Medical Will adcoms understand if shadowing and volunteering is impacted by COVID19?

[Mr.Smile12]

Hello, I am looking for any suggestions or advice on what to do since my shadowing physicians and volunteering at the hospital has been impacted by COVID19. Recently decided I wanted to go to medical school. I was aiming to apply this cycle and had all my shadowing lined up and have been volunteering at the hospital, but it all has all been put on hold until further notice due to COVID19. I may not get it in until about May or June. Would the admissions understand? If any later, would it be best to apply the next cycle? I also volunteer at my school's food pantry and have about 70 hours over the years and was supposed to end up having about 100 at the end of the semester. Similar with my hospital volunteering. However, I plan to continue volunteering at the hospital during my gap year anyway. Thanks.

Obviously the entire situation is fluid, and we don't have any idea how this situation is going to affect the way faculty will review applicants. History, however, suggests that faculty are not going to take any excuses for applying without having a history of shadowing and clinical hours. If you have less than what we suggest are bare minimum number of hours (50 shadowing, majority in primary care; 100 clinical volunteering), you should consider holding on until the following year until you get the time to accumulate those hours. Many people's best-laid plans for summer volunteering are definitely on hiatus and may not happen, and I would suspect this will really impact the Class of 2021 pool. If you don't have your ducks in a row to submit a strong application this cycle and place your hopes on continued involvement with shadowing/clinical volunteering, you may be setting yourself up for a very suboptimal profile and thus a less than optimal admissions result. Networking is going to be very important to stay connected with students and admissions recruiters at your most desired schools to help you decide whether to hold off a year or go for it this summer.

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[Goro]

I agree with my learned colleague. This is essentially a wartime situation, and sacrifices are necessary . Med schools won't be going anywhere