Agreed. 100 is about what's thrown around as being average.
My version of the averages in each are:
100 Clinical Volunteering (over a year period)
40 Shadowing Physicians (at least 1 primary care)
1 or 2 research experiences (so like a summer or two)
50 Non-Clinical Volunteering
Some kind of leadership (can include job as manager)
Many people don't even have all these things. People here exaggerate what one needs to get into medical school. Go to the MSAR and see that there's not a single school that has 100% volunteering/research/etc. Most schools have about 85% clinical volunteering with about 65% research/non-clinical.
I have a few questions.
By end of this summer, I will have 300 hours of clinical volunteering (40 hours at an office, 120 hours at a hospital, and 130-140 hours as an EMT/paramedic on site assistant). I did the 40 hours right before college started (after senior year summer) and the other ~250 hours this summer due to time. I go to a quarter system school and have only had time to continuously do research for 1.5 years. Is it bad that I did all my volunteering technically within two summers? (I did volunteering at the office that whole summer, 3 months. I did volunteering at the hospital in one month. I did volunteering on the EMT/paramedic trucks for two months)
I have 60 hours of shadowing with an internist. 40 hours with a cardiologist. Plan on getting another 50 with 1 or 2 DOs.
Non clinical volunteering, I'm part of a program where I will have 20 hours by graduation (science fairs teaching kids about cool experiments). What would you recommend doing for non clinical volunteering?
I sadly do not have any leadership and I don't see myself getting one to be honest. I'm just far too busy this year (junior year). I am leaning towards taking a gap year.
Current stats: 3.3cgpa/3.4sgpa/MCAT (to be taken spring this year).
My ECs specifically:
Summer before freshman year - 60 hours of shadowing, 40 hours of volunteering (mostly filing, helping with organizing patient charts at an office).
Freshman year- joined research 2nd half of the year.
Freshman year summer- 40 hours of shadowing (I took it very light, I just wanted to chill with high school friends that summer. To come to think of it, that probably wasn't the smartest choice in terms of strengthening my app for med school)
Sophomore year- got inducted into a national honors fraternity, became more active in research and more active in a club that I joined (American Chemistry Society).
Sophomore year summer- 120 hours of a hospital for a month (I wasn't getting great exposure so I stopped. Also the doctor I previously shadowed the summer before knew of the program and said it's not worth staying at for more than a month), I worked on a paramedic/EMT truck for 130 hours (still in progress, I start school late September, starting to do this 18 hours a week instead of my previous 9 hours a week. Done with a lot of my summer obligations, so I can focus more on my volunteering).
Junior year plan- I plan on getting 2-3 publications, my PI has talked to me and said the project I will be working on is a topic he hopes to write a lot of papers on. His policy is as long as you helped at some point in the paper even if it is not by much, your name will be included (almost everyone gets at least 2+ publications in his lab by graduation). I do plan to stay involved with American Chemical Society and join pre-SOMA. Since pre-SOMA isn't huge at my school, I may try to see if there are leadership positions available. I will be freed up spring semester (after many many difficult courses next two terms). After my winter semester, its mostly all electives besides biochem for my last year and a half.
Junior year summer- plan is to do research at an HIV lab at a near by university back home. I have a friend who did it last year and said he could contact the PI if I'm still interested by next summer.
Senior year plan- I do plan on finding a volunteering position to do for the 9 months while I'm on campus. I do plan on going abroad on a medical mission. Was planning to this year but personal issues came up and I had to withdraw my application.
Gap year- I am taking one for sure. I feel I can strengthen my ECs a lot more senior year and during the year inbetween.
I've talked to a lot of high school friends who are pre-med and it is shocking to see a lot of them haven't even done any research/volunteering yet. I feel my ECs are average and I want to make them better so I can become a stronger applicant for osteopathic schools and the few allopathic state schools I plan to apply to (my sGPA for MD is low though 3.1-3.2, hopefully I can bring it to a 3.3-3.4 by graduation).
