Don't have the recommended 40-50 hrs of shadowing (or even if you do)? Then you may want to make use of one or several of these virtual shadowing opportunities (and also scroll all the way down to learn about a new way to connect with Harvard Alumni in Healthcare for shadowing and mentorship!)

Do medical schools recognize and ‘approve’ virtual shadowing as shadowing experience?: Yes, medical school admissions committees are by now familiar with virtual shadowing ‘programs’ and experiences as a way for premed students to continue to build their shadowing experience as Covid restrictions on visiting and spending time in the clinic and hospital setting have made it difficult to shadow in person. You just need to note in your AMCAS entry that this portion of your hours were virtual. You can attend live sessions or view recorded ones on these programs’ YouTube channels or other platforms. One caveat is that ideally, you do want a portion of your shadowing experiences to have taken place in person. If you do not have any in-person shadowing, you have likely already discussed this with your House Premed Tutors or the OCS advisers (and assuming you have sufficient in-person hospital/clinical volunteering experience, the lack of in-person shadowing will hopefully not impact your application negatively as adcoms are aware of the challenges you have faced since 2020 around securing this type of experience).

Can I include future anticipated shadowing in my AMCAS shadowing entry? Yes, this is a reasonable thing to consider doing. Alternatively, if you cannot confirm a future shadowing opportunity before submitting your AMCAS, you may be able to add it to your secondaries or in later updates to your schools.

The following virtual shadowing opportunities are all free of charge, and all appear to offer educative and professionally managed programs:

Virtual Premedicine Shadowing: https://virtualshadowing.com/ - a program created by Dr. Raymond Fowler, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medical Services at UT Southwestern. (https://virtualshadowing.com/meet-our-team)

Upcoming live sessions: Registration to attend live is done on a first-come-first-served basis, but anyone can watch the session recordings: https://virtualshadowing.com/shadowing-sessions

Learn more at https://virtualshadowing.com/faqs

WebShadowers virtual physician shadowing program: https://www.webshadowers.org/ WebShadowers “was founded by two best friends at the University of Central Florida during the summer before their Sophomore year. As fellow Pre-Med students themselves, the founders of WebShadowers could not find a way to shadow specifically MD and DO physicians during COVID-19. Knowing that other students were in the same situation, they decided to create a virtual program to help them achieve these hours and learn from physicians of various specialties. The program officially began in September 2020 and has hosted numerous physicians from various specialties throughout the country, with even a few international physicians as well!”

Virtual Teleconference: Reach Explore Aspire to Careers in Healthcare (VT REACH): This is “an outreach program designed for high school, college, technical school, undecided students who are interested in potentially pursuing careers in healthcare and provides an opportunity to learn from and interact with professionals and students from the Larner College of Medicine and UVM Medical Center.”

Link to the VT REACH Zoom teleconference.

Watch past sessions on the VT Reach YouTube channel

Hearts for Health: Virtual shadowing opportunities “where students can learn and interact with healthcare professionals of various specialties”: https://hearts4health.wixsite.com/hearts4health | shadowing.h4h@gmail.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearts_4_health/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeartsforHealth

Vascular & Interventional Radiology (VIR) virtual shadowing: This is a new initiative that offers “organized virtual shadowing for undergraduates!”

Sign up at virshadowing.com.

Note: Spots are limited, and they maintain a waitlist if a session has filled. They recommend checking back often as new sessions are continuously added.

This program offers documentation of your experience (though that is not required by med schools): “We will keep track of your shadowing hours with our program and can provide a signed transcript of your shadowing hours with our program. Vascular & Interventional Radiology (VIR) is the newest, most technologically advanced specialty in medicine. It involves using imaging techniques to perform incredibly minimally-invasive interventions. Everything is projected onto the screen, so you get a great view of the action. The pictures and videos taken from each case makes it perfect for a virtual shadowing platform! Feel free to contact us at info@virshadowing.com if you have any questions!”

And, finally: Be sure to check out the Harvard Alumni in Healthcare resources for connecting with alumni physicians in Boston and other cities across the US for both in-person and virtual opportunities. For additional resources for finding shadowing see https://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/prehealth-experience (first tab from left).

Harvard Alumni in Healthcare: Click here for the HAIH website, and join the mailing list here. You can also check out the new Harvard Alumni in Healthcare Directory. “This directory link is not yet accessible from our public website to keep email addresses private. Students can also provide their own information to the directory for students to connect with each other by filling out this Google Form. HAIH will be moving to a more aesthetic and user-friendly version of the directory in the coming months, but we hope this will be a great resource for students at the moment.” Shout out to your fellow 2023 applicant Felicia Ho’23 who has been working closely with HAIH on developing this new ways for Harvard Premeds to connect with our alumni in medicine!

Oona B. Ceder, PhD

Director, Premedical and Health Career Advising

Associate Director of Career Services

Ph: 617.495.2595 / Fax: 617.495.3584

Preferred pronouns: she/her/hers

http://ocs.fas.harvard.edu/medical-health

Subscribe to the Harvard OCS Medical School Applicant Listserv: If you are applying to medical school in 2022 for matriculation in 2023, please subscribe to our Applicant Listserv at https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/harvardocs-medschool-applicants-list with a @college.harvard.edu address, @post.harvard.edu address, or @alumni.harvard.edu address. Note: If you do not have a @post or @alumni.harvard.edu email address, please email premed@fas.harvard.edu with your name, @college.harvard.edu email, and preferred email so we can verify that you were an undergraduate at Harvard.

Office of Career Services, Harvard University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
54 Dunster Street, Cambridge, MA 02138