how to write about shadowing on amcas article

Chances are that they’ll be more likely to let you shadow them due to your pre-existing relationship. But fear not. It’s that time of year when premeds across the world are gathering everything they need to put on their AMCAS application. Having others read your essay will help you gain new perspectives on your writing and refine the story you want to tell admissions committees. Reach out to your school’s premed advisors or any professors who have taught you in premed coursework to ask if they know of any doctors who you might be able to shadow. While there are nine sections to the AMCAS application, this guide will explore Section Five: AMCAS Work and Activities. We’ll cover what to say, whom to ask, and best practices for completing your shadowing hours and making the most of your experience. Your undergraduate institution likely has resources to connect you with doctors as well. If you’re still stuck, don’t be afraid to cold call local primary care practices to ask if you can shadow one of their practitioners. Get our free 66-page guide: Get Into Medical School: 6 Practical Lessons to Stand Out and Earn Your White Coat. I’m a junior pre-med at Tufts these days, and I’m calling because I’m hoping to set up some shadowing opportunities and wondering if you’d be open to me spending some time in your office. 6. Shadowing will also give you experiences to discuss in your medical school personal statement, AMCAS Work and Activities section, and during interviews. If emailing, make sure to write a professional-sounding email and consider also attaching your resume to give the doctor a fuller picture of who you are. This means professional attire (or scrubs—confirm with the doctor beforehand) and closed-toe, comfortable shoes. If you don’t happen to know any doctors personally, however, don’t worry. While shadowing hours can be completed any time before applying to medical school, including during a gap year, consider beginning them as early as possible in case you discover you’d like to explore a different specialization or that medicine is not the path for you. I hope all is well. Most will be happy to hear that you’re interested in medicine and will be willing to at least point you in the right direction. Always wait to be invited and for the patient to express consent, especially if it requires you to physically touch them. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) runs the American Medical College Application Service, or AMCAS, a centralized application service that allows aspiring first-year medical students to create one application that can be sent to most US … Shadowing a doctor is a great way to find out if a career in medicine might be right for you. Shadowing will also give you experiences to discuss in your medical school personal statement, AMCAS Work and Activities section, and during interviews. My name is Julia Bailey and I’m a junior at UCLA majoring in Biology. AMCAS work & activities entries give you the chance to let medical schools know how much you’ve accomplished during your premed years so admissions committees understand who you are beyond your MCAT and GPA. We recommend making contact with doctors at least a month in advance, though giving yourself even more time may be beneficial in case you don’t find a match right away. While shadowing a doctor is a largely passive activity, benefits include the opportunity to gather observations and ask questions. In my most recent article I discussed the importance of extracurricular activities in the medical school application. (The same goes for any friends you may have who are already in medical school and will be certain to know practicing physicians.). There are other ways to make those connections. You’ll also receive an opportunity to develop relationships with potential recommendation letter writers and doctors who may be advisors and mentors for years to come. A good place to start is by reaching out to your own doctor, if you have one, or perhaps a pediatrician or family doctor you saw growing up. Setting up a shadowing experience may seem daunting, but it’s actually relatively simple. Most hospitals have dedicated offices for coordinating volunteers, so you could also try contacting the volunteer office of any local hospital, regardless of whether or not they’re affiliated with your school. How should I … Enter your name and email for weekly advice plus our free 66-page guide to help you with every step: Get Into Medical School: 6 Practical Lessons to Stand Out and Earn Your White Coat, BS/MD | BA/MD | BS/DO Admissions Services, Graduate / Law / Business / Dental / Pharmacy School Admissions Services, How to Ask to Shadow a Doctor (Example Scripts Included), extracurricular activity for medical school, please let us know how we can help you crack the medical school admissions code, How to Get Into Medical School: The Ultimate Guide, How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School, Medical School Letters of Recommendation: The Definitive Guide. This means working around their schedule as much as possible, even if it entails a few compromises on your end. Since we last saw each other for my last check-up, I started college at Tufts University, where I’ve been majoring in psychology and am pre-med. I hope this note finds you well. My name is Marianne Adeyemi and I’m a junior pre-med student at the University of Michigan. Be mindful of clinic or hospital policies in regards to activities like eating, drinking, and hand washing. Gratitude will go a long way towards setting a positive, professional impression. I’ll be out of LA during the first week of June, but am otherwise available. You can also reach me over email at m dot Adeyemi—that’s a-d-e-y-e-m-i—at umich dot edu. Once you’ve determined whom you’d like to ask, start by reaching out via email or phone. While it’s fine to let a doctor know if there are certain times you simply cannot be available (for instance, if you’re going out of town), make it easy for them to say yes. It’s intimidating to reach out to professionals in a given field to ask for a significant amount of their time! I would be grateful for any amount of time that you could spare, whether that’s one day or a few. During appointments, the doctor will likely introduce you to their patient, explain the purpose behind your presence, and make sure the patient has no issues with you being in the room. If you’re interested in more than one area of medicine, pursuing multiple shadowing opportunities is a great idea because it’ll give you the chance to compare different specialties. On top of this, it’s one of the very best ways to gain insight into the life of a doctor and determine if medical school is right for you. The benefits to having a wide range of shadowing experiences is that you can clearly convey that you’ve acquired a … Though the idea of cold calling might seem awkward, remember that shadowing is extremely common and that all doctors were once premed students with similar questions and uncertainties to ones that you may have now. Note that it is considered acceptable for you to write about a shadowing experience in your personal statement or secondary essays, as long as you omit or change identifying details such as a patient’s name, date of birth, address, etc. The easiest way to set up shadowing hours is to simply ask someone you know—perhaps someone in your family or a family friend. Please give me a call back when you have some time at 543-217-9876. In this guide, we’ll explain everything you need to know about how to ask to shadow a doctor. You’ll see what the hours are really like and what day-to-day tasks the work entails, in addition to various other challenges and benefits of being a doctor. If medical school is in your future, you’ll need to shadow a doctor before you apply. This article provides some insight into how to best talk about volunteering experiences in both the local and global community. On that note, be prepared to be flexible with your schedule. Your guide is on its way. You’ll also receive an opportunity to develop relationships with potential recommendation letter writers and doctors who may be advisors and mentors for years to come. Please let me know if you need any other information from me. Though most patients will probably be fine with it, you may occasionally be asked to step out of the room due to privacy concerns. We recommend bringing a small notebook with you to write down anything you’d like to remember or discuss with the doctor at the end of the day or during breaks. It will give you a better understanding of what a doctor’s typical day is like, and give you good experience to talk about in your applications and interviews for medical school. 7 Tips for Completing AMCAS Experience Section Prospective med school students should use the AMCAS work and activities section to demonstrate who they are. (Note: Jotting down observations will provide valuable material for application essays. Use resume style brief writing. Send the doctor a personal, handwritten thank you note after the experience is over. Hi Dr. Minhaj! That way you’ll remain fresh in the doctor’s mind as they are writing for you. You can also learn more about our 1-on-1 medical school admissions support here. Then the rest of the character count goes to your impact in that activity typically through an anecdote. Similarly, begin planning your experience well before you’d actually like to shadow, to make time for doctors who might not immediately be available. Plus, stating your interest in, say, women’s health can help you make a stronger case as to why you want to shadow an OB/GYN.). This is your former patient, Jane Seidman, calling from Boston. Unlike internships or volunteer work, shadowing a doctor is typically a fairly hands-off experience for you, the shadower. I am particularly interested in pediatrics, psychiatry, and family medicine. I’m calling because I’m hoping to set up some shadowing opportunities in women’s health, and I found your name on a list of providers in Detroit. Though shadowing a doctor is extremely common for medical school applicants, we’ve found that arranging shadowing hours can be a stumbling block for many students. Either way, you’ll want to include the following information: An introduction, including your name, where you attend school, and how far along you are in your education, An outline of your career goals and interest in medicine, How you learned of that particular doctor, Why you think they would be a good person for you to shadow/what you hope to get out of the experience, A direct request to shadow the doctor, including scheduling information (more on that below). You can also reach me over email at jane.seidman—S-e-i-d-m-a-n—3 at tufts dot edu. A lot of attention is given to the “meat” of your application – but it’s what you write about in the activities section that adds flavor and variety to the “meat” of your profile. Looking forward to speaking! One thing you can do with your AMCAS Work and Activities description is to describe the significance of each shadowing experience or highlight key points. You have a limit of 15 activities that you can include in the activities section of the AMCAS application. (Note: Before you begin contacting doctors, it’s worth considering what types of medicine you think you may want to pursue and attempting to find matches within those fields. Eventually, I was able to log about 300 hours of shadowing by the time I was ready to submit my application to medical school. Thank you so much for your time—I look forward to hearing back from you. In the meantime, please let us know how we can help you crack the medical school admissions code. In those cases, you should write about an interesting moment or what you learned from the experience. This section of the AMCAS application offers the opportunity to write about up to 15 activity descriptions that are up to 700 characters in length. Mention your duties, responsibilities, and anything special that you did. In my most recent article I discussed the importance of extracurricular activities in the medical school application. If you are amenable to letting me shadow you, please let me know of some days that might work for you and I will arrange my schedule to make those dates work. To make it clear that you’ve maintained a patient’s confidentiality, consider using an initial or a pseudonym in quotations, such as, “Ms. I’d love to speak with you about potentially spending some time in your office one work day a week next semester, beginning in January. Beyond the fact that shadowing is a required extracurricular activity for medical school, it also helps you be certain that you’re entering the profession with open eyes. Eventually, I was able to log about 300 hours of shadowing by the time I was ready to submit my application to medical school. [05:30] Combining Shadowing into a Single Entry. AMCAS Work & Activities Categories. Here are a few more best practices to keep in mind as you complete your shadowing hours: Dress appropriately. H” or “Joseph.”). This means that you’ll sit in not only during patient visits and procedures, but also as the doctor completes paperwork, reviews files, takes breaks, and handles anything else that comes up. Shadowing a doctor is a great way to find out if a career in medicine might be right for you. Looking back, I know that I benefited from shadowing and those benefits were more than just being able to say I shadowed 300 hours on my AMCAS application. When you apply to medical school, the AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) application includes an experiences section. If the organization in which you participated is not well known, give a brief description followed by the role you played there. Many people do tend to lump shadowing experience into one activity (or two, if you can split them up that way). If you’re hoping for a letter of recommendation, it’s best to ask relatively soon after your shadowing experience is over. Basically, put into one sentence whatever it is you’re doing in this activity. AMCAS “Most Meaningful Experiences” Tip #5: Get expert feedback. I’m writing because I’m considering applying to medical school and am hoping to shadow a doctor in order to give me a better sense of the profession. Tips for Writing the Work/Activities Section of the AMCAS . If making contact by phone, be prepared with a brief—think thirty seconds or less—version of your request in case you need to leave a message. I received your contact information through my academic advisor, Dr. Laura Kim, who suggested that you might be a good person to get in touch with due to my interest in cardiology, which I would love to discuss with you in light of your experience in the field. You’ll have fifteen boxes to include relevant work, research, internship, […] The 18 AMCAS work and activities categories you can select … On the other hand, if you've participated in fewer (i.e., 1-3) shadowing experiences, but for longer periods of time, you could write about each experience separately. Remember to proofread and keep these formatting tips in mind. If you remember your college application days, think of it as an extended Common App activities section. This article provides some insight into how to best talk about volunteering experiences in both the local and global community. In describing your experience, keep it brief. Please give me a call back when you can at 123-456-7890. If you’re at a university with a medical school or hospital on campus, contact the med school or hospital directly. This is no big deal and also a good reminder that you are legally obligated to keep all information you obtain while shadowing strictly confidential due to HIPAA laws. (Note: We recommend reaching out via email first, but if you only have phone contact information or someone tells you to reach out over the phone, try this.). Even if they say no, it’s still worth getting in touch as they may be able to suggest colleagues who would be more amenable to being shadowed. It’s that time of year when premeds across the world are gathering everything they need to put on their AMCAS application. 7 Tips for Completing AMCAS Experience Section Prospective med school students should use the AMCAS work and activities section to demonstrate who they are. In any event, you’ll want to be polite, polished, and concise—doctors are busy people. Your Trusted Advisors for Admissions Succes. I’d be so grateful for your time. This post originally appeared on the InGenius Prep Blog. It will give you a better understanding of what a doctor’s typical day is like, and give you good experience to talk about in your applications and interviews for medical school. Would you be willing to allow me to shadow you during a work day in the upcoming months? Though you’ll mostly be watching quietly as the doctor works, they may occasionally invite you to participate in an appointment more directly, such as during a physical examination or asking if you have any questions for the patient. Looking back, I know that I benefited from shadowing and those benefits were more than just being able to say I shadowed 300 hours on my AMCAS application. Thank you! Hi there, The way you arrange your activities on AMCAS is really dependent on how many you have in total, since you are limited to 15. Aside from this, the other best writing tip is to get expert feedback, and to do so early, so that you have time to make any necessary corrections. Hi, Dr. Kaufman. The AMCAS application does not include spell check, so be sure to proofread your essay for any typos or grammatical errors. Combining all your shadowing experiences into one single entry can be done. Please let me know. Your role will mostly be that of a silent observer hanging in the background as the physician goes through a complete day on the job. If you’re unsure or you’re simply unable to find a doctor within your specialization of interest, we recommend exploring primary care specialties such as internal medicine, family medicine, or pediatrics. I would be happy to discuss what dates would be convenient for you via email or over the phone. This will gives you the opportunity to “try out” different specializations. 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