MD WAMC 3.93/523

[aprilandaflower]

Redacted for anonymity

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[Faha]

Your clinical and non clinical hours are adequate but at top tier schools you will be competing with applicants who have many hundreds or thousands of hours each of clinical and non clinical hours. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Iowa
Mayo
Northwestern
Washington University
U Michigan
Vanderbilt
Miami
USF Morsani
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Cincinnati
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
U Penn
Johns Hopkins
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Mount Sinai
NYU (free tuition)
Rochester
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
UMass
Tufts
Boston University
Yale
Colorado

 

[Mr.Smile12]

- I have heard differing opinions on tutoring (unpaid) being considered as non-clinical volunteering or not. SDN seems to lean heavily towards the latter, but my university's pre-health committee leans towards the former. I understand that there is a tutoring/teaching classification on the actual app.

Welcome to the forums.

Your prehealth committee is right that unpaid tutoring can be considered non-clinical volunteering. That said, practically every prehealth/premed has tutoring/teaching/mentoring experience that it won't make you stand out or help you in the process as much as service orientation activities will (200 hours soup kitchen). The issue is value for an admissions decision, not whether they are non-clinical volunteering. TL/DR: Both opinions are true.

Additionally, tutoring/teaching/TA is a separate category in AMCAS last time I checked.

You should get 250 hours before submission to keep pace with your peers. As we mentioned above, many of your peers in the high-metrics pool will have hundreds to thousands more than you.

I also would like to see more exposure outside of the OR, such as non-emergent primary care. Your 200 hours is okay, but in a contest among high-metrics applicants, does your prehealth team think you have enough? You attend an Ivy program, so shouldn't you have just a bit more (your 260 clinical hours with shadowing is less than your 350 non-clinical experience hours and "other" 450 experience hours). It probably won't screen you out, but I'm curious.

 

[aprilandaflower]

Your clinical and non clinical hours are adequate but at top tier schools you will be competing with applicants who have many hundreds or thousands of hours each of clinical and non clinical hours. I suggest these schools with your stats:
Iowa
Mayo
Northwestern
Washington University
U Michigan
Vanderbilt
Miami
USF Morsani
Emory
Duke
U Virginia
Cincinnati
Jefferson
Pittsburgh
U Penn
Johns Hopkins
Hofstra
Einstein (free tuition)
Mount Sinai
NYU (free tuition)
Rochester
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
UMass
Tufts
Boston University
Yale
Colorado

Thank you for your feedback!

 

[aprilandaflower]

Welcome to the forums.

Your prehealth committee is right that unpaid tutoring can be considered non-clinical volunteering. That said, practically every prehealth/premed has tutoring/teaching/mentoring experience that it won't make you stand out or help you in the process as much as service orientation activities will (200 hours soup kitchen). The issue is value for an admissions decision, not whether they are non-clinical volunteering. TL/DR: Both opinions are true.

Additionally, tutoring/teaching/TA is a separate category in AMCAS last time I checked.

You should get 250 hours before submission to keep pace with your peers. As we mentioned above, many of your peers in the high-metrics pool will have hundreds to thousands more than you.

I also would like to see more exposure outside of the OR, such as non-emergent primary care. Your 200 hours is okay, but in a contest among high-metrics applicants, does your prehealth team think you have enough? You attend an Ivy program, so shouldn't you have just a bit more (your 260 clinical hours with shadowing is less than your 350 non-clinical experience hours and "other" 450 experience hours). It probably won't screen you out, but I'm curious.

Thank you for your feedback! My pre-health advisor said our applicants usually have around 125-150 clinical hours, but can still find success in applying to medical school by focusing on the impact of their experiences. I committed to being pre-med late in my sophomore year, which is probably why my hours appear to be somewhat lacking.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Thank you for your feedback! My pre-health advisor said our applicants usually have around 125-150 clinical hours, but can still find success in applying to medical school by focusing on the impact of their experiences. I committed to being pre-med late in my sophomore year, which is probably why my hours appear to be somewhat lacking.

Quality over quantity is important too, but respect those applying in the high-metrics pool. It is more likely their reflections will be very strong, so then we are left with quantity as a comparison.