Shadowing on application?
So I spent some time shadowing doctors this year and was wondering how or if I could include it on my application. I want to show interest in medicine but would this count as an extracurricular even though it's a largely passive activity? Should I include it on my activities list or no? If I do, would I need to mention who I shadowed?
1 answer
So absolutely include it as an extracurricular as you spent meaningful amounts of time (I presume). As you are likely applying to a medical related major such as biology any sort of medical related expierence boosts your application.
I would mention what setting you shadowed in whether it’s a hospital neighborhood clinic or a doctors office. Also if for example you shadowed a pediatrician and want to be a pediatrician mention what type of doctor you followed.
Also if you somehow shadowed someone of importance like the head of the ER department at a major hospital then you should name drop the specific person otherwise you don’t need to name drop.
Also despite being “passive” I’d definitely mention what you learned from it as in life lessons or professional tips.
Hope this helps and feel free to comment if you’s like clarification as I’d be more than happy to help!
Personally I say the “cutoff” fir meaningful involvement with an extracurricular is an hour/week for atleast a month. Ideally it would be 90/mins a week for atleast 6 weeks. But if you do it fir say 45 minutes it’s very case by case but the default would be not meaningful enough. Also please not this is 100% my belief and I haven’t seen a lot of opinions either way so if you get different advice from a more reputable source than a stranger on the internet :-) trust them over me. 1/2
Hope this makes sense. 2/2
I agree with Max here!
Thanks for the answer. Quick question: how many hours would you consider to be enough/meaningful. Due to covid-19 my shadowing was limited and I couldn't shadow as much as I'd like to this year so not sure about that.