Timeline of ECs

[Psyched*Out]

Does it matter if your ECs, mainly things like shadowing and clinical experience all happened during a short period time? For instance, is it bad to have done all your shadowing summer before freshman year (>50 hours), or get all your clinical experience (~1000 hours) all in slightly over 1 summer?

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[Mr.Smile12]

Not really except you shouldn't cram all your hours or project all of it. Maybe some small exceptions based on perception...

 

[eigen]

The only one I think is particularly bad to cram into one tiny window is community service.

Having it all done in one intense chunk rather than distributed sends the message that it's not a part of your regular routine to give back to / serve your community, and runs the risk of looking like you're doing it just to check a box.

I think fewer overall hours that are consistent over a long period of time shows a much stronger trajectory and can feed better into a narrative.

 

[Psyched*Out]

The only one I think is particularly bad to cram into one tiny window is community service.

Having it all done in one intense chunk rather than distributed sends the message that it's not a part of your regular routine to give back to / serve your community, and runs the risk of looking like you're doing it just to check a box.

I think fewer overall hours that are consistent over a long period of time shows a much stronger trajectory and can feed better into a narrative.

Ah ok. So would you say doing something like working part time an MA during summers and then volunteering at a hospital during the school year and continuing that until I apply would be more viable? Really just looking for a way to plan for getting clinical hours while being in school full time and I'm unsure if a part time job (~24 hrs a week) is doable during the school year.

 

[eigen]

Remember that volunteering doesn’t need to be clinical.

Work a Saturday a month at a homeless shelter, or a soup kitchen.

Clinical volunteering is good, but just showing that you care about helping people who need it in your community is also a good thing.

 

[chilly_md]

Agree with eigen. It is fine to work part-time in the summers as an MA and spend time during the school year every week volunteering in the community. It would not be the best use of your time to use that for hospital volunteering.

 

[Psyched*Out]

Agree with eigen. It is fine to work part-time in the summers as an MA and spend time during the school year every week volunteering in the community. It would not be the best use of your time to use that for hospital volunteering.

That sounds like a good plan, but I already do volunteer every weekend at a food pantry and have been doing so since 8th grade, and intend to do so till I apply/leave my area of residence. My question was more focused on clinical experience because that’s an EC that I don’t have planned out as well as I’d like, and I was hoping to add on 3 hrs a day on the weekend of volunteering at hospitals which wouldn’t conflict with my food pantry work as a means of supplementing the fact that I could only do paid work over the summer.

On a side note, because the food pantry work is a continuing commitment, can I include hours from 8th grade to end of high school as well or just the hours since college began?

 

[chilly_md]

That sounds like a good plan, but I already do volunteer every weekend at a food pantry and have been doing so since 8th grade, and intend to do so till I apply/leave my area of residence. My question was more focused on clinical experience because that’s an EC that I don’t have planned out as well as I’d like, and I was hoping to add on 3 hrs a day on the weekend of volunteering at hospitals which wouldn’t conflict with my food pantry work as a means of supplementing the fact that I could only do paid work over the summer.

On a side note, because the food pantry work is a continuing commitment, can I include hours from 8th grade to end of high school as well or just the hours since college began?

No, your MA work will be enough during the summers if you will be getting around 20 hours a week for 2-3 months each time. There is no need to supplement your hours with hospital volunteering. And honestly, you won't gain much from it. It would not be a good use of your time. You can always give yourself some flexibility, but you can do it if you really want to.

Yes you can include all the hours for the food bank since you have kept doing it this whole time. When you ultimately write your description on AMCAS, you can include a blurb about how you have been doing it since 8th grade so it is obvious to the reader.