MD/PhD acceptance, what weight does shadowing have?

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UCFstudent

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Hello,
I would like to know if shadowing is of any importance as far as acceptance to an MD/PhD program goes. I know it is in my best interest to do it regardless, but I would like to know how much emphasis I should put into it as far as time management. I am under the impression that research experience is of greater importance. Also, is volunteering significant? Again, I understand that both of these things are good to do anyway (I enjoy both), but I recently started to do lab work and my courses are very time consuming so I wanted to know how much emphasis I should put on these things because there are only 24 hours in a day :D
Thank you!

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Have you ever volunteered in a hospital? If not, how could you possibly know if you like patient care? I've never shadowed a physician but I had extensive experience with hands-on patient care. Thus far it hasn't been a problem securing interviews.
 
Hello,
I would like to know if shadowing is of any importance as far as acceptance to an MD/PhD program goes. I know it is in my best interest to do it regardless, but I would like to know how much emphasis I should put into it as far as time management. I am under the impression that research experience is of greater importance. Also, is volunteering significant? Again, I understand that both of these things are good to do anyway (I enjoy both), but I recently started to do lab work and my courses are very time consuming so I wanted to know how much emphasis I should put on these things because there are only 24 hours in a day :D
Thank you!

First off, the answer is somewhat school dependent in 2 ways. First, some schools have separate MD and PhD admissions, in which case you still need to be admitted to the medical school as a normal MD only applicant would. Secondly, different MD/PhD programs place different emphasis on the clinical compnent of MD/PhD training.

That being said, it can be generalized that shadowing is fairly low on the list of things that are important to MD/PhD admissions. A star applicant with 0 shadowing will get plenty of quality admissions. Everyone shadows, so just do it a little bit then you can add that box. When people read your app, they will see it and that will satisfy them. Most likely, no one will bring it up if you did shadow. You may get asked why you didn't if you were to not shadow.

So the takehome is to just do it (it can be fun anyway), but it really isn't that important to MD/PhD admissions as compared to many other criteria.

Here is some advice I wrote recently to someone else with similar question about different aspects of the application. Take it for what its worth.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=8859123#post8859123
 
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From my personal experience you can get interviews (and at least 1 acceptance) without having any shadowing experience. I also started clinical volunteering rather late in the process so I don't have a huge amount of that either.

However, you should certainly try to get some of these experiences, and personally I wish I had gotten involved in them earlier (not because of applications, but because I enjoy it). My advice would be to cut down to the amount you can handle, but even if you're just doing 2-3 hours per week, at least it's something and you'll get a taste of what it's like to work in a hospital.
 
Most programs like to see some form of clinical experience. It really helps you answer the "why MD/PhD and not just PhD" question. But you can get away with having short but meaningful experiences. Five weeks of very meaningful shadowing/patient contact etc. is better than two years of paperwork in some office where you never see a patient.
 
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