dr. shadowing, research, etc

[stealdontkill]

Hey everbody! I'm currently in my junior year of undergrad, majoring in biology. I've seen a lot of you mention the importance of taking the time to shadow a doctor. I'm kind of wondering about specifics here. Would this involve shadowing a doctor for one day, several times, a month's time, etc? How do you include this in med school applications

Comments

[tericarper]

I shadowed two dermatologist and a dermasurgeon nine hours a day for one week. Planning on shadowing and oncologist later this year as well. Basically, I wrote a nice letter about myself and my interest in medicine and stated that I was looking for an opportunity to shadow derms. Then I sent it out to at least 50 doctors in my area. About ten responded, most of them thanking me but saying they were too busy, and then a few who were willing to let me shadow. In your AMCAS application there is a section to list experiences like shadowing and write about what you gained from the experience.

My school is a lot different from most colleges and I was able to do A LOT of independent research, that was mainly me designing and conducting my own research in an area I chose with a bit of help from faculty, much like what I am told you do in grad school. I don't think that's the typical experience though. I also worked in the developmental biology lab and did a lot of random tasks but conducted very few actual procedures. My friends at other schools undergrad research experiences consisted mainly of pipetting and making plates, so sucks to be them, but I have a feeling that is pretty standard.