Medical What to work on for med school? I will be a junior this Fall 2019.

[Catalystik]

What to work on for med school? I will be a junior this Fall 2019.

So my GPA currently is 3.699 and I'm sure I will be able to bring it up to 3.79 by the time I apply to med schools.
1) I currently have around 300 hours for clinical volunteering and
2) about 60 for non-clinical. How many hours is a good number for non-clinical volunteering? I definitely know I need to get more which I can easily work on this summer and through the school year.
3) I am also going to be getting more clinical hours by volunteering at my EMT squad and soon getting EMT certification.
4) I also have been doing research at my college since Fall 2018 and I will be continuing it til the end of undergrad.
5) I shadowed numerous doctors, I have around 75 hours for shadowing though.
6) As for extracurriculars I am the treasurer for a health club and I was the secretary the year before.
7) I am part of several other clubs too though not an officer.
8) I hope to take the MCAT in January 2020 so I'm wondering if it's a bad decision to take the EMT course this July - mid August?
9) What else should I work on for medical school?

Welcome to SDN!

1) You are already above the average listed.
2) Aim for 150 to stay competitive with the top applicants.
3) Fine.
4) Good. Aim for evidence of productivity, like posters, presentations, or publications, if you can.
5) You are well above the average of 50 hours. You can stop unless you have no primary care, office-based shadowing.
6) Aim for prez or vice president, so you have a greater leadership role where you delegate tasks to others.
7) Clubs don't help much unless they provide a path to leadership or community service.
8) Can you study part-time from September to January and be ready for the MCAT?
9) Mainly you need to increase your nonmedical community service, which ideally would be assisting those with poor economic resources. If an opportunity comes along for a teaching/coaching/TA/or tutor experience, that would benefit your application. These two areas could potentially be covered by a single activity. Otherwise, I think you'll be in good shape. And don't forget to save spaces for Hobbies and/or Artistic Endeavors.

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[Catalystik]

1) Thanks! So there is an opportunity to tutor as a volunteer at a local soup kitchen so I will probably take that up.
2) As for the MCAT, I do have all of June and I do plan to study as much as I can through July-August as well as any free time during the Fall semester so I hope that works out.
3) Also, do volunteer hours from around high school count towards this?

1) Perfect!

2) That should be adequate.

3) If the same activity continued after HS graduation and into the college years, then one can list it on a med school application.

 

[Catalystik]

So I volunteered at a hospital during my HS years for many hours. But I am planning on volunteering at the hospital again during this school year so would the hours I did during HS not be counted? Those make up a lot of my clinical volunteer hours.

Since you will return to the same location, you can list both time frames and each set of total hours on the application. But adcomms will be more interested in the recent hours. Aim for a total of at least150 hours in the college years.