Documenting your shadowing hours???

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Framecontrol

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I have been shadowing a lot now and I write down when I go, for how long and all of that stuff...

My question is how do you show to the OPT schools you are applying to how much shadowing you did and where you participated?

I understand that the optometrist you shadow should write a letter of recommendations, but did any of you make a chart of your hours and have them sign it or something??

any advice about this situation will be much appreciated

-matt

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matt

i have the same question. also did you call the optometrist first and ask them? or did you just go straight to their office?
 
When I applied, I did not have to present any kind of "proof" that I served so many hours. You can mention your shadowing experience (location and hours) in your personal essay. But it would be a great idea to have a log just in case. Just make up a spreadsheet with the dates and hours, then have your doc sign it. I'm sure that will suffice. Then at least you'll have a concrete number of hours rather than an estimation.

angeleyes86, are you talking about approaching a doc for shadowing? Well, here's my two cents on that:
http://www.optstudent.com/ugfocus.html#shadowing
 
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Some applications will have you type in the shadowing information directly. But most don't as I have learned. Most of the schools I asked said that you can either mail or email a list of your shadowing experiences and they will include it in your application file. That way you know they can see how much time and effort you put into getting to know the profession! I would think it can only help!
 
I'm an actual employee at my OD's office, so I have my pay stubs to prove how many hours of experience I have, not just shadowing but doing other things as well. None of my applications had a place specifically for hours or anything like that, so I just wrote about what I did in my essays. Hopefully that'll be enough!
 
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