bad idea to shadow family member?

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RUc10

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My uncle is a pediatrician and I was thinking about shadowing him just because of the convenience. Is it a bad idea or should I just find somebody else? I would never get an LOR from a family member but it seems like this is fair game.
 
My uncle is a pediatrician and I was thinking about shadowing him just because of the convenience. Is it a bad idea or should I just find somebody else? I would never get an LOR from a family member but it seems like this is fair game.

Shadowing him to learn about what it's like to be a pediatrician is not a bad idea. Stuff like this is always helpful, because it gives applicants an idea about what certain fields of medicine are like.

Doing it solely for med school applicants and then asking him to write you a LOR is probably a bad idea. It doesn't carry as much weight if it's from a family member, and you don't want him to lie in the letter and say that he's never met you before you started shadowing him.
 
really? what about if you have 3 letters that are all from doctors, and two of them are family members? Do the 2 with family members are more important than the regular doctor that I worked for?
 
Doing it solely for med school applicants and then asking him to write you a LOR is probably a bad idea. It doesn't carry as much weight if it's from a family member, and you don't want him to lie in the letter and say that he's never met you before you started shadowing him.

I totally agree with this.
 
More common than you might think. It's called "bring your son/daughter to work day." I don't see a problem.
 
You can shadow him; just don't ask for a LOR as it will be viewed as too biased to be of value (because, of course, a family member is going to paint a rosy picture of you). If the schools you are considering want a LOR from a clinician, or need character references, you might ask your uncle to refer you to someone he knows (a pediatric subspecialist, an OB, orthopedic surgeon, dermatologist, -- there are bunches of people who whom your uncle refers patients) who you could shadow and who could write an honest appraisal of you.
 
My uncle is a pediatrician and I was thinking about shadowing him just because of the convenience. Is it a bad idea or should I just find somebody else? I would never get an LOR from a family member but it seems like this is fair game.

Didn't bother reading the other responses so if I'm repeating other people's word forgive me. Go ahead and shadow him. If nothing else its an activity to put down on your application and at best you meet another doc(s) who you can shadow and get a letter from. DO IT!
 
Seems like a great way to get your foot in the door. See if he'll hook you up with colleagues in a range of specialties too.
 
I actually did this. My uncle is an oncologist at one of the schools I am aplying too. I shadowed him on rounds, and later he wrote an LOR for me. He flat out told me that he was going to mention that he was my uncle, but said that he would write me a character reference. I already had letters from 2 faculty, 1 non-faculty, and 1 from my volunteer coordinator. All of this would be going along with my committee letter. Because I did not really need the 5th LOR, I feel that my uncle's LOR would not lower my stats and would serve as a good character reference. I do not know what your situation is, but as long as you fill out the requirements from the schools and have the one from your uncle as an extra, it wouldn't lower you much if at all.
 
I actually did this. My uncle is an oncologist at one of the schools I am aplying too. I shadowed him on rounds, and later he wrote an LOR for me. He flat out told me that he was going to mention that he was my uncle, but said that he would write me a character reference. I already had letters from 2 faculty, 1 non-faculty, and 1 from my volunteer coordinator. All of this would be going along with my committee letter. Because I did not really need the 5th LOR, I feel that my uncle's LOR would not lower my stats and would serve as a good character reference. I do not know what your situation is, but as long as you fill out the requirements from the schools and have the one from your uncle as an extra, it wouldn't lower you much if at all.

Frankly, a letter from your uncle is a waste of paper. If it is electronic then only the electrons are inconvenienced but is a still a waste of electricity to pull it up on my screen. I'd drop it unless you are applying to schools that specify a character reference.
 
Working with family = bad idea. Shadowing is no exception. Ask your Uncle to hook you up with someone in his practice.
 
Ask your Uncle to hook you up with someone in his practice.

Exactly. You can use connections but not the way you describe. You don't shadow a family member. You don't get LORs from family members. All of this is a waste of time and effort. you get your family member to put you in contact with someone unrelated who you can shadow, pick their brain, see what they do. Then if you hit it off, get an LOR from them. But to have an uncle just show you the cool stuff (and shield you from the scut, as family members tend to do) is a waste of shadowing, and nobody puts any value on a family member's LOR. It's like trying to tell a girl that "you are good looking because your mommy told you so" -- it doesn't get the job done.
 
I think that it is OK to shadow a family member but not to get a LOR out of it. I think that a family member may be much more forthcoming about financial issues in medicine whereas someone you don't know as well may keep this private or put on a happy face so as to appear more successful.
 
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Thanks. I guess I will shadow him then. I don't plan on being a pediatrician right now but I do love working with kids and I was hoping to take that further into whatever I specialize in which I why I'm currently aiming for Sports Med. Originally I wanted to do orthopedics, and still do, but every time I turn around it's like I meet a new Ortho that seems like an ass or I hear some one comment about how sucky the specialty is. The nurses at the hospital I work at always badger the new ortho resident because he's actually pretty cool and they say "you might as well start yelling and getting pissy now because by third year you're going to end up an ******* just like all the rest of them."

I have the number to a Sports Med physician that I actually interviewed over the phone before but I'm not sure if I should call him to ask if I can shadow him for a couple of reasons. The first and major reason is I really don't know how to go about it... how long should I ask to stay? How many days should I shadow him for? Another reason is that the guy's practice is pretty far. I know it's important for my app. but these gas prices are killer 😡
 
Thanks. I guess I will shadow him then. I don't plan on being a pediatrician right now but I do love working with kids and I was hoping to take that further into whatever I specialize in which I why I'm currently aiming for Sports Med. Originally I wanted to do orthopedics, and still do, but every time I turn around it's like I meet a new Ortho that seems like an ass or I hear some one comment about how sucky the specialty is. The nurses at the hospital I work at always badger the new ortho resident because he's actually pretty cool and they say "you might as well start yelling and getting pissy now because by third year you're going to end up an ******* just like all the rest of them."

I have the number to a Sports Med physician that I actually interviewed over the phone before but I'm not sure if I should call him to ask if I can shadow him for a couple of reasons. The first and major reason is I really don't know how to go about it... how long should I ask to stay? How many days should I shadow him for? Another reason is that the guy's practice is pretty far. I know it's important for my app. but these gas prices are killer 😡

If he's cool with having you in the OR then you should do at least one day and have that include OR time as well as time in the office. If you can't go in the OR, then one day in the office is enough to see what goes on in that field on an ordinary day: the mix of patients, the pace, the variety (which may depend on a lot of factors).
 
My uncle is a pediatrician and I was thinking about shadowing him just because of the convenience. Is it a bad idea or should I just find somebody else? I would never get an LOR from a family member but it seems like this is fair game.

Man that's just fine.. as you said, you obviously can't get an LOR from him, but shadowing him is a great idea.
 
All in all, I think this comes down to the fact that shadowing will look very good for you, no matter what. Even without the LOR it is still worth the time to shadow him.
 
I shadowed my aunt but did not ask for a LOR. I did put that time down on my application though as shadowing (since it was). We have different last names so it never really came up as an issue that we were related.
 
If he's cool with having you in the OR then you should do at least one day and have that include OR time as well as time in the office. If you can't go in the OR, then one day in the office is enough to see what goes on in that field on an ordinary day: the mix of patients, the pace, the variety (which may depend on a lot of factors).

Thanks. Tomorrow's Friday so I guess I'll call next week on Monday to see if I can get anything set up.

I shadowed my aunt but did not ask for a LOR. I did put that time down on my application though as shadowing (since it was). We have different last names so it never really came up as an issue that we were related.

Same here, which is why I figured it wouldn't be an issue anyway. If I was asked I definitely wouldn't lie about it but I figured considering the fact that most applicants shadow somebody they'd be less likely to ask me about any relation to him since the names are different and it would be taken as a shadowed doctor just as any other applicant... Not the kid who shadowed his uncle.
 
My uncle is a pediatrician and I was thinking about shadowing him just because of the convenience. Is it a bad idea or should I just find somebody else? I would never get an LOR from a family member but it seems like this is fair game.

You know, sometimes I think people tend to overthink things way too much. If you want to shadow your uncle, then by all means you should. You should shadow to get an idea of what medicine is about, and following your uncle around should give you some idea. Just ask your uncle if he knows any docs in other specialities too that may let you come in. And if you're so paranoid about this, you don't even have to put this on your application, its not like one shadowing experience will lock up a seat anyways. Just remember some things from the experience so that you can talk about them in your interviews and such.
 
If he doesn't have the same last name as you I say you go for a LOR as well. With the competition level where it is, anything you can do to ensure that you have another strong letter is great.

If you guys share the same last name, then just shadow for experience and connections with other docs that can help you with letters. If he's a really nice uncle with the same last name: shadow him, have him compose a letter for you, and have one of his other collegues sign off on the letter. =)) muhahahaha. I'm assuming the naive pre-meds out there are having panic attacks at this point.
 
If he doesn't have the same last name as you I say you go for a LOR as well. With the competition level where it is, anything you can do to ensure that you have another strong letter is great.

If you guys share the same last name, then just shadow for experience and connections with other docs that can help you with letters. If he's a really nice uncle with the same last name: shadow him, have him compose a letter for you, and have one of his other collegues sign off on the letter. =)) muhahahaha. I'm assuming the naive pre-meds out there are having panic attacks at this point.

Obviously, you are oblivious to the template for these letters. If you had any experience with these letters you would know that your plan is doomed to failure. Frankly, letters from physicians you have shadowed are generally the least valuable to an adcom. I have said before that all they tell us is that the shadow adheres to the boy scout law (trustworthy, thrifty, brave, clean, etc).
 
Obviously, you are oblivious to the template for these letters. If you had any experience with these letters you would know that your plan is doomed to failure. Frankly, letters from physicians you have shadowed are generally the least valuable to an adcom. I have said before that all they tell us is that the shadow adheres to the boy scout law (trustworthy, thrifty, brave, clean, etc).

wow... didn't know this. I'm still a year away from applying... In my rural area, I have a lot of contacts established with a few of the local family practice doctors who have become mentors and essentially we've developed a good enough relationship to the point where they can give detailed (non-generic, recycled) information in an LOR. If you are going to get an LOR from a physician, what type of relationship should you have with him or her if it wasn't established through shadowing? I've met all of the physicians I know through working at my local pharmacy.
 
wow... didn't know this. I'm still a year away from applying... In my rural area, I have a lot of contacts established with a few of the local family practice doctors who have become mentors and essentially we've developed a good enough relationship to the point where they can give detailed (non-generic, recycled) information in an LOR. If you are going to get an LOR from a physician, what type of relationship should you have with him or her if it wasn't established through shadowing? I've met all of the physicians I know through working at my local pharmacy.

Medical Schools vary but you'll find that many ask for letters from faculty members who have taught you in class. Therefore it appears that a testament to your academic prowess and classroom behavior is what is of greatest (or sole) interest.
 
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