunteering nor clinical jobs are unique. Both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs will get you an interview to medical school. And finally, both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs will get you an acceptance. With that said, and with any idealism set aside, which would you rather do?...

Clinical volunteering which isthe easiest way possible because you have the most time to focus on school and the MCAT? Or would you rather do clinical work which involves a far greater commitment that can negatively impact your grades and MCAT score. Don't forget you need additional volunteering with a job which adds even more hours that you need to devote to the pre-med process. Sure you might have more responsibility and learn more with a job, but that's not really the point here. The one and only point of the pre-med process is getting accepted to medical school. ADCOMs won't care about how meaningful your experiences were after you end up destroying your grades and MCAT because the job took up too much time.

 

[DocConk]

The reason I say this is because typically clinical volunteering is 3 to 4 hours once weekly. It's very manageable and shouldn't have negative impact on your grades. On the contrary, clinical jobs might involve multiple 12 hour shifts per week. I can't imagine that this will go too well with your study schedule.

Yes, both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs are dime a dozen. Neither clinical volunteering nor clinical jobs are unique. Both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs will get you an interview to medical school. And finally, both clinical volunteering and clinical jobs will get you an acceptance. With that said, and with any idealism set aside, which would you rather do?...

Clinical volunteering which isthe easiest way possible because you have the most time to focus on school and the MCAT? Or would you rather do clinical work which involves a far greater commitment that can negatively impact your grades and MCAT score. Don't forget you need additional volunteering with a job which adds even more hours that you need to devote to the pre-med process. Sure you might have more responsibility and learn more with a job, but that's not really the point here. The one and only point of the pre-med process is getting accepted to medical school. ADCOMs won't care about how meaningful your experiences were after you end up destroying your grades and MCAT because the job took up too much time.

That's fair enough, certainly. I've personally used my summers as the time to get my clinical experience, and I volunteer at a domestic abuse shelter for the 3ish hours per week that you speak of. Absolutely, matriculation is the name of the game so I wouldn't reccommend that people work extended hours when their GPA's would be better served with those hours! We agree on that. I've done that stuff on breaks instead.


Thanks for the discussion