* * 2011-2012 Letter of Recommendation Thread!! * *

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
For the people who received (or will be receiving) letters from DO after working for few weeks...did you guys mention that in your primary app in the EC section?
 
hi, i have 3.26 gpa, 3.20 sgpa and 33 on mcat,
i applied to 5 DO Schools,
i have around 187 clinical experience, volunteered at two hospitals,
and over 200 non clinical experience.
however, no shadowing experience, i called everywhere, and mailed 9 DOs, but only one responded, saying he would write me a lor but i cannot shadow him,
what should i do?
will not having shadowing experience be detrimental to my chance of acceptance???
i'm really worried!!:scared:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
It's not a requirement to say the least, you do however need a good grasp of osteopathic medicine and OMM and why DO for interviews though.
 
Definitely not a requirement, but I would try to get some shadowing in, even if it's an M.D. I think it could only help.

Keep trying for a D.O. and hope you can start shadowing one before interviews come in?
 
DrWily said:
Definitely not a requirement, but I would try to get some shadowing in, even if it's an M.D. I think it could only help.

Keep trying for a D.O. and hope you can start shadowing one before interviews come in?
Click to expand...

thank you so much, i knew some doctors, i don't have insurance so no personal physician and everywhere i call, they don't want to bother, they keep saying they are too busy...
thank you guys for responding to me..
really hope i get in the touro-cal, its my dream school!!:luck:
 
Keep trying. Having a shadowing experience to talk about during your interviews is a great benefit.
 
I have started receiving secondaries and want to obviously get them out asap. I have a letter from a science prof, one from an md who i am very close with and one from a do, and one from my volunteer coordinator in a clinical setting. My pre med committee however doesn't make our letters until September! Do you think I could contact the schools or submit other letters and try and be complete telling them I will send the committee letter when I finally get it? I would hate for my school to be the ones who screw me over having to wait months just to send in my secondary.
 
FrkyBgStok said:
wow. that seems kind of sketchy.
Click to expand...

Not really, a lot of hospitals are really strict about shadowing. OP, best chance is to find one with their own clinic. I had to ask about seven D.O.s until one said yes. Then once you shadow one they might call their buddy and be like hes cool he wont get you in trouble, etc..
 
Just submitted my primary a couple days ago. My transcript is already in so waiting to get verified. I was wondering if I need my LOR in now? or If they can wait till I get an interview(which hopefully I do!) eventually. Also, I've been telling all my LOR to write their letters to my premed program(which keeps them). So far I only have 1 in but there are 4 others currently beign written/ sent in.
 
LORs are sent in with secondaries. If a school offers you a secondary they will then tell you what else they want. Normally they will ask for your LORs, another essay or a few, some fee 25-175 bucks, and whatever else they want. Some only want LORs and a simple form filled out and others want more depends on the school.

LORs are looked at before you are considered for an interview.

If your app hasn't been verified then you have time but once secondaries roll out to you, You'll want to make sure that you can have your school send your LORs off as you submit your secondaries.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
You should check with the schools you apply to. My committee letter packet from my undergrad school was 3 years old at the time of my most recent application and I sent a new LOR to schools in addition to the packet. Only one school I applied to (an MD school) wouldn't accept the committee letter packet because all LORs could be no more than one year old.
 
I think the 187 hrs of clinical experience should be construed as shadowing. You're around physicians, asking them questions and seeing what they do for a living. Does that sound like shadowing?
 
ilubse7en said:
hi, i have 3.26 gpa, 3.20 sgpa and 33 on mcat,
i applied to 5 DO Schools,
i have around 187 clinical experience, volunteered at two hospitals,
and over 200 non clinical experience.
however, no shadowing experience, i called everywhere, and mailed 9 DOs, but only one responded, saying he would write me a lor but i cannot shadow him,
what should i do?
will not having shadowing experience be detrimental to my chance of acceptance???
i'm really worried!!:scared:
Click to expand...
Ask him if you can have coffee with him and talk about Osteopathic Medicine. I think this will be sufficient for the DO letter. Shadow a few MDs to make up for it.
 
Hi All,

I have plenty of shadowing/volunteering time in hospitals, but it has all been under MDs . I have met a few DOs along the way, but they don't know me well enough to write a letter. I know how important a DO letter is...Should I seek out a DO and ask to shadow for a week and then ask for a letter? Or do you think it would hinder my chances more than if I had just not included a letter at all? Any advice would be great.

Thanks!
 
Does anybody know if science faculty and physicians that work in group practices have form letters of recommendation already made out? I would think this would be the case for professors due to the amount of letters they must write but I was just curious.
 
Not all DO schools require a DO letter. I would consider applying to those schools before asking a doc to write your an LOR after one-week of knowing you. But you should still shadow a DO doc -- it will help with the "Why DO?" essays.

edit: Also some schools will take an MD letter instead of a DO letter. Consider those schools too if you think you can get a strong/good MD letter.
 
I called Nova to ask if they received my letter of recommendation and they told me they did except one of them is missing a signature. So I got into contact with the writer and he printed it out, signed it, scanned it, and then re-uploaded it to interfolio. I then had to use interfolio to mail it to Nova again. My question is should I mail the letter again to all those schools that I already mailed the one without a signature? I am already completed to two of those schools.
 
Avoidthetiger said:
Not all DO schools require a DO letter. I would consider applying to those schools before asking a doc to write your an LOR after one-week of knowing you. But you should still shadow a DO doc -- it will help with the "Why DO?" essays.

edit: Also some schools will take an MD letter instead of a DO letter. Consider those schools too if you think you can get a strong/good MD letter.
Click to expand...


I looked at the spreadsheet with the requirements for the LORs and a lot of them "Strongly Recommend" a letter from a D.O. I'm going to get a letter from a D.O. for the LECOM schools but I feel as if it will not be very strong, rather just "OK" for the purposes (this is due to the limited time spent shadowing, and in general the D.O. doesn't seem to be a great letter writer). However, I shadowed a PCP M.D. for quite a while, had many breakfast/lunch meetings. He's also the Director of Medicine for a small rural community that serves native american population (he's also native american). Which of these two letters should I submit to the "Strongly Recommended D.O. LOR" schools?

I feel that the M.D. LOR is spectacular but does the weight on the D.O. letter outweigh this?

Thanks
 
anyone know which DO schools require committee letters with no exceptions/substitution with a science lor?
 
anyone know which D.O schools will not take science substitutes for a committee letter..ie - its a requirement no exceptions?
 
anyone know which schools require committee letters and will not substitute science onces? I know PCOM is one. But not sure of others couldnt find much on many websites.
 
The DO I shadowed just mailed my letter to my interfolio account. He also had his secretary send me a copy to my email. It is a great letter, BUT I saw about 2-3 grammatical errors. Should I ask him to resend the letter with those errors fixed? Do adcoms expect letter writers to send error-free LORs?

Please give me some suggestions as to what to do. I am thinking I will just leave it alone, since I waived my right to read the letter anyway, and he never really had to send it to me to begin with. I don't know why he did. Let me know what you think. Thanks

Twobits
 
I want to obtain a LOR from my research professor and I hope it counts as a science letter but he was biostatics professor. In the aacomas application it counts as math, but at my school it is a bio class. My professor works under the biological sciences department so im not sure how DO schools will see it. Does his letter count as a science letter?
 
I have a LOR from my premed advisor from my undergrad university. Would this be acceptable as the 'premed committee' letter that some schools ask for?
 
how big of a role does the DO physician letter play for getting an interview?? if you're on the lower side for academics, can it make up for it if its stellar, and hence get called for an interview??? (along with other great recs of course)
 
There are different opinions on this...

for Western in Pomona, CA, should I have LOR's sent in before or after I (potentially) get a secondary? I should be verified any day now.

Thanks!
 
tjpj77 said:
There are different opinions on this...

for Western in Pomona, CA, should I have LOR's sent in before or after I (potentially) get a secondary? I should be verified any day now.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Send them with your secondaries. No point in sending if you dont even get a secondary.
 
How many letters of recs from professors do you need? Or I guess how many of what type of letters or recs do you need? For example, having one from a DO is a start. From there, do you need a composite letter, a certain number of letters from professors etc.? Thanks.
 
So you don't need a composite letter, just three separate letters of recs from professors? I know that for MD, you need a composite letter, but for DO, I guess just separate letters of recs?
 
jccalalafc said:
So you don't need a composite letter, just three separate letters of recs from professors? I know that for MD, you need a composite letter, but for DO, I guess just separate letters of recs?
Click to expand...

You can have either. I know PCOM needs some kind of committee/dean's letter, but everyone else will allow you to substitute 2 science professor LORs for the committee letter.
 
DMU's DO letter of rec... how am I supposed to know what my letter says about me? Should I disregard the requirements posted on their website for a DO letter and just send my letter?

For those who submitted a supplemental app to UMDNJ, did you print the document sent to you and filled it out or did you type the info directly onto the document?
 
Last edited:
So I got a LOR from a DO who I talked to over the phone... He is a family friend of sorts.....

Is that alright? He seemed to think so and he was on an admissions committee (I'm guessing you don't need to shadow to get a legit LOR?)
 
Quick Question- One of my letter writer’s submitted a letter to Interfolio and submitted it through the mail but he didn’t sign it with a pen he just wrote his name and then changed it to cursive (In Word). Is that ok or do I need to have him really sign it or will anybody ever really know?
 
Do I send all my LORs through my school and Interfolio to the DO schools FIRST and then send out my AACOMAS? Or send my AACOMAS out first?
 
TwoBits said:
The DO I shadowed just mailed my letter to my interfolio account. He also had his secretary send me a copy to my email. It is a great letter, BUT I saw about 2-3 grammatical errors. Should I ask him to resend the letter with those errors fixed? Do adcoms expect letter writers to send error-free LORs?

Please give me some suggestions as to what to do. I am thinking I will just leave it alone, since I waived my right to read the letter anyway, and he never really had to send it to me to begin with. I don't know why he did. Let me know what you think. Thanks

Twobits
Click to expand...

Just leave it. It hurts you in no way.
 
Do you send the LORs before you send in your AACOMAS?

Or does it not matter when you turn it in?
 
FrkyBgStok said:
you send them in when you get offered a secondary and you send them directly to the schools. I used interfolio so it was SUPER easy.
Click to expand...

Is this normal? (Send them in during secondaries) I really have no clue

How much did interfolio cost for each school btw?
 
iceman132 said:
Is this normal? (Send them in during secondaries) I really have no clue

How much did interfolio cost for each school btw?
Click to expand...

Ha its normal... its what you do. When you recieve your secondary and complete it you can send them in. If I do recall each "delivery" by interfolio costs $6... so $6 per school.
 
dntke1518 said:
Ha its normal... its what you do. When you recieve your secondary and complete it you can send them in. If I do recall each "delivery" by interfolio costs $6... so $6 per school.
Click to expand...

That's strange. I know it's different than MD but you send in the LORs WITH the AMCAS (I though schools would want to see the LOR before secondaries)

Especially since LORs are required for some DO schools.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

G
Late Letters of Recommendation
Replies
4
Views
521
Rogue42
Rogue42
MateoGM416
New letters of recommendation this late in cycle?
Replies
1
Views
446
chilly_md
chilly_md
M
Physician Letters of Recommendation
Replies
3
Views
2K
aml868
A
K
  • Question
committee letter
Replies
1
Views
465
theoceanman
theoceanman
orangezz98
  • Locked
Letters of Recommendation - DO
Replies
0
Views
591
orangezz98
orangezz98
Top