<p>Hey guys, I have a quick question. I'm volunteering at a local hospital this summer, and I just wanted to ask how many hours of volunteering is good? Is there any required amount of hours I need for med school? Thanks in advance.</p>
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<p>Nope</p>
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<p>Nobody can answer this for you. Volunteer as many or as few hours as you want. Don’t look at it as sone requirement that you have to get through just so you can put it on your med school application. If you don’t want to volunteer in a hospital, then don’t.</p>
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In other words, if you don’t want to do such things, then don’t apply to med school in the first place.</p>
<p>You should definitely enjoy volunteering at a hospital if you want to be a physcian. If you want to become a research doctor then I can see why it might not be as important but still you should volunteer anyway because your helping people</p>
<p>Quality > Quantity</p>
<p>do it as much as u can but with long periods of time</p>
<p>Quick question: On resumes for med school applicants, do you have to keep track of the exact number of volunteering hours you have over the 4 years of college? Or have a letter/document from the volunteer people that states your amount of hours?</p>
<p>anyone know?</p>
<p>Someone else can give you a more definite answer, but I think you only need the total length of time you volunteered (months, years, etc.)</p>
<p>IIRC the app asks for a contact person for each activity (not just medical). I’d keep track of that. Some hospitals/volunteer organizations keep a log. Some don’t. I know my kid just estimated her time and everything seems to be fine.</p>
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<p>AMCAS asks for the number of hours/week for each activity. For some activities its best to leave it blank and put the hours in the description (e.g. “I shadowed Dr. Icarus for 20 hours over x period of time…”). For others (such as ongoing activities like volunteering or jobs), you should enter a number in that field. But a guestimate is really all you need. No need to stress trying to figure out the exact number. I tended to enter the lower end of my estimates so as to be sure I didn’t overstate the amount of time I put into something.</p>