Resume/Clinical Experience

[ATLHawks]

I'm asking this question to those who have completed their applications. I have several questions regarding the resume for applications.

1.) I'm currently a senior in high school. During the last month of school, I no longer have classes and I have the opportunity to shadow physicians and get experience in the hospital. Can I use the hours I spent with these physicians in my future resume even though I would technically still be in high school?

2.) I plan on documenting my activities, shadowing, and hospital experiences as soon as I start college so I can build a large amount of hours. Would this be good or am I wasting my time in doing so?

3.) This is can to relate to med school and other applications, but I have always wondered, besides basic morals, what is stopping a person from exaggerating the resume? For example increasing volunteer hours. I don't plan on doing this, this is just something I have always wondered.

Thank you thank you.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Cinclus]

I'm asking this question to those who have completed their applications. I have several questions regarding the resume for applications.

1.) I'm currently a senior in high school. During the last month of school, I no longer have classes and I have the opportunity to shadow physicians and get experience in the hospital. Can I use the hours I spent with these physicians in my future resume even though I would technically still be in high school?

2.) I plan on documenting my activities, shadowing, and hospital experiences as soon as I start college so I can build a large amount of hours. Would this be good or am I wasting my time in doing so?

3.) This is can to relate to med school and other applications, but I have always wondered, besides basic morals, what is stopping a person from exaggerating the resume? For example increasing volunteer hours. I don't plan on doing this, this is just something I have always wondered.

Thank you thank you.

1. If you continue these sorts of experiences through college, then yes.

2. Of course you should document these activities.

3. Reference contact information.

 

[Isoprop]

I would say no to #1 unless you continued the same exact activity while in college. e.g. shadowing the same physician from high school into your freshman year or volunteering in the same hospital/clinic from high school into college.

If you shadowed Dr. Smith in high school and stopped. Then shadowed Dr. Doe the summer after freshman year of college, then only the shadowing of Dr. Doe would go into your application.

 

[LizzyM]

I would say no to #1 unless you continued the same exact activity while in college. e.g. shadowing the same physician from high school into your freshman year or volunteering in the same hospital/clinic from high school into college.

If you shadowed Dr. Smith in high school and stopped. Then shadowed Dr. Doe the summer after freshman year of college, then only the shadowing of Dr. Doe would go into your application.

^ This is the sort of thing that gets promulgated on SDN but it is not in the AAMC instructions for applicants. OP, you may list any experience that is meaningful on your application, even if it happened earlier than college. That said, the expectation is that you will have had many meaningful experinences during college and won't have much room for "ancient history". Of course, if the shadowing you do early on is very influential, you may write about it in an essay rather than, or in addition to, listing it in the experience section.

It isn't a bad idea to keep a notebook or file with names, dates, addresses, email addresses, etc.

 

[Ismet]

^ This is the sort of thing that gets promulgated on SDN but it is not in the AAMC instructions for applicants. OP, you may list any experience that is meaningful on your application, even if it happened earlier than college. That said, the expectation is that you will have had many meaningful experinences during college and won't have much room for "ancient history". Of course, if the shadowing you do early on is very influential, you may write about it in an essay rather than, or in addition to, listing it in the experience section.

It isn't a bad idea to keep a notebook or file with names, dates, addresses, email addresses, etc.

+1. My most meaningful experience related to medicine was some shadowing I did in 10th grade. I didn't put it in my AMCAS activities because I didn't have room, but it was a main focus of my personal statement, and several interviewers complimented me on my PS. I also volunteered about 400 hours in a hospital when I was in high school, and I talked about that in most of my interviews.

IMO, I think it's beneficial to demonstrate that you have had a strong interest in medicine from early on, whether you end up putting it as an AMCAS activity or simply talk about it in secondary essays or interviews.

 

[ATLHawks]

I apologize for bringing this back up. I was wondering if I were to do research and volunteering this upcoming summer, (I graduate high school in May) would that be considered a summer a part of my high school or college?

 

[LizzyM]

I apologize for bringing this back up. I was wondering if I were to do research and volunteering this upcoming summer, (I graduate high school in May) would that be considered a summer a part of my high school or college?

You can put anything you want in the experience section of your application. If you have 15 more recent items that are more significant/relevant, you might decide to drop the things you did before starting college classes but there is nothing prohibiting you from listing them.

 

[ReptarBar]

you aren't supposed to list high-school activities, but who cares? just do whatever you want to then say you did it the summer before college or something. who cares about dates...what matters is the experience.