Shadowing, volunteering, research

[releehw]

I thought I would start another thread for questions that I keep seeing that I have too!

So we have a general idea of a "good" GPA or "good" MCAT. But what are the "good" numbers of hours to have in ECs? Is 100 hours in each sufficient? Etc.

For example, I have almost 100 hours in clinical volunteering. Should I invest my time in adding on to that or start some research hours?

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[AnchorDown3]

I'd like to know this as well.

 

[NickNaylor]

Hours are meaningless. It's how you talk about your experiences and demonstrate that you actually learned something from the experience that matters. You can have 1000 hours shadowing, yet if you don't seem to have a grasp of what physicians do or why you want to be a physician it's all for naught.

 

[skooper]

no one cares about hours. can you answer questions about the experience on the application and during interviews?

 

[AvacadosAtLaw]

While I agree that the number of hours isn't important when compared to the experience, if you want to know like the average, I've always heard 50 hours for shadowing, 150 in clinical experience/volunteering, and 150 in non-clinical volunteering. But the important thing is being able to learn something from those experiences.