“… Some medical schools will require shadowing a physician as part of your application, while others will strongly encourage it. As a potential medical student, what should you get out of it? Here’s what experts working in medical school admissions had to say about that.” …
Seriously, all med school students can do in their 4 years is shadowing also. They cannot hands-on to treat a patient. They can interview patients or run errands for a physician in a rotation, but they cannot provide direct treatment or advice. The true hands-on training starts when they are a resident.
Maybe it depends on the medical school, but that’s not the case in my medical students’ experience. Active hands-on training started in medical school, with direct hands-on experience in participating in physical exams in instances ranging from internal medicine to dermatology, with minor but active participation even during surgery(how to hold a clamp, how to suture, etc).
So no, your generalization is not correct: at least at some medical schools, the medical students are encouraged-and expected-to be very “hands-on” from at MS3 if not before.