shadowing experience: what to write in AACOMAS?

[csx]

1) Should the shadowing description be short and concise or longer and more detailed on what exactly you saw? Or do adcoms know what shadowing is and don't need a detailed description.

2) Do we list the doctor's contact info if we have it?

Excerpt found in a AMCAS thread:
I believe one of the SDN adcom members suggested that we just list names, dates, and contact info for shadowing. In other words, they know what shadowing is and there's no reason to describe it in detail unless you had an incredibly unique or meaningful experience.

I mean I saw some cool things, do I not talk about them?

What's everyone else doing??

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[Indianarn]

1) Should the shadowing description be short and concise or longer and more detailed on what exactly you saw? Or do adcoms know what shadowing is and don't need a detailed description.

2) Do we list the doctor's contact info if we have it?

Excerpt found in a AMCAS thread:
I believe one of the SDN adcom members suggested that we just list names, dates, and contact info for shadowing. In other words, they know what shadowing is and there's no reason to describe it in detail unless you had an incredibly unique or meaningful experience.

I mean I saw some cool things, do I not talk about them?

What's everyone else doing??

I can only tell you what I wrote in my applications. I wrote one paragraph for all my shadowing experiences (I shadowed 4 docs including a DO). I didn't use any names or dates, but wrote what I got out of the experiences and how it helped me solidify my decision to pursue medicine as my career. I thought the LOR would put more details into what the shadowing experience and apparently that was enough and I got into 2 DO schools. Good luck

 

[AlteredScale]

1) Should the shadowing description be short and concise or longer and more detailed on what exactly you saw? Or do adcoms know what shadowing is and don't need a detailed description.

2) Do we list the doctor's contact info if we have it?

Excerpt found in a AMCAS thread:
I believe one of the SDN adcom members suggested that we just list names, dates, and contact info for shadowing. In other words, they know what shadowing is and there's no reason to describe it in detail unless you had an incredibly unique or meaningful experience.

I mean I saw some cool things, do I not talk about them?

What's everyone else doing??

1) I'm always hearing that brevity is key. So make it concise, make it effective. I'd skip the what you saw in clinic.
2) I put the name and department but not the contact info in order to respect the physicians time.

 

[wdoc]

I can only tell you what I wrote in my applications. I wrote one paragraph for all my shadowing experiences (I shadowed 4 docs including a DO). I didn't use any names or dates, but wrote what I got out of the experiences and how it helped me solidify my decision to pursue medicine as my career. I thought the LOR would put more details into what the shadowing experience and apparently that was enough and I got into 2 DO schools. Good luck

Does this mean for your application that you did multiple entries for shadowing (i.e. Shadowing Dr. X, Shadowing Dr. Y, ...) and then wrote about what you learned from shadowing them? I've also heard that you could do it all as one entry titled something like "shadowing experience", and then just list the doctors you shadowed and their respective departments. I like the idea of doing them separately for the more influential experiences I have had, and then listing for a shadowing rotation that I did since I only spent like 4-8 hours with each physician. (totaling about 8 physicians)

 

[Indianarn]

Does this mean for your application that you did multiple entries for shadowing (i.e. Shadowing Dr. X, Shadowing Dr. Y, ...) and then wrote about what you learned from shadowing them? I've also heard that you could do it all as one entry titled something like "shadowing experience", and then just list the doctors you shadowed and their respective departments. I like the idea of doing them separately for the more influential experiences I have had, and then listing for a shadowing rotation that I did since I only spent like 4-8 hours with each physician. (totaling about 8 physicians)

Well its up to you if you wanna write them separately. Ultimately, they all show the same thing that you love a career in medicine and know what goes in the daily life of a doc. With the restriction on how many words or letters you can use, it was hard for me to write each experience and though it was a waste of time. But as I said its up to you.

 

[wdoc]

Well its up to you if you wanna write them separately. Ultimately, they all show the same thing that you love a career in medicine and know what goes in the daily life of a doc. With the restriction on how many words or letters you can use, it was hard for me to write each experience and though it was a waste of time. But as I said its up to you.

I'll probably just go with doing one entry for shadowing and then just listing the physicians name and department along with the number of hours I shadowed them. Thanks.

 

[Indianarn]

I'll probably just go with doing one entry for shadowing and then just listing the physicians name and department along with the number of hours I shadowed them. Thanks.

I would use one paragraph for all shadowing experience. However, I would not use their name, but it's ok to use their specialities and what you learned from the experiences. Good luck.

 

[ponies2015]

I would use one paragraph for all shadowing experience. However, I would not use their name, but it's ok to use their specialities and what you learned from the experiences. Good luck.

Wait so we shouldn't use their names? I just did what Indianarn did and just listed their names and specialties in one paragraph

 

[verynice]

I shadowed a myriad of providers and it was sufficient to be very general about who I shadowed. I wrote maybe 1-2 sentences explaining the different specialties and providers I shadowed. It is a primary app, not a dissertation, so you don't have to give your life story in every field. As they say, write until the question is answered.

Name dropping is ok @ponies2015 unless the provider explicitly asked not to be mentioned. I'm not sure where this idea comes from. If anything, it legitimizes the experience.

 

[DrDreams]

After seeing this post I decided to drop my paragraph and just list dates, hours, name and specialty.

 

[Fedxup]

1) I'm always hearing that brevity is key. So make it concise, make it effective. I'd skip the what you saw in clinic.
2) I put the name and department but not the contact info in order to respect the physicians time.

So many of my secondaries ended up asking for the name, address, and phone number of the physician I shadowed and sending them a letter from. You make a good point in number 2 though.

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

So many of my secondaries ended up asking for the name, address, and phone number of the physician I shadowed and sending them a letter from. You make a good point in number 2 though.

Did the secondaries do the same for other ECs? Jus curious cause some people said none of them asked for contact info and some did. Just want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row and let my EC people know I'll need their contact info. Thanks!

 

[DetectiveAlonzo]

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[DetectiveAlonzo]

bump... any idea??