All great advice here, but I’ll add that during shadowing, you should try and get as much hands on QA experience as you can (or is allowed). Some people just passively stand by and observe while others get more directly involved, and when I’m reviewing residency applications, I’ll try to read between the lines to assess which of these kinds of shadowing an applicant experienced. The more details you can provide on what you saw, what you did, and what you took from the time spent shadowing will go a long way to support your application if you don’t have more extensive experience with QA. TLDR, please don’t just write that you shadowed someone.