Do I need to shadow a DO?
Started by supercoolinitials
For DO schools, many schools just say "physician letter required, but a DO physician is highly recommended", but some say "DO physician letter required" so I would recommend that you look into shadowing a DO around you in primary care. It will help with the screening/requirements at various DO schools as well as provide you with some first-hand insight into what being a DO physician entails as a whole.
I would make it a priority, but you don't absolutely need one.
For most schools, lacking a d o letter won't hurt you, but having one will definitely help you.
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At least be able to explain why you would want to go to a school that teaches osteopathic principles over an MD school *wink wink*
I didn't shadow a DO and I just made sure to apply to programs that didn't *require* a DO LOR. some do, but not many. I got plenty of DO II's. I was just careful to make sure my Why DO answer during interviews was solid and not just some "another tool in the toolbox" answer!
I realize in some areas there are no, or few DOs and shadowing might be difficult. I always gave consideration to applicants who bothered to shadow and receive a LOR from a DO. I also would check to see if applicants even bothered to Google the 4 tenets of Osteopathic medicine before their interview. The ones who didn't I considered them to be using us as a backup.
It’s almost everyone’s backup suffix
Basically yeah shadow a DO once if you need to be applying to DO schools. I shadowed a specialist the wrote about how holistic they were or something like that
You should try to shadow a DO at the very least. I didn’t have a letter, but received 8 IIs this cycle and was accepted to every school I interviewed at (3 of them).
I did mention my DO shadowing in all my DO secondaries though, and it came up in interviews.
I did mention my DO shadowing in all my DO secondaries though, and it came up in interviews.
There is always that gap year.
just my experience, but I had previous experience working with DO surgeons and FM sports medicine, but one school reached out and wanted to interview me but wouldnt until I had shadowed an actual DO PCP for 10-15 hours. Ended up getting accepted there but not the school I'm attending.
