Shadowing: How much to be competitive?

[Goro]

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At my school the wily old Admissions dean is the person who goes over apps. We do not pre-screen except for stats, and so if someone has 1000 or 0 hours shadowing or ECs, s/he'll still get an II if the stats are high enough, much to the chagrin of the members of the Adcom.

At LizzyM's school, which is somewhere on the East Coast (maybe), a committee wades through the apps and decides who to invite.

@gyngyn I always wondered how do adcoms or schools pre-screen for "content"? I'm assuming this refers to ECs like shadowing and volunteering.

Is that a California thing or do schools all over do it? @Catalystik

Is it system based or like do actual human adcoms check it over?

How is it at DO schools? @Goro

Is a student out if they don't have experiences like shadowing, volunteering, etc.? I've heard over and over again there is no set hours, so what is it based on?

EDIT: If one doesn't have these experiences at interviews, that's a road to rejection.

 

[gyngyn]

I'm curious about this too. Perhaps it's based on the way they describe the activity or what they say in interviews?

Yes. Insight, reflection, persuasive narrative.

 

[gyngyn]

Like you guys are inclined to reject someone who, for example, let's say never volunteered at a hospital?

I think it's so important to make the most out of all experiences but I can't blame people for being inclined to do things so they can "check boxes" off when there is a screening process and specific things that every school looks for.

Clinical experiences are found in many places besides a hospital.
Any of them can be important to an application.

 

[senzen]

Clinical experiences are found in many places besides a hospital.
Any of them can be important to an application.

Oh I know, it was just an example! I was just curious about how the screening varies from school to school (i.e., research oriented schools are more inclined to screen out people who don't have research, schools geared toward the underserved screen out people who have never served the underserved, etc.).

Thank you, I'm glad to have learned this!

 

[NonTradJp]

My opinion as an applicant is that the activities box works to convey how shadowing or clinical volunteering comes across. You cannot say everything, but you can get a few thoughts in. In mine, I wrote narratives. I did read on here to use short bullet points of data only. However, for me who is an oddball, narratives allowed me to share my values and passion.

 

[cs24]

It costs us $1000 to do all of the necessary paperwork and credentialing to have a single pre-med shadow one of our surgeons.

Noted... it effects their bottom line in a negative way. Even more reason why they wouldn't be inclined to bring the premeds in. Although I really can't understand how the paperwork/credentialing could cost so much. Bureaucracy is an interesting thing.

 

[Catalystik]

Is that a California thing or do schools all over do it? @Catalystik

Is it system based or like do actual human adcoms check it over?

No single adcomm can answer as to how the process is approached at every school. But my school uses the "eyeball" approach. I expect most do.

how do you know that the applicant gained something from their experience to help them understand the nature of a physician's work? Everybody on SDN says that you have to make the most out of every experience, but how do you get that across on paper?

In the limited space available, it isn't possible to write about all you've seen and learned, so be sure you can back up listed experiences with your comments during an interview. As an example, I had an applicant who claimed ~200 hours of physician shadowing, well over the typical hours I associate with a reasonable understanding of the issues, but couldn't answer any of my questions. If you were an interviewer, what would you intuit from this scenario?

 

[songl4a]

.

 

[mimelim]

What kind of questions?

I don't generally share these kinds of things as it leads to people trying to 'prepare' answers.

 

[songl4a]

.

 

[Catalystik]

What kind of questions?

I am not talking about a difficulty level equal to understanding the Affordable Care Act (though a broad idea of its purpose is advisable).

 

[JPSmyth]

No single adcomm can answer as to how the process is approached at every school. But my school uses the "eyeball" approach. I expect most do.

In the limited space available, it isn't possible to write about all you've seen and learned, so be sure you can back up listed experiences with your comments during an interview. As an example, I had an applicant who claimed ~200 hours of physician shadowing, well over the typical hours I associate with a reasonable understanding of the issues, but couldn't answer any of my questions. If you were an interviewer, what would you intuit from this scenario?

I figured that it would come up in an interview, but I meant prior to getting to that point. Even getting an interview is extremely competitive at most schools. Thank you for the input though. Just trying to make as much sense of this confusing admissions process as possible