Is there such thing as too much shadowing?

[pikachoo]

I've been shadowing at a private practice since high school. The doctor is awesome -- she's taught me a ton of specifics behind procedures and I love talking to patients & basically spent a whole summer shadowing there.

It's not a focus in my EC's and is balanced by clinical, research, underserved volunteering, and non-medical pursuits as well. I've seen on here several times that over 50 hrs is too much for shadowing, but I have a lot more than that and am now wondering if that could look excessive for just observing? It's still less than my clinical, if that's what makes the difference

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[ciestar]

Yeah only because you only can get so much out of following someone around all day.

Idk how people do it. Im an m3 now and i had to shadow for most of my peds rotation and it was draining. I only had like 50 going into med school

 

[pikachoo]

Yeah only because you only can get so much out of following someone around all day.

Idk how people do it. Im an m3 now and i had to shadow for most of my peds rotation and it was draining. I only had like 50 going into med school

Makes sense, it was early on in college and I'm not gonna do more -- I guess it was more engaging than just following so it never really got boring! Hopefully it just doesn't hurt the app lol

 

[ciestar]

Makes sense, it was early on in college and I'm not gonna do more -- I guess it was more engaging than just following so it never really got boring! Hopefully it just doesn't hurt the app lol

Sounds like the rest of your app is sound, don’t worry about it!

 

[907914]

You can, practically, do shadowing in excess with different physicians/different specialties. If you have 2-3 physicians you shadow for 16hours+ across specialties and one that you shadowed consistently for a longer period of time >50-60 hours, that definitely looks like you pursued this career from different facets to really understand what it is to be a physician.

 

[Catalystik]

I've been shadowing at a private practice since high school. The doctor is awesome -- she's taught me a ton of specifics behind procedures and I love talking to patients & basically spent a whole summer shadowing there.

It's not a focus in my EC's and is balanced by clinical, research, underserved volunteering, and non-medical pursuits as well. I've seen on here several times that over 50 hrs is too much for shadowing, but I have a lot more than that and am now wondering if that could look excessive for just observing? It's still less than my clinical, if that's what makes the difference

It isn't that over 50 hours of shadowing is "too much," rather that no more than 50 is necessary for the application. That said, if you solely have a large number of hours of a specialty that's highly competitive to match into (derm, ortho, neurosurgery, eg), eyebrows will rise. You'd be well advised to temper this with some primary care, office-based experience. And you might consider NOT listing the entire number of hours of the subspecialty that you've accumulated.

 

[MyOdyssey]

The problem with excess shadowing can come from the over-achieving, research-oriented, high-stat, candidate, who have unbalanced application numbers and do not comprehend that many schools do not consider shadowing as part of clinical experience or view it as a lower quality clinical work. These are students who gave significant research hours (1,000-2000+), low or minimal clinical volunteering hours (100-200), and significant shadowing (100+ hours) especially in more academic-leaning, sub-specialties. Additionally their community service hours are minimal and/or academic related, such as tutor and member of the premed club and the Honor Fraternity. This kind of background can make the candidate seem too much an academic geek for some schools

Is this kind of profile problematic for MD/PhD applicants?

 

[Catalystik]

Is this kind of profile problematic for MD/PhD applicants?

No.

 

[pikachoo]

The problem with excess shadowing can come from the over-achieving, research-oriented, high-stat, candidate, who have unbalanced application numbers and do not comprehend that many schools do not consider shadowing as part of clinical experience or view it as a lower quality clinical work. These are students who gave significant research hours (1,000-2000+), low or minimal clinical volunteering hours (100-200), and significant shadowing (100+ hours) especially in more academic-leaning, sub-specialties. Additionally their community service hours are minimal and/or academic related, such as tutor and member of the premed club and the Honor Fraternity. This kind of background can make the candidate seem too much an academic geek for some schools

My app isn't like that at all (lol although I wish I was super high-stat). Aside from clinical & research I'm very heavy on humanities pursuits and frankly would not be able to stand more than 10 min in an org full of pre-meds; should I still under-report my shadowing to be under a certain point?

 

[jarednogeek]

I would just shoot for a balanced app. If you did the shadowing list it. Idk how you shadowed that much either I found shadowing draining after 20ish hours as I wasn’t “doing” anything.

 

[candbgirl]

List what you’ve done but make sure your total application is balanced. And stop shadowing now and find something else to do!

 

[WedgeDawg]

In terms of benefit to the application, there becomes a point of steeply diminishing marginal return. However, you will never be harmed by too much shadowing.

In terms of benefit to you as a person, when it starts becoming boring, stop doing it. If you're having fun and you feel like it's a valuable use of your time, then go for it.

 

[puahate]

The issue is usually that time could be used for other things.

 

[PreMedMissteps]

If it’s done at the expense of other more meaningful things, it’s a problem.

Sort of reminds me of high school seniors with average stats who think that all of their extra-curriculars are going to get them into a top school.