@texaspg Based on our experience (stat n=1), I differ with your post. Feel UTSW may be an outlier and not the norm. My D did not even get an interview from 6 of the CA schools she applied. It is not just GPA and MCAT gets you in. You need to have all other key ingredients for many schools, even to get interviews, let alone admission.
@goldenrock - California is an outlier full of very talented people who don’t get admitted to their own state schools. I see their admitted student profiles and dont know why their LizzyM numbers are so low compared to their talent pool.
Older D didn’t get a single interview in California despite attending Stanford and scoring interviews with 6 of the top 10 schools. 3 of the 4 not interviewing - California schools! Amazingly enough, she was admitted by Caltech/UC San Diego combined program and didn’t get an interview there either.
Most Texas schools do call people for interviews starting from the top of the pool. GPAs are very high for most of the admitted students. Very similar at most other state schools where they start with the highest averagers and work their way down for instate students. Many are rolling admissions and if you dont make interviews very early on, it is hard to get in later.
Our area has several programs for minorities, low income and first generation students so they usually end up better off than middle class families with no personal connections or organizational programs.
Getting shadowing hours is hard. I have two good friends who are doctors …they told me that they are not permitted to allow students to shadow. My daughter will be sending out a bunch of emails today, and I will be giving her resume to another doctor I know from work…maybe something will happen. In the meantime she will contact her pediatrician again …she can go back there…and a close family member just told me that her doctor will help my daughter out if necessary ( although he doesn’t normally allow shadowing and he specifically said if she can’t find anything else). Right now she has about 10 hours.
This is the only thing missing from her resume. She has almost 2 years of hospital volunteering…translations, nurse triage, helping patients navigate their way, etc. I thought it would be easier to get shadowing hours once you set yourself up as a volunteer…but that’s not always true. Some hospitals specifically say that they do not allow volunteers to shadow. I am wondering if you set yourself up in a small clinic somewhere as a volunteer…it might be “easier” to shadow?
Do medical schools understand how difficult it is to obtain shadowing hours? Is it ok to have fewer hours if the student has a significant amount of hospital volunteering? She isn’t applying for awhile so hopefully it will work out.
@twogirls - why do you think it is important if she already has 2 years of hospital volunteering?
Daughter while in college sent over 200 applications for shadowing in our area. Most did not allow shadowing. She got two or three doctors that did allow her to shadow but it was for a very short period of time. Most cited patient privacy issues as the reason they don’t allow shadowing.
This might help DO applicants.
https://www.aacom.org/become-a-doctor/applying/preparing/shadowing
And this. Read the last paragraph…more than once!
https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-medical-school/article/shadowing-doctor/
What if I can’t find a shadowing opportunity?
Also…IIRC, any shadowing you do as a HS student won’t be considered when you apply to medical schools after undergrad.
I was at the library returning the AP books for DS20, and had a conversation with a lady who works there. She told me her D doesn’t have any shadowing experience in college, only hours from HS. She got a paid position at a senior home one summer. That is the extent of her daughter’s shadowing and volunteering she is aware of. The daughter just graduated from U Kentucky medical school and now is in Ped residency.
As a patient, I would be livid if I found out my doctor was sharing my confidential medical information with some random high school kid.
I think it helps to shadow or volunteer related to medical. Not for application process but more to get a feel for the nature of job and validate is it something you would like to take up as a career. Being at a young age, just because you like a subject like Biology or Psychology, some students tend to think so medicine is the right choice.
It appears it differs with each location. Some place it is hard to get and some place it is easy. For my D, in OK it was well organized and they allowed. Of course you have to go thru some application process and sign compliance forms etc. She did shadow 100 hours which is more than her clinical volunteer hours. Shadow also helped to get a feel for different specialist. She did 6 varied areas like ER, ICU, Ped, ENT Endo… etc and she really liked the variation to get a feel.
It is not that all patient info is shared. Of course some patients may not be comfortable but some are willing.
My neighbor who is a stay at home mom but does English tuition to local kids. Last year she underwent hip surgery and she allowed one of her HS student to shadow the surgery. She knew it is hard for all these kids to get this especially in CA and she wanted to help her.
She just got some more hours, but I am happy to hear about acceptances without any shadowing hours at all. It seems that many places don’t allow it and having connections definitely helps.