Submit AMCAS now or wait one month for more shadowing?

[TipToad]

Catalystik advised me to make a new thread here for more thorough answers.

As of right now, I only have ~ 10 hours of shadowing a dermatologist. The person I'm working with to get more shadowing told me today that they won't be able to assist me until July. I'm not sure if I should submit my AMCAS now, or wait until July to submit it so I can add more shadowing experience to my activities.

The rest of my work/activities are as follow

Paid Employment –Non-military
-Sales Associate, T.J. Maxx, Part-time (One summer)
-Babysitter, 20 hours/week (One summer)

Community Service Volunteer –Clinical
-DW Reynolds Cancer Support House (200 hours)
-Free Health Clinic (40 hours)

Community Service Volunteer –Non-Clinical
-Arts Museum (15 hours)

-One summer of biochem research (full time; current)

Honors/Leadership/Extracurricular
-Multiple Dean's Lists, scholarships, etc
-Selected as a member of school's Academic Integrity Committee (1 year)
-Received a Murphy Foundation Grant to travel to Vietnam to study Vietnamese literature and culture. Gave a presentation on the social progression of homosexuality in Vietnam with analysis from literature. (Two weeks)
-Pre-Health Club (3 years) Elected as President for the 2012-2013 academic year
-Tea Society (3 years) Treasurer for two years
-Gay-Straight Alliance (3 years)
-Wind Ensemble Clarinetist (1 year)
-Academic Peer Mentor (Current)

Would another 20-30 hours of shadowing experience be worth the month-long wait, and would it add that much more to my current application?

At the same time, I'm not going to apply to any top 20 schools, so I'm not sure if applying early would be super helpful. My cGPA is a 3.89 and my sGPA is a 3.92. I'm currently waiting on MCAT scores from my May exam, but my AAMC average (n=9) is a 34.8.

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[TheWeeIceMan]

Keep in my that I'm just a pre-med, but if I were you, I would submit now and use your shadowing experience next month for update letters. You'll have to wait a long time to get verified if you submit in late July. Just my 2 cents.

 

[BigBlueBear]

I had the exact same problem--I'm doing a lot more shadowing in the next month or two, but I ended up submitting yesterday and I will just send update letters to the schools that accept them. I'll let you know in a year if that was a good idea

 

[Catalystik]

As of right now, I only have ~ 10 hours of shadowing a dermatologist. The person I'm working with to get more shadowing told me today that they won't be able to assist me until July. I'm not sure if I should submit my AMCAS now, or wait until July to submit it so I can add more shadowing experience to my activities.

The rest of my work/activities are as follow

Paid Employment –Non-military
-Sales Associate, T.J. Maxx, Part-time (One summer)
-Babysitter, 20 hours/week (One summer)

Community Service Volunteer –Clinical
-DW Reynolds Cancer Support House (200 hours)
-Free Health Clinic (40 hours)

Community Service Volunteer –Non-Clinical
-Arts Museum (15 hours)

-One summer of biochem research (full time; current)

Honors/Leadership/Extracurricular
-Multiple Dean's Lists, scholarships, etc
-Selected as a member of school's Academic Integrity Committee (1 year)
-Received a Murphy Foundation Grant to travel to Vietnam to study Vietnamese literature and culture. Gave a presentation on the social progression of homosexuality in Vietnam with analysis from literature. (Two weeks)
-Pre-Health Club (3 years) Elected as President for the 2012-2013 academic year
-Tea Society (3 years) Treasurer for two years
-Gay-Straight Alliance (3 years)
-Wind Ensemble Clarinetist (1 year)
-Academic Peer Mentor (Current)

Would another 20-30 hours of shadowing experience be worth the month-long wait, and would it add that much more to my current application?

At the same time, I'm not going to apply to any top 20 schools, so I'm not sure if applying early would be super helpful. My cGPA is a 3.89 and my sGPA is a 3.92. I'm currently waiting on MCAT scores from my May exam, but my AAMC average (n=9) is a 34.8.

Did you ever work in the presence of a physician while in the free health clinic or cancer support house?

What exactly do you have lined up in the weeks to come?

 

[Latuza]

Applying early is very super critical thing. Applying later in late July/Aug is already late. Less interview spots left and less firstyear class spots left as some acceptances are already handed out.

You already 240 hours of clinical experience, 30 hours more would not make too big of a difference. Nonetheless shows your commitment.

I would say do more research, seems light on your app, but you're already doing that now, so that's cool

 

[TipToad]

Yes, Catalystik (to first question). Right now, I'm just doing research full time. I plan on doing more shadowing, but it most likely won't occur until late June/early July.

I'm not particularly interested in research-schools, Latuza, which is why my app isn't heavy on research. I'm mostly doing it because it's a requirement for my degree.

 

[Catalystik]

Yes, Catalystik (to first question). I plan on doing more shadowing, but it most likely won't occur until late June/early July.

What I meant is, was there additional physician contact besides the hours of shadowing you already mentioned, where you were maybe not just passively observing, but actively assisting the physician, translating, scribing, etc (which can count toward shadowing, too)? If so, how many hours?

Is it impossible for you to engage in additional formal shadowing immediately? Enough that you could get your total up to 40 in a short time? Could you ask your own doc, or those of your parents, or physician parents of friends? You could get a lot done in one intense weekend if you had the proper opportunity.

 

[TipToad]

Okay, so after careful reflection and a trip to the gym, I've decided to delay my submission and wait. My reasoning is that my #1 choice is my state school, and applying early won't give me any advantage because I'm already guaranteed an interview.

Someone correct me if I'm making a poor decision.

[edit]

My work at the cancer center involved lots of translational services (I'm fluent in Vietnamese), and I took medical histories of many patients that came in. In addition, I was also trained in assisting patients with the CancerCare organization and helped to research programs that offered free prescriptions. Does this count?

For the second question, I'm not entirely sure. I'm not living at home right now, and there's only one hospital in this city, and they don't allow students to shadow doctors. It's also difficult to shadow private doctors because I work 9-4, M-F, so my schedule doesn't align very well with the hours of many private offices. I have to work through a coordinator to schedule shadowing because of all the restrictions.

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Keep in my that I'm just a pre-med, but if I were you, I would submit now and use your shadowing experience next month for update letters. You'll have to wait a long time to get verified if you submit in late July. Just my 2 cents.

I'm not too qualified to answer, but I feel the same way.

I can't imagine an adcom will make a big difference if they see extra shadowing on the primary vs. the secondary. However, I imagine submitting a month later might actually get in the way of your chances. But this is just my opinion, I'd check with someone more qualified.

Edit: Didn't even see Catalystik chime in, I'd probably take Catalystik's advice.
Also if it makes you feel any better, I've only got about 28 hours of shadowing on my app and much less clinical experience.

 

[Praefectus]

It's better to take advantage of the June application window.

 

[Catalystik]

My work at the cancer center involved lots of translational services (I'm fluent in Vietnamese), and I took medical histories of many patients that came in. In addition, I was also trained in assisting patients with the CancerCare organization and helped to research programs that offered free prescriptions. Does this count?

For the second question, I'm not entirely sure. I'm not living at home right now, and there's only one hospital in this city, and they don't allow students to shadow doctors. It's also difficult to shadow private doctors because I work 9-4, M-F, so my schedule doesn't align very well with the hours of many private offices. I have to work through a coordinator to schedule shadowing because of all the restrictions.

All the time you spent translating for physicians while in their presence was both clinical experience and shadowing time. Can you estimate how many hours that was?

The second activity you discussed doesn't sound like it was done in the presence of physicians, so it would not count as shadowing, but would count as clinical experience, if the patient was with you while you researched the free prescriptions.