<p>I have the EC's, test scores, grades, recs, and everything for top teir schools ( looking at Duke, Stanford, Vandy, Emory, Northwestern, USC, UNC, W&M, & Pitt). </p>
<p>My summer is consisting of 8 days of college visits on the east coast down south, then 2 weeks of mission work in Guatemala, then 2 weeks of a medical program camp at Northwestern University. </p>
<p>My question is, with my remaining time, is it better in the eyes of college admissions to shadow or do research. </p>
<p>And how or where should I go about doing these? </p>
<p>I don’t know, people are always running around this website claiming to have done all kinds of “research” in their spare time. I honestly don’t know exactly what that entails, but it sounds impressive. </p>
<p>Later this summer I’ll be shadowing, but on my application I might just call it an “internship”. Again, whatever sounds more impressive I guess lol.</p>
<p>I am honestly not totally sure. But most of the people I talked to that have been accepted to Duke/Vandy/Emory etc. have done shadowing in highschool. Do you think it is unecessary then?</p>
<p>Shadowing does not typically rise to the level of something put an your application to selective schools like Duke/Vandy/Emory. Research outside the classroom often does show up on college apps and can be helpful to an applicant.</p>
<p>@niceday: Do you know of any good ways to get involved in out of school research then? What’s a good method or way of doing this, and where should it be done?</p>
<p>I am honestly not totally sure. But most of the people I talked to that have been accepted to Duke/Vandy/Emory etc. have done shadowing in highschool. Do you think it is unecessary then?*</p>
<p>as mentioned above, it would make sense to shadow if you’re applying to BS/MD programs, but regular admissions won’t really care. 75% of incoming premed frosh never go to med school.</p>
<p>BS/MD is combined UG and med school, you apply right out of HS; see the Multiple Degree programs forum.</p>
<p>Research is great, but 5 weeks of your summer are tied up already, and depending on when you are doing these activities, you have a relatively small block of time left to help with research.</p>
<p>Also, it is very late to be looking for research opportunities and it’s not the easiest thing to do for HS students. Whenever a researcher takes on a HS student, they have to invest time in training them, there’s a steep learning curve before you actually become useful.</p>
<p>Not saying you shouldn’t try, but have realistic expectations about the possibility of it happening. You might consider simultaneously looking for a job and/or volunteering.</p>
<p>I’d say research is better because 1) a lot of people do shadowing and it doesn’t mean much and 2) it’s really difficult to get into research as a hs student and it’s pretty impressive (also not to mention the experience will help you get into research labs in college). But it sounds like you don’t already have a research lined up? If this is the case, I can almost guarantee you you won’t find one this late, so just go with the shadowing.</p>
<p>It’s sometimes all about connections when it comes to getting a shadowing. Basically my friend’s dad knew a guy who I could shadow haha. Also I’m for architecture, so I can’t really say anything for research, as I’m pretty sure there is no such thing as architecture research…</p>
I will look into shadowing then and save the research for my college years!</p>