Medical Experience Opportunities

Medical school applications expect you to have a great deal of experience volunteering or working in the medical field, whether through patient contact or research. However, finding these types of opportunities can feel challenging for many students. This article will highlight potential avenues for locating medical experience opportunities in your area and what kind of experiences are the best use of your time.

Finding Medical Experience Opportunities

Utilize as many potential connections as you can. 

Your pre-health advisor and their office are there to provide resources for you beyond scheduling your classes. Make sure to note down your advisor’s name, their office’s contact information, and the location of the advising office. If they have an email list, be sure that your email is on it and that you’re keeping up with the latest opportunities.

Find out if there is a pre-med club or society on your campus. If there is a pre-med honor society that you could qualify for, do your best to join that as well. There also may be a service organization club or fraternity that you could join that would provide volunteer opportunities. Jot down each of these clubs and the requirements for becoming a member.

Other ways to make contacts and get experience often involve reaching out to people. Contact your school’s science department about lab or research opportunities. Contact local clinics or health service providers to see if they have volunteer, paid, part-time, or internship opportunities. Sending off an email to someone you haven’t met can be daunting, and you may not receive responses from everyone you email. However, the more you reach out, the more likely you will receive a helpful response and gain a new opportunity.

If you know a health care provider, even your doctor, contact them about shadowing opportunities. Having a prior connection to them can increase their chances of responding. Even if they are unavailable for shadowing, they may point you in a helpful new direction.

Types of Experiences to Seek Out

While not all your extracurricular activities need to be medically related, at least a few should involve the medical field. Of these, it’s essential that you spend your time wisely. 

Admissions committees evaluate experiences based on three criteria: the time you’ve invested, the depth of the experience, and lessons learned about the activity. 

For example, volunteering at a single-day event will not hold as much weight as a semester-long activity. In addition, an experience where you can actively participate will be viewed as more impactful than one where you passively participate. The quality of the experiences is more important than the quantity. Remember that having three or four in-depth experiences will be far more significant to admission committees than jumping around many short-term involvements.

Remember to think critically about your experiences and what they have taught you. Admissions committees will want to hear about them from you. While keeping track of your volunteer time, note your thoughts and lessons learned from each. Review these notes before your admissions interviews to confidently discuss what you learned.

Find these tips and much more in the 2024 Official Guide to Medical School Admissions: How to Prepare for and Apply to Medical School, free on the AAMC Website. Click this link to view.

Thank you for reading,

Ashby Glover