Writing about Shadowing and Other EC's

[John Scotty]

Hi All,

I have tried searching other threads and none seem to answer my question.

I have about 80 odd hours of shadowing, 5 different physicians, and I am curious about how I should write about them in my AMCAS. All under one title or separated? should I talk about the exact experience, or more generally describe how shadowing has influenced my decision to purse a career in medicine.

As for other EC's, is the general rule best to always tie them back to how it will help you become a doctor one day/ why you are pursuing this field?

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[marcelo12]

I put my shadowing under one title. I listed the physician name/place/hours, then I wrote two sentences about the experience. Unless it's a "most meaningful" activity, there is no need to write extensively about it.

 

[ciestar]

Hi All,

I have tried searching other threads and none seem to answer my question.

I have about 80 odd hours of shadowing, 5 different physicians, and I am curious about how I should write about them in my AMCAS. All under one title or separated? should I talk about the exact experience, or more generally describe how shadowing has influenced my decision to purse a career in medicine.

As for other EC's, is the general rule best to always tie them back to how it will help you become a doctor one day/ why you are pursuing this field?

I put all my shadowing under one heading.

Do NOT write for every EC why it will help you become a doctor or why you want to be one (remember that PS?). You need to sound genuine and just write about your experiences and just that. Writing about how every EC will make you a better doctor won't do you any favors at all.

 

[Gurby]

Copy/Pasted from my AMCAS:

"Physician Shadowing":
"Shadowed gastroenterologist during inpatient consultations at ______ Hospital, outpatient appointments at private clinic.
Observed procedures at ______Endoscopy Center and _______ Hospital."

"Paramedic Student Hospital Rotations":
"Spent time training at ______ Hospital as a student paramedic. Observed and worked with physicians and nurses in Emergency
Department, Pediatric ED, ICU, Labor and Delivery, Surgery and Psychiatric units."

 

[John Scotty]

Copy/Pasted from my AMCAS:

"Physician Shadowing":
"Shadowed gastroenterologist during inpatient consultations at ______ Hospital, outpatient appointments at private clinic.
Observed procedures at ______Endoscopy Center and _______ Hospital."

"Paramedic Student Hospital Rotations":
"Spent time training at ______ Hospital as a student paramedic. Observed and worked with physicians and nurses in Emergency
Department, Pediatric ED, ICU, Labor and Delivery, Surgery and Psychiatric units."

Good to know, thank you! I was thinking of doing something similiar, but may tie it to a most meaningful experience.
Interesting how you wrote so little for the description activities. I seem to be reflecting more on the activities when I am writing them. Maybe I will tone it down a bit.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

 

[John Scotty]

I put all my shadowing under one heading.

Do NOT write for every EC why it will help you become a doctor or why you want to be one (remember that PS?). You need to sound genuine and just write about your experiences and just that. Writing about how every EC will make you a better doctor won't do you any favors at all.

Should I not be more reflective about them? Like say which skills a certain experience has helped me foster?

For example:

Over the course of a year I worked with several intercollegiate teams as an assistant to an Athletic Trainer, aiding athletes through the recovery process after an injury. Throughout this I observed the daily routine of athletic trainers, family doctors, and surgeons. I had not fully grasped the importance of teamwork in the medical setting until I helped carry an athlete to the exam room after a severe high ankle sprain and became a part of her care for a significant time after. The patient was seen by a slew of allied health professionals, each an integral part to her individualized care. As a physician, it became evident to me that working as a team is crucial in order to deliver the best possible outcomes for your patients.

 

[Gurby]

Good to know, thank you! I was thinking of doing something similiar, but may tie it to a most meaningful experience.
Interesting how you wrote so little for the description activities. I seem to be reflecting more on the activities when I am writing them. Maybe I will tone it down a bit.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

Should I not be more reflective about them? Like say which skills a certain experience has helped me foster?

For example:

Over the course of a year I worked with several intercollegiate teams as an assistant to an Athletic Trainer, aiding athletes through the recovery process after an injury. Throughout this I observed the daily routine of athletic trainers, family doctors, and surgeons. I had not fully grasped the importance of teamwork in the medical setting until I helped carry an athlete to the exam room after a severe high ankle sprain and became a part of her care for a significant time after. The patient was seen by a slew of allied health professionals, each an integral part to her individualized care. As a physician, it became evident to me that working as a team is crucial in order to deliver the best possible outcomes for your patients.

I was very successful with just short and sweet resume-style descriptions, saving more detailed writing for the PS/most importants. Keep in mind that reviewers have to read a million of these, and they probably don't care much about how each activity shaped your journey to medicine - save that conversation for the interview IMO. I could be wrong about this, but it worked out well for me. FWIW.

When you talk about carrying an athlete to the exam room... The whole paragraph kind of makes me feel like the activity can't stand on its own, and you're trying to fluff it up. I would rather just hear about concrete things you did. I picture a reviewer's eyes glazing over very quickly as they skim your app, and probably end up just reading the titles of activities. But again, just my opinion as a fellow premed and not someone with any kind of authority or experience in admissions.

 

[ScottTenorman54]

I was very successful with just short and sweet resume-style descriptions, saving more detailed writing for the PS/most importants. Keep in mind that reviewers have to read a million of these, and they probably don't care much about how each activity shaped your journey to medicine - save that conversation for the interview IMO. I could be wrong about this, but it worked out well for me. FWIW.

When you talk about carrying an athlete to the exam room... The whole paragraph kind of makes me feel like the activity can't stand on its own, and you're trying to fluff it up. I would rather just hear about concrete things you did. I picture a reviewer's eyes glazing over very quickly as they skim your app, and probably end up just reading the titles of activities. But again, just my opinion as a fellow premed and not someone with any kind of authority or experience in admissions.

As a counterexample, I wrote longer descriptions with the goal of explaining what each activity did for me. Not necessarily directly tied to being a doctor, just how they changed my perspective, or what they taught me. The personal value of the experience, in other words. Also successful. Depending on your style/skill as a writer and the adcomms that end up reading your particular apps OP, this could go many ways. Plenty of ways to skin the cat.

I did, however, avoid the "this doctor contact was so profound and opened my eyes and changed my life and i knew then that I wanna doctor" cliche. That's definitely something to avoid.

 

[John Scotty]

As a counterexample, I wrote longer descriptions with the goal of explaining what each activity did for me. Not necessarily directly tied to being a doctor, just how they changed my perspective, or what they taught me. The personal value of the experience, in other words. Also successful. Depending on your style/skill as a writer and the adcomms that end up reading your particular apps OP, this could go many ways. Plenty of ways to skin the cat.

I did, however, avoid the "this doctor contact was so profound and opened my eyes and changed my life and i knew then that I wanna doctor" cliche. That's definitely something to avoid.

Thank you guys for your responses. I will rework my statements to be a bit more concrete in what I did and eliminate a specific example of the experience and talk in more general terms about it and then include a statement of what I learned.

Scott, in your opinion, am I being a little to clichéd with the last sentence of the description? That is an honest evaluation of what I learned, but maybe I need to rewrite that somehow?

Thank you!

 

[blackroses]

Thank you guys for your responses. I will rework my statements to be a bit more concrete in what I did and eliminate a specific example of the experience and talk in more general terms about it and then include a statement of what I learned.

Scott, in your opinion, am I being a little to clichéd with the last sentence of the description? That is an honest evaluation of what I learned, but maybe I need to rewrite that somehow?

Thank you!

I'll nitpick on the grammar of the last sentence and point out that the structure you chose makes it a VERY incorrect assessment - you are not a physician, which is what the structure of that sentence implies. As far as cliche, it definitely feels very rehearsed and like you're regurgitating what you think you're expected to have learned. I strongly suspect there's a better way to word it.

 

[John Scotty]

I'll nitpick on the grammar of the last sentence and point out that the structure you chose makes it a VERY incorrect assessment - you are not a physician, which is what the structure of that sentence implies. As far as cliche, it definitely feels very rehearsed and like you're regurgitating what you think you're expected to have learned. I strongly suspect there's a better way to word it.

Ah!!! you are completely correct, can not believe I made that error. Thanks for the feedback. Back to the drawing board on this. Good thing I am starting early.

 

[ScottTenorman54]

Scott, in your opinion, am I being a little to clichéd with the last sentence of the description? That is an honest evaluation of what I learned, but maybe I need to rewrite that somehow?

Thank you!

It wouldn't hurt to tone it down slightly - appreciating teamwork is good, but no need to smack your reader over the head with it. I asked myself a couple questions when I wrote my descriptions: what did I really enjoy about this? how was it unique/valuable compared to all of my other activities? How am I better off after having done it? They didn't all answer all of those questions - I'd hardly say my intramural soccer made me a better person. But I had a strong answer for at least one question for each of my activities.

 

[aldol16]

Put them all under a single EC because you should be needing room for your other ECs. Also, the little blurb you get to write about the activity should relate to what you learned about medicine through the experience, whether it's about the actual functioning of the medical field or about how it made you feel about the field.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Also, the little blurb you get to write about the activity should relate to what you learned about medicine

I'm pretty sure adcoms on this board have cautioned against that, as it may seem strained if you try to link every activity to medicine (and risks coming across like you have no life outside applying to med school).

 

[aldol16]

I'm pretty sure adcoms on this board have cautioned against that, as it may seem strained if you try to link every activity to medicine (and risks coming across like you have no life outside applying to med school).

... So the blurb you write about shadowing a medical professional in a medical setting should not be linked to medicine and it would be a strain to do so? It would be a strain to link shadowing with anything else.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

... So the blurb you write about shadowing a medical professional in a medical setting should not be linked to medicine and it would be a strain to do so? It would be a strain to link shadowing with anything else.

Misunderstood your post to refer to all activities, not just shadowing/clinical activities. My bad.

 

[John Scotty]

It wouldn't hurt to tone it down slightly - appreciating teamwork is good, but no need to smack your reader over the head with it. I asked myself a couple questions when I wrote my descriptions: what did I really enjoy about this? how was it unique/valuable compared to all of my other activities? How am I better off after having done it? They didn't all answer all of those questions - I'd hardly say my intramural soccer made me a better person. But I had a strong answer for at least one question for each of my activities.

Perfect, I am going to follow this mode of thinking as I am writing. Thanks dude.

If the experience helped you decide to be a doctor but isn't necessarily your most meaningful, you may end up talking about it in your secondaries. I wrote short descriptions for any that weren't most meaningful (but for my most meaningful ones, I definitely used the additional space to describe why/how that experience shaped my desire to be a physician), but for a few secondaries i did talk about some of my shadowing experiences more in depth.

Good to know that I will have room to write about them later on. I have so many that I could write extensively about. I think I will make shadowing my most meaningful, though, and then write about one or two experiences, space provided. Thanks!

Put them all under a single EC because you should be needing room for your other ECs. Also, the little blurb you get to write about the activity should relate to what you learned about medicine through the experience, whether it's about the actual functioning of the medical field or about how it made you feel about the field.

Cool, I wish I could easily fill 15 ECs, it seems like so much. I will work that into the details for sure. Appreciate the help!