Is there a huge difference as to how med school looks at both of these things?
Shadowing vs. Volunteering?
- Thread starter panvard92
- Start date
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.
So, yes, they are looked at differently.
Instead of shadowing or volunteering 2 hours every day, I suggest you better shadow 1 hour and volunteer 1 hour.
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.
From what I hear, medical schools like it if you balance both volunteering and shadowing!
