Interesting take. Thanks for the insight and bid of confidence!
I shadowed a doctor last january, but only for a day. He wrote
a book which I read while still working as an engineer last year, which convinced me I could make the change. He also wrote a letter of recommendation for me (he went to Wash U for medical school.)
I have also been volunteering since March. I do patient surveys once a week for four hours, and I honestly love it. I basically walk around the hospital with a list of patients to see and I talk to them about how their care has been, how the staff has been treating them, any complaints they have, etc. It's been terrific, and I have written about it on my applications.
The only reason I'm concerned about my lack of research experience is that I spoke to a friend who is in her last year at harvard med and she told me the top 20 schools are notoriously research heavy. She said it'd be very difficult to get an acceptance at research-heavy schools without having done any research. This made sense to me.
I guess time will tell
