Non-clinical hours a concern?

[Saintman41]

I'm preparing my application for AACOMAS and have been tallying all of my hours. I currently have 82 shadowing (potentially more starting next week), 300+ clinical hours between multiple activities during my gap year, and 205 non-clinical volunteering hours between 3 activities. For my non-clinical hours, I have 50 hours from one place, 65 from another, then 90 from the last. I spent over a year with the last two places but I was curious if me not reaching 100+ for any of those activities will look bad, considering two of them were meaningful activities. I would like to hear some feedback regarding what you all think regarding my chances.
OORM, 3.8 cGPA and 3.8 sGPA, 502 MCAT, TX resident.

1. 3.8 cGPA and 3.8 sGPA as calculated by AACOMAS
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown: 502 (126, 124, 125, 127)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): TX
4. Ethnicity and/or race: white
5. Undergraduate institution or category: UNT-Denton
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer): Volunteer MA- take vitals, greet patients, perform specimen collection, and COVID testing. Still ongoing, 126 hours. Medical scribe: currently at 140 hours. MA intern for 6 weeks: 72 hours; perform basic eye exams, use diagnostic equipment on patients, assist ophthalmologist with procedures (laser treatments, eye injections, etc.). Blood pressure volunteer in Denton, 12.5 hours: take BP for homeless for a school organization
7. No research.
8. 12 hours shadowing ophthalmologist, 70 hours shadowing internal med family med doc. Meeting with neurologist next week for more shadowing.
9. 50 hours assisting disabled children during horse riding lessons, 65 hours tutoring inner-city children in reading (ongoing), 90 hours at a food packing center for kids in need internationally (ongoing)- help create food packs along with packaging boxes of food to be shipped to various countries across the world.
10. 1000+ hours for busboy job my freshman year helping train new employees along with helping coordinate the scheduling with all of the other busboys. Currently taking a gap year while having a leadership position in a club called H4H (hearts 4 the homeless).
11. Got a small scholarship at UNT during my junior year.
12. Started premed late as I didn't start college originally as premed. By the time I committed to premed the pandemic started a few months later, hence why I'm in so many activities at once during my gap yer.

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[chilly_md]

Please edit your post to follow the template described below:

*~*~*~*IMPORTANT: How to Format Your WAMC Thread for Optimal Results and More!!*~*~*~*

Hello, and welcome to the What Are My Chances (WAMC) forum. The purpose of this forum is to Post threads about your chances of acceptance to MD and/or DO schools Have your school list critiqued and modified by other members of SDN Determine how to strengthen your current application General...

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Also please provide more insight as to what your activities and responsibilities were.

 

[candbgirl]

And you have enough shadowing unless you still need DO shadowing. So stop shadowing.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Please provide more details. It's not just about time served in community service.

 

[Saintman41]

Please edit your post to follow the template described below:

*~*~*~*IMPORTANT: How to Format Your WAMC Thread for Optimal Results and More!!*~*~*~*

Hello, and welcome to the What Are My Chances (WAMC) forum. The purpose of this forum is to Post threads about your chances of acceptance to MD and/or DO schools Have your school list critiqued and modified by other members of SDN Determine how to strengthen your current application General...

forums.studentdoctor.net

Also please provide more insight as to what your activities and responsibilities were.

Done. If you would like more details I can provide them.

 

[Saintman41]

Please provide more details. It's not just about time served in community service.

See my edit on the post. Hopefully it will help!

 

[chilly_md]

It would have been better to avoid spreading yourself over several activities. Chances best at DO. You will need a physician letter, DO would help but is not necessary.

TCOM
Sam Houston
UIWSOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
MU-COM
ACOM
PCOM (all campuses)
WCU
VCOM
LECOM (all campuses)
WVSOM
NYIT-AR
Campbell

For MD, given your MCAT score, only the following make sense to try:
University of Houston
UTRGV
The new UT Tyler school

 

[Saintman41]

It would have been better to avoid spreading yourself over several activities. Chances best at DO. You will need a physician letter, DO would help but is not necessary.

TCOM
Sam Houston
UIWSOM
KCU-COM
ATSU-KCOM
MU-COM
ACOM
PCOM (all campuses)
WCU
VCOM
LECOM (all campuses)
WVSOM
NYIT-AR
Campbell

For MD, given your MCAT score, only the following make sense to try:
University of Houston
UTRGV
The new UT Tyler school

Is it viewed negatively spreading myself out? Thank you for the school list, pretty similar to the school list I have made.

 

[chilly_md]

Is it viewed negatively spreading myself out? Thank you for the school list, pretty similar to the school list I have made.

It was more that it caused you to have low hours in any one given activity. It is harder to gain insight, grow and write convincingly about an activity you did for a short period of time. TMDAS is different in that they have a much lower max character count for the activities description section. But "Blood pressure volunteer in Denton, 12.5 hours" still is something you did for a couple days and that was it. Usually an applicant will have many hours in at least one EC, whether it be clinical, research, or non-clinical volunteering. The only one you have is your busboy employment, which is good as working experience develops many skills that college students don't usually gain. But that was just your freshmen year and it has been 3 or more years since then.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I figure if you had 50 hours listed, that's about one hour a week for a year. Thus, anything smaller than that doesn't really show a lot of commitment involved so I would not really list those.

 

[Saintman41]

It was more that it caused you to have low hours in any one given activity. It is harder to gain insight, grow and write convincingly about an activity you did for a short period of time. TMDAS is different in that they have a much lower max character count for the activities description section. But "Blood pressure volunteer in Denton, 12.5 hours" still is something you did for a couple days and that was it. Usually an applicant will have many hours in at least one EC, whether it be clinical, research, or non-clinical volunteering. The only one you have is your busboy employment, which is good as working experience develops many skills that college students don't usually gain. But that was just your freshmen year and it has been 3 or more years since then.

Do you think I'm competitive in any sense for DO schools?

 

[chilly_md]

Do you think I'm competitive in any sense for DO schools?

Yes, I think so. Ensure you prepare well for interviews after applying and have a good answer for why you want to be a physician and why osteopathic medicine. There may be secondaries as well that ask the latter question. And the personal statement really revolves around why you want to be a physician too.

 

[Saintman41]

Yes, I think so. Ensure you prepare well for interviews after applying and have a good answer for why you want to be a physician and why osteopathic medicine. There may be secondaries as well that ask the latter question. And the personal statement really revolves around why you want to be a physician too

I would like to add the fact that my BP screening hours (12.5) were also from the same club I'm holding a leadership position in (74 hours currently). Would it be better to combine them together in one slot?

 

[chilly_md]

I would like to add the fact that my BP screening hours (12.5) were also from the same club I'm holding a leadership position in (74 hours currently). Would it be better to combine them together in one slot?

Yes it would make more sense that way since it was an activity organized by your club.