Pre Secondary Screen for Shadowing

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plantmom25

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Hi I have a unique situation. I had issues with my work/activities section failing to save and had to re-do the entire section. The majority of my shadowing experiences have been as components of other experiences (for example, I worked in an dr's office and also shadowed that doctor as part of the position). because of this when redoing the section, I forgot to add the extra section for shadowing where I had pulled the shadowing hours out of the other activities. I still have plenty of clinical hours in my primary application (like over 1000) and I mention attending clinic and working in with patients in other parts of the primary. Right now since I can't edit the application I'm planning on including the shadowing in secondaries in the "tell us more/anything else" sections. That being said are there any schools that might screen my application before sending secondaries and not send one because of the lack of shadowing? If there are would you suggest not applying to them or would the schools be open to me contacting them directly to add the shadowing? Alternatively, am I overthinking and my clinical experience means that the shadowing doesn't matter really and I shouldn't worry about it. Thanks for reading!
tl;dr: I forgot shadowing on my app. What should I do?

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Hi I have a unique situation. I had issues with my work/activities section failing to save and had to re-do the entire section. The majority of my shadowing experiences have been as components of other experiences (for example, I worked in an dr's office and also shadowed that doctor as part of the position). because of this when redoing the section, I forgot to add the extra section for shadowing where I had pulled the shadowing hours out of the other activities. I still have plenty of clinical hours in my primary application (like over 1000) and I mention attending clinic and working in with patients in other parts of the primary. Right now since I can't edit the application I'm planning on including the shadowing in secondaries in the "tell us more/anything else" sections. That being said are there any schools that might screen my application before sending secondaries and not send one because of the lack of shadowing? If there are would you suggest not applying to them or would the schools be open to me contacting them directly to add the shadowing? Alternatively, am I overthinking and my clinical experience means that the shadowing doesn't matter really and I shouldn't worry about it. Thanks for reading!
tl;dr: I forgot shadowing on my app. What should I do?
To my knowledge, no one is screening for secondaries based on anything other than stats (GPA/MCAT). And remember, many schools don't screen at all. The screen is automatic -- no one is actually reading your application at this point!! No worries; just do what you are planning to do. This is a non-issue.
 
@gonnif @KnightDoc
Is there any particular way you would advise including it in secondaries. I want to make it clear that I have shadowed and how much, but I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to the fact that I left it out in the first place. Thank you!
 
@gonnif @KnightDoc
Is there any particular way you would advise including it in secondaries. I want to make it clear that I have shadowed and how much, but I don’t want to draw unnecessary attention to the fact that I left it out in the first place. Thank you!
I'm just a premed like you, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt, but there is really no way at this point to include it without drawing attention to the fact that you left it out! Shadowing is not a huge part of any application, so maybe you can subtly include it as part of a secondary response without making the whole response about shadowing.

Maybe @gonnif, @Goro, @LizzyM or @gyngyn have something better to suggest. Given the fact that you worked in a doctor's office, I'm not even sure shadowing is necessary for you, since the whole point of it is to demonstrate familiarity with what it is doctors do before making such a large time and money commitment in training (as well as taking a precious seat away from someone else if it turns out not to be for you). Your work with the doctor probably provides adequate evidence of such knowledge without formal shadowing. This is not to be confused with clinical experiences, which focus on your interactions with patients as opposed to what it is doctors do. Again, hopefully the adcoms can weigh in.
 
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