Questions about Shadowing, Clinical Experience, and Timeline of both

[vairules]

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I've got some questions about shadowing and clinical experience, and I'd really appreciate some answers to both. To start off, I'm a Junior in college, and will be applying this coming summer.

-I did at least 100 hours of shadowing as a high school student among a variety of specialties. I can get a strong letter of rec from one physician. In college, I've done about 30-40 so far. Should I do more? How much does the high school experience count for? For several physicians, I've continued to shadow them through high school and college.

-If I do want to do more, would it be ok to list it on my application? Like "40 more hours scheduled this coming summer (give specific date) with Dr. Smith @ x location". I would like to do more, but there's no time now (MCAT, school, organizations), and I won't get back from my Study Abroad trip until later July.

-As far as clinical experience goes, I really don't have much, and this is where I'd appreciate the advice most. I've volunteered at a Nursing Home for about 15 hours, and at a home for the disabled run by a family friend for about 20 hours. Other than that, nothing. Given that I won't have time to get any more in until late summer, what should I do? Would it be acceptable to list future hours scheduled for the late summer/throughout the coming school year? I could easily get a volunteer position scheduled for my Senior Year.

For what it's worth, the rest of my application is looking strong - 3.9+ GPA/sci GPA, summer of research at a med school, community volunteering, leadership, extra curricular, etc... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[blah2537]

I've got some questions about shadowing and clinical experience, and I'd really appreciate some answers to both. To start off, I'm a Junior in college, and will be applying this coming summer.

-I did at least 100 hours of shadowing as a high school student among a variety of specialties. I can get a strong letter of rec from one physician. In college, I've done about 30-40 so far. Should I do more? How much does the high school experience count for? For several physicians, I've continued to shadow them through high school and college.

-If I do want to do more, would it be ok to list it on my application? Like "40 more hours scheduled this coming summer (give specific date) with Dr. Smith @ x location". I would like to do more, but there's no time now (MCAT, school, organizations), and I won't get back from my Study Abroad trip until later July.

-As far as clinical experience goes, I really don't have much, and this is where I'd appreciate the advice most. I've volunteered at a Nursing Home for about 15 hours, and at a home for the disabled run by a family friend for about 20 hours. Other than that, nothing. Given that I won't have time to get any more in until late summer, what should I do? Would it be acceptable to list future hours scheduled for the late summer/throughout the coming school year? I could easily get a volunteer position scheduled for my Senior Year.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My two cents (simply my opinion):
In general, don't include anything from high school on your app unless you continued it into college. It sounds like it was the same physicians as high school so I would include those.

Don't worry about more shadowing hours. With the right stats you have enough even without high school counting. I had 80 when I applied and most schools didn't seem to care one way or the other. Point was I knew what I was getting into and that was enough for them.

Your clinical hours are somewhat limited. I don't know what you can do about it at this point. Listing that in the future you will be doing stuff probably will not help your app much (again just my opinion). So instead I would volunteer at the hospital and bring it up in interviews. Even being limited though you are probably in good shape if you have a solid GPA and MCAT.

 

[2050vlsb]

I've got some questions about shadowing and clinical experience, and I'd really appreciate some answers to both. To start off, I'm a Junior in college, and will be applying this coming summer.

-I did at least 100 hours of shadowing as a high school student among a variety of specialties. I can get a strong letter of rec from one physician. In college, I've done about 30-40 so far. Should I do more? How much does the high school experience count for? For several physicians, I've continued to shadow them through high school and college.

-If I do want to do more, would it be ok to list it on my application? Like "40 more hours scheduled this coming summer (give specific date) with Dr. Smith @ x location". I would like to do more, but there's no time now (MCAT, school, organizations), and I won't get back from my Study Abroad trip until later July.

-As far as clinical experience goes, I really don't have much, and this is where I'd appreciate the advice most. I've volunteered at a Nursing Home for about 15 hours, and at a home for the disabled run by a family friend for about 20 hours. Other than that, nothing. Given that I won't have time to get any more in until late summer, what should I do? Would it be acceptable to list future hours scheduled for the late summer/throughout the coming school year? I could easily get a volunteer position scheduled for my Senior Year.

For what it's worth, the rest of my application is looking strong - 3.9+ GPA/sci GPA, summer of research at a med school, community volunteering, leadership, extra curricular, etc... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Just to add to the response above ...

- I'm fairly certain that your high school activities/hours won't count or add to your current clinical experience. While you can refer to them in secondaries and use that letter (though I think you should definitely supplement it with others from your college experiences), those hours shouldn't be listed on your AMCAS list of activities. As for actual # of hours, I think shadowing is just one of several different options for clinical exposure and 30-40 hours should be more than enough.

- You can't list activities that you haven't actually started at the time of application on AMCAS. If its something that you've already started and are going to resume, you can make a note of it in the description section. However, AMCAS won't let you list the start date of activities past the current month.

- As you mentioned, your app is otherwise strong, but clinical experience and exposure is a really important part of a balanced app. If you can try and start some additional clinical work, e.g. hospital/clinic volunteering, you can list it on your AMCAS and note you'll be continuing with it through the next year. If you won't have time to, you can send update letters and bring up your additional experiences during interviews. However, if you've only done ~35 hours total, I think that's a little low and you should find something to help bolster that

 

[vairules]

Ok.

I could start it before I leave - like get training, maybe go for a day or two, and then continue it when I get back? No problem.

Also, could I at least the hours of the doctors that I still continue to shadow? Both of the docs I've shadowed in college are ones that I've shadowed for 60 more in high school as well. Should I at least mention the continuity?