"Shadowing abroad"?

[corndogs]

I saw this post in a pre-med club facebook group for a "shadowing abroad" opportunity. Its basically studying abroad but instead of taking classes you shadow physicians in different specialties and then to sight seeing and do fun stuff that other study abroad students do. At least 50 people commented asking how they can sign up. Personally this seems kind of like a huge waste of time and money since I could just shadow a physician here for free and get a more accurate picture of what practicing medicine in the US is like instead of shelling out thousands for such a program. The whole thing just seems like some sort of money making thing to lure in premeds that think it would look good on their resume.

What do adcoms think of a program like this? Would it boost someone's app any more than shadowing in the US or just studying abroad normally? Could it hurt an applicant?


@LizzyM @Goro @gonnif
@gyngyn

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[Princeton Medical Student]

I saw this post in a pre-med club facebook group for a "shadowing abroad" opportunity. Its basically studying abroad but instead of taking classes you shadow physicians in different specialties and then to sight seeing and do fun stuff that other study abroad students do. At least 50 people commented asking how they can sign up. Personally this seems kind of like a huge waste of time and money since I could just shadow a physician here for free and get a more accurate picture of what practicing medicine in the US is like instead of shelling out thousands for such a program. The whole thing just seems like some sort of money making thing to lure in premeds that think it would look good on their resume.

What do adcoms think of a program like this? Would it boost someone's app any more than shadowing in the US or just studying abroad normally? Could it hurt an applicant?


@LizzyM @Goro @gonnif

Waste of time and money. Shadowing is the easiest activity you can do, why pay thousands when you can do it for free? Not like the docs in some other country practice very differently anyway. It could probably work against an applicant since it seems to be in the similar "pay money to pretend to help poor people in a poor country tour" boat.

 

[candbgirl]

I've always thought that the purpose of shadowing was to let you see what you are getting into and how docs spend their days. I've also thought it should be done in the US if you plan to practice in the US.


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[Goro]

I saw this post in a pre-med club facebook group for a "shadowing abroad" opportunity. Its basically studying abroad but instead of taking classes you shadow physicians in different specialties and then to sight seeing and do fun stuff that other study abroad students do. At least 50 people commented asking how they can sign up. Personally this seems kind of like a huge waste of time and money since I could just shadow a physician here for free and get a more accurate picture of what practicing medicine in the US is like instead of shelling out thousands for such a program. The whole thing just seems like some sort of money making thing to lure in premeds that think it would look good on their resume.

What do adcoms think of a program like this? Would it boost someone's app any more than shadowing in the US or just studying abroad normally? Could it hurt an applicant?


@LizzyM @Goro @gonnif
@gyngyn

Medical tourism!!!

 

[UBLI-EINSTEIN]

Not recommended.

 

[Lannister]

I shadowed abroad (I didn't specifically go abroad for shadowing, it was just a course that my study abroad program happened to offer) and it was really interesting to see how health care works outside of the US, especially since most of the people in the country I shadowed in have public health care. But it was brought up at one of my interviews that I had too much international shadowing experience and not enough US shadowing experience.

 

[gyngyn]

This is not what we are looking for.

 

[JustAPhD]

Programs like that might seem tempting, but shadow in the good ole USA and keep your vacations separate.