Working on shadowing hours worth it?

[midnitetots12]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if I should work on shadowing hours for this upcoming cycle as I'll have about 40 hours across 3 surgical specialties only. I'll have had about 800 hours as an ED scribe and 500 as an EMT in IFT and 911 sectors. I also have about 1000 hours in another EC I enjoy with a 519 and 3.94. Research about 900 hours with a poster and 2nd author pub. I can start a whole WAMC format if it helps though I hope that's enough info. Essentially my weakest point right now will be non-clinical volunteering. I'll have about 200 hours when I apply, but I'm wondering if I should just focus on that more and my application stuff (making sure my LORs get the best info about me, etc; working on perfecting PS) rather than scramming for more shadowing hours (at most I could shadow a cardiologist and perhaps a primary care physician).

Sorry, but to reiterate the question - should I work on shadowing or just forget about it and spend more time for the app process and volunteering?

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[KnightDoc]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if I should work on shadowing hours for this upcoming cycle as I'll have about 40 hours across 3 surgical specialties only. I'll have had about 800 hours as an ED scribe and 500 as an EMT in IFT and 911 sectors. I also have about 1000 hours in another EC I enjoy with a 519 and 3.94. Research about 900 hours with a poster and 2nd author pub. I can start a whole WAMC format if it helps though I hope that's enough info. Essentially my weakest point right now will be non-clinical volunteering. I'll have about 200 hours when I apply, but I'm wondering if I should just focus on that more and my application stuff (making sure my LORs get the best info about me, etc; working on perfecting PS) rather than scramming for more shadowing hours (at most I could shadow a cardiologist and perhaps a primary care physician).

Sorry, but to reiterate the question - should I work on shadowing or just forget about it and spend more time for the app process and volunteering?

JMHO as a fellow applicant in the upcoming cycle, but I think it would be good to have a few primary care shadowing hours, and I really don't see how picking up an additional 20 or so hours between your cardiologist and primary care opportunity would interfere with anything else you have going on.

 

[deleted1025488]

As @KnightDoc said it probably won't matter. Plus, no reason to put patients and everyone else at risk just for a few more shadowing hours when you already have 40 across three different docs. Go volunteer at a vaccination site or hotline—that would look exponentially better.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Doing a day or two of primary care shadowing can only be favorable. As was once explained to me in med school by an administrator, admins are often made up of larger percentage of primary care specialities than the general physician population for two reasons: 1) These specialties prioritize the soft skills needed to make up a successful administrator, and 2) the salary differential is smaller here versus someone like an orthopaedic surgeon who can make more money running multiple ORs versus doing administrative duties.

That being said, don't overextend yourself to get there. You are sufficient here.

David D, MD - USMLE and MCAT Tutor
Med School Tutors

 

[Vivid_Quail]

Hmm lets see...

• 519 MCAT
• 3.94 GPA
• 900 hrs research with posters and pub
• 800 hrs paid clinical employment
• 1000 hrs in other EC
• 200 hrs non-clinical volunteering

And your self-identified weakest point is a very above average amount of non-clinical volunteering. Shadow literally 10 hrs in primary care and you will be golden. Honestly, you are already golden to the point of this being a troll post. Not saying it is, but your stats and ECs are peak "WAMC for Caribbean DO podiatry programs?" and then we read the post and you are competitive for top 20 schools.

Adding primary care will really be more for your peace of mind that someone won't try a "gotcha" line of questioning during an interview. A question like "Statistically most med students do primary care. Have you every shadowed primary care?" "No..." "Why? How do you know you don't want to do it if you don't even know what it is like?" etc, etc. This could go bad with a hostile interviewer, which do definitely exist.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

I also recommend two days of shadowing with a primary care physician.