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How many experience hours do you need for medical school?

HOW MANY EXPERIENCE HOURS DO YOU NEED FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL?

How many clinical experience hours do I need to get into medical school?

How many research hours do I need to get into medical school?
How many community service hours do I need to get into medical school?

These are questions we are asked repeatedly in our private Facebook group. Something you will hear me say over and over is that there is no set number of hours—in any experience—that you must have to get into medical school. There are no “minimum” hours necessary either.

I know this is frustrating because it would be so much easier if there were a checklist of experiences necessary to be accepted to medical. However, unlike the definitive clinical experience guidelines for admission to physician assistant school or the animal experience one needs to be admitted to veterinary school, the medical school admissions process requires applicants to be a bit more creative and self-motivated in seeking out the experiences that interest them most rather than following a rubric.

Having worked with thousands of students who have been accepted to medical school, we can tell you that no two applicants have the exact same path. Many successful applicants, in fact, have very few hours in some experience categories.

I want to challenge everyone to think about this lack of firm guidelines, instead of being viewed as cryptic, to be viewed as freeing. Why? Without any set criteria or firm number of hours you must achieve to improve your chances of getting into medical school, you have the freedom to pursue your interests organically; this is what medical schools really want to see in medical school applicants.

Even students with the most stellar metrics (GPA and MCAT) will have difficulty gaining admission to medical school if they don’t have the insights and understanding of healthcare, medicine, and research that can only be gained through related experiences. These applicants often present with a superficial and undeveloped understanding of medicine which can hurt them in the process.

As you decide what experiences to engage in, follow your curiosities. Then, when deciding whether you have “enough hours,” think about whether or not you can provide convincing evidence for your interest in medicine. 

  • Can you articulate, using your experiences to buttress your answers, why you want to be a physician? 
  • Do you have examples of times when you worked with diverse populations, demonstrated empathy, and understood the importance of teamwork in healthcare? 
  • Have you engaged in any meaningful scholarly work that showcases your intellectual curiosity and ability to understand inquiry and investigation? 
  • Have your experiences helped you to growth, shift or gain perspective about your interest in medicine, realize something new?

These are just a few questions you need to ask yourself to assess if you have “enough hours” and your readiness to apply to medical school (see Am I Ready to Apply to Medical School?).

Keep in mind that your motivations need to be clearly expressed in your medical school school statement, your experience entries, and your medical school interviews. If you can’t write and speak intelligently about your motivations for a career in medicine, that is the sign that you may “need more hours.”

JESSICA FREEDMAN, M.D., a former medical school and residency admissions officer at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, is the founder and chair of MedEdits Medical Admissions and author of three top-selling books about the medical admissions process that you can find on Amazon.

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