shadowing near application time

[kk123]

I know that starting to volunteer close to application time looks like box checking, but what about shadowing?
I have about 30 hours shadowing experience (two different specialties), and I will start shadowing again in April. Will it look bad to start shadowing at this clinic so close to the time I turn in my application?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Ezio]

I mean 30 hours or 300 hours doesn't really make a difference. BUT if it is 2 specialties or 8 different specialties (I'm going for like 6-7 different)

 

[talinnlove]

You're fine imho; I might be vaguely (but not super) concerned if it were your FIRST shadowing experience, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Also, nearly every secondary you write will have an "update your app" or an "anything else you want to tell us?" prompt. You can update your schools on recent shadowing there if you don't want it on your AMCAS, or if you do some shadowing after your primary submission.

 

[Ismet]

It's fine. You already have shadowing experience, so it's not like you're scrambling to check a box. I did a bit of shadowing when I was home for the early summer (post-MCAT pre-AMCAS) since my home hospital had pretty lenient shadowing rules.

 

[armybound]

would you rather not do it at all?

 

[kk123]

would you rather not do it at all?

No, I was still going to shadow, but considering not applying until next year if shadowing this late hurt my application too much....

 

[kk123]

You're fine imho; I might be vaguely (but not super) concerned if it were your FIRST shadowing experience, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Also, nearly every secondary you write will have an "update your app" or an "anything else you want to tell us?" prompt. You can update your schools on recent shadowing there if you don't want it on your AMCAS, or if you do some shadowing after your primary submission.

I didn't know that about the secondary applications. Thank you!

 

[CarlosDanger]

I pretty much did the same thing. I already had some shadowing experience, but shadowed a few more docs in different specialties last year around April-May. In the bigger picture of my application, I don't think adcoms cared when I had done it, but just saw that I had the experience as a whole. It definitely didn't hurt me, and actually gave me a few points to talk about in my interviews. Plus, shadowing can take a long time to set up. I contacted docs around January and couldn't get a date on the books till much later. Like armybound said, your other choice is to not do it at all, which doesn't make much sense. If you have to you can update secondaries later, but in my opinion it will look much better in the context of your whole app when it's first screened.