Shadowing is an essential activity to include on your application (in fact, if you don’t have any shadowing hours, you should get some before applying to medical school!). Contrary to popular belief, however, you actually don’t need hundreds and hundreds of hours before you are competitive for medical school. It’s just important that you are able to demonstrate that you’ve had exposure to the field, and that you know what doctors do.

But how does one set up shadowing opportunities with physicians? Especially if you don’t personally know someone who would let you shadow?

When I was in undergrad, a piece of advice that was often given to me was: “just cold call some offices around your area.”

And… that made me really anxious. How was I supposed to know who to call, and if they would be willing to let a premed student shadow?

I will make a small aside here and say that cold calling does work for some folks and honestly I probably shouldn’t have been so afraid–but I will share some tips for this at the end so that you are able to maximize your time and get responses :)

Without further ado–here are a few ways to set up shadowing experiences even if you don’t personally know a physician.

1. Check your school’s health advising office

Does your school have a formal partnership with a local hospital or the university hospital, and do they have contact with physicians who are willing to let premeds shadow?

At my undergrad, we had a program in place where we were able to get matched to those physicians (for those at Cornell–the program is called the Community Health Professionals Mentorship Program), and there is an application that opens every semester which you can apply to and get matched to shadow a physician.

You might not be able to get a ton of shadowing hours this way (I think through the program I participated in, I got 8 hours), but it’s a good opportunity if your school happens to offer something like this!

2. Check your school’s career office

This second method is also school related–check the career office, or alumni connections. Sometimes there is also an ‘internal’ institutional LinkedIn Platform where alums will actually put their contact info down.

Premeds sometimes overlook this resource because they also include contact information for other working professionals like in finance or consulting, but actually at the time on my school’s platform I was able to find several doctors who indicated that they’re willing to be contacted for shadowing or career chats.

One of the scariest parts about cold calling, for me, was not knowing if physicians were even willing to let students shadow, so knowing that fact ahead of contacting them with an email really helped. This was how I got my first shadowing experience, and it was pretty easy to set up!

3. Do research… with a physician scientist

AKA, “get to know a physician personally.”

This is how I got a majority of my shadowing hours—I did research with physician-scientists. It might not work as well if your research interests aren’t at least somewhat clinical, but my research mentors who have worked in clinical spaces have always been supportive of helping me get to med school, so asking them was very easy (I asked in person and was met with a “duh, of course you can shadow”). Sometimes, once you’ve built rapport with your mentor, they are also able to connect you with their colleagues if there’s a specific specialty you want to shadow.

And if all else fails…

If all else fails, you can cold call or cold email.

If you happen to be in an undergrad where there’s a university hospital, your best bet may be to reach out to med school faculty, because they’re more likely to be open to shadowing students.

If your school has a program where they match you with mentors who are currently in medical school, that may be a good way to get some connections or emails to physicians who are open to letting students shadow, as well (you can ask for an introduction!).

Here are some templates for your reference if you do decide to reach out to a physician you don’t know via email (or phone call!)

Email template:

Dear Dr. [Lastname],

My name is [your name] and I’m a [year in school] at [University] studying [major]. I’m currently premed and considering applying to medical school, and am hoping to shadow some doctors to give me a better sense of the profession.

I came across your faculty profile at [Med school] and I was wondering if you have any shadowing opportunities for students? I would love to learn more about your experiences and [their specialty]!

Thank you so much,

[your name]

Phone call template (I would recommend emailing first–instead of calling their office or clinic)

Hi Dr. [name], my name is [your name] and I’m a premed student studying at [University]. I am calling because I’m hoping to set up some shadowing opportunities, and I found your name on [where did you find this doctor’s number?]. I would love to speak to you about potentially spending sometime with you in [clinic/the OR] if you are available for that!

(if you’re leaving a message, makes sure to leave your number and/or email!)

Final Thoughts

Figuring out how to set up shadowing opportunities can be intimidating especially if you don’t personally know any physicians–but you got this! Remember you don’t need to get a whole ton of shadowing hours—I think in most cases it’s okay to shadow a few specialties each for a few days, and you’re really all set for the shadowing requirement to apply to medical school.