May 8, 2025
Written By
Every year, thousands of premeds Google the same thing: “How many clinical hours do I need to get into med school?” They get a dozen different answers, waste time trying to figure it out, and still feel unsure.
Here’s the truth: clinical experience isn’t just a number. It’s the difference between an application that gets ignored and one that demands attention.
In this article, we’ll cover how many clinical hours you need for medical school, what counts (and what doesn’t), and how to find the right experiences to stand out.
Premed Catalyst is a results-driven premed mentorship program that helps students gain meaningful clinical experience, build competitive applications, and get into med school. In the 2024–2025 cycle, every Premed Catalyst student who applied on time got accepted — a 100% acceptance rate. That includes admits to top-tier schools like Vanderbilt, UCSF, UCLA, and more.
Book your free strategy session today to take the first step toward getting into your dream med school.
You’re not getting into med school without clinical experience. Period.
The reason is simple: if you’ve never actually worked with patients, why should anyone trust you to be a doctor?
Clinical experience tells admissions committees:
This isn’t extra credit. This is the baseline. You need it.
The number floating around online is 100 to 150, but that’s outdated. From what we’ve seen with our 2024-2025 cohort, the real range is closer to 300 to 2,000 hours. Students in that range who applied on time received a median of 7 interviews.
That range is solid. That’s enough to show consistency and commitment without looking like you were faking it for the sake of numbers. That doesn’t mean you must hit 300+ hours to be competitive. We’ve just rarely seen strong applications come in under that mark.
But here’s what no one tells you: it’s not really about the number — it’s the story.
If you’ve got 1,000 hours of standing silently in a hospital hallway, that’s not impressive. If you’ve got 300 hours where you actively talked to patients, helped with care, and can reflect on it deeply — that is.
What med schools really care about is whether you understand what you’re getting into and whether your experiences show that you're pursuing medicine for the right reasons. That’s why context matters. Schools want to see that you’ve worked with real people, not just logged time.
Even better? If you’ve engaged with the communities you want to serve. For example, if you're applying to schools in L.A., showing clinical experience with the Hispanic population can go a long way. It tells them you’re not just checking boxes — you’re building a connection to the kind of doctor you want to be.
If you haven’t reached the number of recommended clinical hours don’t just sit there feeling bad about it. Start now. Get clinical exposure wherever you can — volunteering, shadowing, working. Go deep, not wide. Admissions committees are looking for traction, not perfection.
But what if the deadline is coming up, and you're still way too short? Here’s the truth: it’s not ideal, but it’s also not the end of the road.
If you're behind, your goal should be to:
More clinical hours don’t always make a stronger application. More is often just more, not better. If you can’t explain what you learned or how it shaped you, no one cares if you’ve got over 2,000 hours. They’ll see right through it. Your experiences need to mean something.
There’s more than one way to get hands-on experience in medicine, and the best path is the one you can actually follow through on consistently. Clinical experience doesn’t have to look the same for everyone, and it doesn’t have to start in the flashiest hospital or with the most competitive role.
What matters is patient contact, real learning, and a growing sense of responsibility in a clinical environment. That holds true whether you’re working part-time or volunteering on weekends.
Get paid and get clinical experience. Win-win.
Paid roles are one of the most effective ways to gain sustained, hands-on experience in patient care. These jobs often involve direct interaction with patients, collaboration with healthcare professionals, and insight into the day-to-day workings of clinical environments.
What sets paid positions apart is consistency. You're not just popping in once a week to volunteer. You're showing up regularly, taking on responsibility, and becoming part of the healthcare team. That kind of involvement speaks volumes on an application.
Just because a role isn’t paid doesn’t mean it’s any less valuable. In fact, volunteer clinical experiences can be some of the most meaningful and impactful parts of a premed journey.
Volunteering gives you the chance to serve patients and communities while developing empathy, communication skills, and a clearer picture of what it means to work in healthcare. And because you’re not tied to a paycheck, you often have more flexibility in where and how you get involved.
Admissions committees love to see consistent, long-term volunteer work, especially in clinical settings. It shows you’re not just checking a box — you’re committed to service. You're choosing to show up without being paid because you care.
If you can volunteer in a setting that aligns with your personal interests or values, your experience becomes part of your story, not just your resume.
Think:
Not everything that happens in a hospital is “clinical,” and not every clinical experience happens inside a hospital. The key question is simple: Are you engaging with patients in a healthcare setting?
If the answer is yes — it probably counts.
Here are some examples that typically qualify as clinical experience:
Bottom line: if you're present, engaged, and involved in the patient care process, you're gaining clinical experience. If you’re just watching from a distance or doing tasks no patient ever sees — not so much.
Not every healthcare-related activity counts as clinical experience, and misunderstanding this will weaken your application. Just because you’re in a hospital or clinic doesn’t mean your experience qualifies.
Here’s what doesn’t count:
Why not? Because clinical experience is about being part of patient care, not just being in the building where it happens. If you’re not talking to, helping, or learning directly from patient interactions, admissions committees won’t count it, and neither should you.
Clinical experience and shadowing are not the same and admissions committees know the difference. Yes, both take place in clinical settings, but they serve different purposes, and on the AMCAS application, they’re categorized separately.
Let’s break it down:
Shadowing isn’t flashy. It’s not the most hands-on. And no, you won’t be drawing blood or taking vitals. But here’s why it still matters — because shadowing gives you a front-row seat to what being a physician actually looks like.
Shadowing is required on most applications, but it won’t carry much weight beyond the basics.
Think of it as checking a box:
Anything beyond that? It’s rarely a game-changer.
Clinical experience is where you’re in it. You’re not just watching — you’re doing. You’re engaging with patients, contributing to care, and gaining hands-on exposure to healthcare delivery. Whether it’s taking vitals, helping with mobility, sitting bedside, or assisting with intake, you’re part of the patient’s journey.
Clinical experience is where your interpersonal skills, empathy, and growth really show up and where most of your value-add to an application comes from. It’s where med schools get to see if you can actually handle being around sick people, communicate with compassion, and work as part of a healthcare team.
Med schools care far more about clinical experience because it proves you’re not just interested in medicine — you’re ready to be part of it.
The most successful applicants don’t just list hours. They connect the dots. They use their clinical experiences to say something powerful about who they are and why they belong in medicine.
With so many clinical opportunities out there, it’s easy to feel stuck choosing the “best” one to tell that story. But the truth is, the best experience is the one that fits your goals and your schedule and helps you grow, not the one that looks flashiest on paper.
Here’s how to make the right choice for you:
1. Look for Direct Patient Contact
If you’re not interacting with patients, it’s not clinical. Period. It doesn’t matter if it’s a hospital, clinic, mobile unit, or hospice, you need to be talking to, helping, or supporting patients. Filing papers or lurking in the background doesn’t count.
2. Prioritize Consistency Over Prestige
One year at a community clinic where you built relationships beats two months at a big-name hospital where no one knew your name. Med schools want to see commitment, not clout chasing. Go with what you can commit to because that’s where real experience happens.
3. Choose What You Can Reflect On
If you can’t explain what it taught you, what challenged you, or what changed your perspective, it won’t help you stand out. Choose experiences where you feel something, not just where you show up. This is what builds strong personal statements and killer interview answers.
4. Match It to Your Interests or Use It to Explore
Already leaning toward emergency medicine? Cool, lean harder. Still figuring it out? Even better. Use your clinical experiences to explore. Try different settings. Get uncomfortable. See what sparks something in you. The more you try, the clearer your path gets and the more well-rounded you become as an applicant.
5. Think About the Narrative
Creating a cohesive narrative is the whole point. Your clinical experiences aren’t random. They should connect to who you are and where you’re going. Every hour you spend should be another puzzle piece that answers the question: Why medicine and why you?
There’s a lot of noise out there — forums, Reddit threads, premed subcultures full of half-baked advice. Here's the stuff that actually helps students get into med school, straight from mentors who’ve done it and helped hundreds of others do it, too.
Most premeds don’t miss the mark because they’re lazy. They miss it because no one ever showed them how to do it right.
That’s where Premed Catalyst comes in. We’re a mentorship program built by people who’ve actually gotten into med school — and helped hundreds of others do the same.
We’ll help you:
Book your free strategy session today to speak to someone who actually knows what it takes to get into med school.