Shadowing vs. Volunteering?

[panvard92]

Is there a huge difference as to how med school looks at both of these things?

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[TheMagicCookie]

They're two completely different things. Volunteering is where you are offering your free time selflessly (supposedly) to help other people/organizations. Shadowing is where you follow a professional around to get an idea of what their typical day is like.

So, yes, they are looked at differently.

 

[tennisball80]

Instead of shadowing or volunteering 2 hours every day, I suggest you better shadow 1 hour and volunteer 1 hour.

 

[TheMagicCookie]

It's not something that you have to do every day...it's something that you compile over several years. Committment to a volunteering service that you spend 4 hrs/week with looks much better than cramming everything into a couple of months. As for shadowing, holiday breaks and summers are great opportunities to add to your hours. I spent fall break shadowing a general surgeon and will be spending spring break shadowing a trauma surgeon...each break adds about 30 hrs onto my total hours. Basically, don't wait until the last minute to get in your EC's.

 

[panvard92]

oh, okay! makes sense.

I thought you had to shadow someone just like you volunteer weekly or so. I didn't know you could count the things you do during break and stuff...

 

[Salvorix]

From what I hear, medical schools like it if you balance both volunteering and shadowing!