Volunteer/work experiences on ERAS

[chessknt]

I was looking at match data for last year and I noticed that the avg # of volunteer experiences in several fields I was interested in was ~5 and work experiences were ~3.

Do I seriously have to go out of my way to join organizations/clubs to volunteer over a long period of time again like premeds? Or is this component ignored? While I can see myself doing some spot volunteering, most of my EC hours will probably be spent trying to figure out what specialty suits me via shadowing, not feeding homeless people at a soup kitchen.

And for work experiences--from what I see almost nobody gets paid to work while in med school, so how are people putting down 3 things here?

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[chessknt]

double post on accident

 

[chessknt]

triple post on accident

 

[chessknt]

bump

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Many of the volunteer and work experiences I see on the ERAS app are those from medical school, or sometimes earlier. As to whether they matter or not, that depends on the field/program.