My niece is a doctor and says she gets cold emails all the time from college students to shadow her, and that’s fine. Seems totally unnecessary for HS. |
| Please no. It’s bad enough having residents and interns and not being allowed to say no. |
It’s very necessary for HS kids because they need to decide on their college major and if they want to be a doctor then they shouldn’t wait until college to decide to major in chemistry or biology and start taking the prereqs. |
| It’s not actually necessary and high school students in these situations are absolutely useless at best and overall a nuisance. |
You don’t need to major in chemistry or biology. I was a philosophy major. You just need to take the pre-reqs. |
Yeah you don't need to major in chem or bio... if you for some reason want to make your life unnecessarily harder, go ahead and major in a humanities subject
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Wrong. If he wants BS/MD, which is harder than any ivy to get into - even at VCU, this is a necessity…but be could get clinical work in other ways. |
| God, no. In this situation, HS students are just a pain, even the well-intentioned ones. Save us from the entitled ones and the ones made to do it by their parents. |
You will be a more attractive applicant if you do. I promise that majoring in humanities while taking pre-med courses is more attractive than shadowing. And if you aren’t prepared to do something difficult that you find interesting and exciting, this really isn’t the path for you. |
If you are saying a med sch applicant who majored in humanities will have a better shot than a med school applicant who majored in bio and has no shadowing- you are incorrect. |
Physician here. Many students cold email or ask when they are at a visit. No need to have connections to be a shadow. |
Agree shadowing can help figuring out if the career is the right one. Major does not matter at all. Our T10 parents weekend had a talk on interest in premed and what the school advises and all the resources on campus: research is the most important difference-maker in getting in to T25 med schools. All med schools want clinical experience and volunteering, all want an above-average MCAT and all use science /stem gpa as the main gpa that gets you in. Major is put in context—engineering and difficult majors are allowed a lower gpa. This school gets over 90% accepted to US med schools and about half of them get accepted to T25 med schools. The avg MCAT at the school is much higher than the national average—they almost all good test takers. |
No, you won’t. This is stupid and is terrible advice for anyone planning their undergrad with a view to med school. |
Agreed. Bad advice. The majority of medical schools have hard shadowing hour requirements and you won't even be considered if you don't meet the minimum number of hours. |
Ugh sorry saving lives was inconvenient for your DC |