Ready to Submit - Should I delay to include shadowing?

[boo5000]

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I am a high school teacher and I have shadowing lined up in two weeks, once school lets out -- I'm in a rural community and its hard to shadow unless its during the day. I have never formally shadowed, and wanted to use this summer, as I am applying, to gain that experience.

Long story short, is it better to submit now and use my secondaries to talk about my experiences this summer, or should I wait until I am able to speak about my shadowing experience?

Stats if necessary: 3.87c, 3.7s, 38s

Thanks for the input!

 

[Catalystik]

Opinions will surely vary, as we all have our own own perspective based on various experiences.

IMO, with your stats, a 2 week delay will not impair your statistical chance of doing well in the application cycle. Not having Physician Shadowing listed, which is highly important to many adcomms (but not all), would give your application a weakness which is soon to be fixed. So, in your shoes, I'd wait until I had started the activity so I could legitimately list it.

BTW, emergency room physicians work at night and on weekends. Can you pull some strings with current contacts to get something started a little sooner?

 

[Poliscidoc]

Submit now then send an update letter afterwards.

 

[Myuu]

Wait the 2 weeks. At this stage, assuming your transcripts are in or ready to go, you're not losing anything. Most of the secondaries don't even come out until July, so you'd be safe.

 

[peripherin]

Depends on when high school resumes again for you. Loads of secondaries + new school year = complete, utter suckage. If your high school has a summer school program in July/August with school starting right after, just submit now.

Waiting two weeks from now isn't too bad, provided that you have everything else ready. Can you start shadowing earlier? You could probably do some shadowing over finals week, if they're half days.

 

[Myuu]

Depends on when high school resumes again for you. Loads of secondaries + new school year = complete, utter suckage. If your high school has a summer school program in July/August with school starting right after, just submit now.

Waiting two weeks from now isn't too bad, provided that you have everything else ready. Can you start shadowing earlier? You could probably do some shadowing over finals week, if they're half days.

You could always write a stock of essays based on common themes/prompts for the schools you're applying to in the interval, as they don't change much (usually) from cycle to cycle.👍

 

[peripherin]

You could always write a stock of essays based on common themes/prompts for the schools you're applying to in the interval, as they don't change much (usually) from cycle to cycle.👍

That's really good advice. I wish I knew that a year ago!

 

[TexasHopeful]

I'm in the same boat as the OP (but with lower stats, 3.7 33R). Can you send in updates to TMDSAS?

 

[boo5000]

Thanks to everyone who responded! I think I will first try to pull some strings and get into an ER this weekend or next week. Then, continue with shadowing in a rural clinic (which is what I want to practice!).

I should be able to submit by the 18th, which would still be fairly early, no?

And great tip about the secondaries!

To piggyback, if a school is not traditionally focused on rural medicine, and that is my slant, is it worth the application? Or would my personal experience in rural areas look more like "underserved" to an ADCOM?

 

[Catalystik]

You can go into RuralMed from any medschool, though there are programs out there with that special slant. The special programs like to see that you have lived, worked, or volunteered in a rural area if you want to be considered. The residency program you match into is where you'll get your solid grounding for practice in a rural area.

And yes, a June 18 submission would still be considered "early."

 

[ThaliaNox]

Waiting two weeks in order to be able to turn in your "best" application sounds like a smart move. You have excellent stats, and it'd be silly to get brushed aside at schools for something you actually will have done by the time they look at your application. As for update letters, they're nice, but have far less impact than your actual application.