COVID and Physician LORs

[Deleted member 1077394]

Hi,

I plan to apply DO in summer of 2021.

I have done my shadowing, but it was years ago (circa 2018) and I doubt the people remember me. At that point, I was doing it because I felt I needed more information before committing to a career path and planned to do more shadowing close to application season to get a physician LOR for DO.

I haven't been able to access more shadowing because of COVID. My research PIs have all been PhDs. I volunteer in a healthcare setting but have nothing to do with the docs and all of my interactions there are with nurses.

I am also not sure I would want to do more shadowing right now if I can avoid it because I live with a person at high risk.

What is the story with physician letters of rec for this coming cycle (2021)? Are they taking "I couldn't because of COVID" as an answer and allowing substitutions?

Does anyone have any other information on this?

Thanks!

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[rigamarole]

I haven't heard of schools that require physician letters to waive them entirely because of COVID.

Some DO schools that ordinarily require a DO letter have waived this current cycle because of the pandemic, and take MD LOR. Not sure if that will continue, or if other substitutions are allowed.

You'd probably have to ask the individual school or check their updated websites about requirements for 2021-2022. I'd suggest attending one of the Choose DO fairs and you can ask your question to the school reps directly.

 

[Deleted member 1077394]

Thank you, @technicolorllamas ! (Great name by the way! )

 

[deleted1084759]

I haven't heard of schools that require physician letters to waive them entirely because of COVID.

Some DO schools that ordinarily require a DO letter have waived this current cycle because of the pandemic, and take MD LOR. Not sure if that will continue, or if other substitutions are allowed.

You'd probably have to ask the individual school or check their updated websites about requirements for 2021-2022. I'd suggest attending one of the Choose DO fairs and you can ask your question to the school reps directly.

This is a really good point. Thanks for sharing your perspective!