LOR from shadowing

[dradams]

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What would you do with a LOR from a doc that you shadowed? Most schools want academic letters (committee letter, etc.) and some want character letter(s). Since I am an older applicant (teacher) I would get a LOR from my boss as a character letter. Is anyone else using a LOR from a doc they shadowed and if so are you sending it as a character letter or just an extra letter or what?

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

Bump.
Good question that I would also like an answer to.

 

[gobblety_gook]

What would you do with a LOR from a doc that you shadowed? Most schools want academic letters (committee letter, etc.) and some want character letter(s). Since I am an older applicant (teacher) I would get a LOR from my boss as a character letter. Is anyone else using a LOR from a doc they shadowed and if so are you sending it as a character letter or just an extra letter or what?

The way that my school has it set up is that an applicant is required to submit 3 recomendations (2 science, 1 non-science) to the committe...and then if the applicant wishes he/she can submit a 4th letter. I asked the doc I shadowed for a rec as my 4th letter.

I would advise to only ask the doc if you've spent significant time shadowing him/her and if both you and the doc are comfortable with the LOR. Just make sure you've spent enough time, asked all the questions, and generally taken something important away from shadowing so that your doc has something meaningful to say in the rec.

In your case, I'd submit both a rec from your employer and one from your doc. I think both would serve as character letters, and its important to have both. The letter from your employer conveys what you've been doing with your time off from school and your letter from the doc shows your interest in medicine. I think both are necessary.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

The way that my school has it set up is that an applicant is required to submit 3 recomendations (2 science, 1 non-science) to the committe...and then if the applicant wishes he/she can submit a 4th letter. I asked the doc I shadowed for a rec as my 4th letter.

I would advise to only ask the doc if you've spent significant time shadowing him/her and if both you and the doc are comfortable with the LOR. Just make sure you've spent enough time, asked all the questions, and generally taken something important away from shadowing so that your doc has something meaningful to say in the rec.

In your case, I'd submit both a rec from your employer and one from your doc. I think both would serve as character letters, and its important to have both. The letter from your employer conveys what you've been doing with your time off from school and your letter from the doc shows your interest in medicine. I think both are necessary.

Completely agree. The med schools probably not accept the letter in lieu of the academic letters, however tehy are definitely a good thing to send. There is more to you as an applicant than how well you do in class, and these extra letter will be able to convey these other aspects.

 

[dradams]

What about a character letter from a close friend who is a doc? Obviously knows me much better than the doc that I shadowed. I know some of the schools say that for the character letters, the writer can be someone who knows you well as long as he/she is not family. Would that be better as one of my extra letters than one from the shadowing?

 

[eurotrash]

such a leter would not be very valuable to the admissions people, and would probably be just a waste of your doctors time. he agreed to let you tag along, you should not pay him back with more work for him to do. just describe the experience somewhere in your application and that will be good enough.

 

[Dr.LeoSpaceman]

such a leter would not be very valuable to the admissions people, and would probably be just a waste of your doctors time. he agreed to let you tag along, you should not pay him back with more work for him to do. just describe the experience somewhere in your application and that will be good enough.

Wow, I could not disagree more. I am not sure how it could not be valuable to the admissions people. If you spen a good deal of time shadowing, the doctor may have a good impression of you: your interest in medicine, your ablity to comprehend whats going on, general personality, etc. The letters are a chance for the adcoms to get a third party opinion of whether you will make a good doctor. I can't think of anyone better to give this kind of evaluation than another doctor.

 

[dradams]

Quite different opinions on this matter. I'm still up in the air about whether I should try to get a LOR from a doc whom I shadowed. Any other input would be appreciated.

 

[g3pro]

I have two letters of recommendation from two physicians I shadowed: 1 fellow with whom I spent the most time, and the second from an attending who is one of the best physicians in his field (world-renowned) with whom I spent a significant amount of time.


The way my school does it is 2 letters from science, 1 non-science, 1 highly recommended from a physician, and two more for what you want to do. I hope to get another letter from a research fellow, so I would have a total of 6 LOR.

Too many letters? Come on, admit it, you're jealous. 😉

 

[Sweet Tea]

I included a LOR from the doc I shadowed. Actually, I was able to use him as one of my non-science letters because he is on faculty at a local med school and I had been out of school long enough that my non-science profs wouldn't have remembered me. I didn't have any problems with it; I called the 2 in-state schools I applied to and they said that this would be a fine substitute for my non-science prof. I also had my PI write an LOR for me, who was also a physician on faculty at a med school.

 

[jglemonade1]

First of all, it probably depends on the school. But either way it can't hurt. I know with my school, when I talked to the Dean of Admissions she said that the reason I was not accepted the first time around was because I was lacking a recommendation from a doctor. So, the admissions committee was not convinced that I really wanted to be a doctor. She said that if I got one from a doctor it would prove to the admissions committee my interest in medicine. So that year I shadowed a doctor frequently and got a very nice letter from him. I was accepted that year.

 

[TTSD]

What would you do with a LOR from a doc that you shadowed? Most schools want academic letters (committee letter, etc.) and some want character letter(s). Since I am an older applicant (teacher) I would get a LOR from my boss as a character letter. Is anyone else using a LOR from a doc they shadowed and if so are you sending it as a character letter or just an extra letter or what?

If you asked good questions, were very eager, helpful, considerate, showed a genuine interest, etc.. all these things a physician can write for you in your letter of recommendation.

 

[angstrom55]

I think a letter from a doctor is just as important as an academic letter (although it should not substitute an academic letter though). At minimum, you should cover the required letters from specific areas.

As an extra, a letter from a doctor, especially one that you shadowed would be awesome b/c it can tell the adcoms that you are absolutely aware of what it would be like to work in a clinical setting. My friend got one from a doc she shadowed. I was actually TOLD by an admissions director while being waitlisted for an interview that I should try and send in an additional letter from the doc that I had shadowed or the hospital that i had volunteered at, just to round out my app (as it stood, I had academic letters, one from my research PI, and one from a non clinical volunteering place, but none from a doctor). If you're worried about sending too many letters then the worse that the school could do is just throw out the extra letters.

In addition to academic letters, you should try to get letters that cover major parts of your EC's (research, volunteer, maybe work, etc....) My friend did that and with her good numbers and EC's, she got many many acceptances.

 

[TTSD]

Oh, try sleeping with them too..

 

[pjm]

I applied after some years out of school. For my LOR package (and never forget it is a "package"):

• must be fantastic letters; had to be people I had personally dealt with for months at a time, and had personal contact with within the last year or so. I asked each recommender repeatedly if they could provide me a "great" letter and was ready to find another recommender if not.
• at least one, preferably two MD letters; many adcoms believe that an MD is uniquely qualified to determine if a candidate is truly ready for medicine.
• one letter from a professor of a postbacc course; the goal is to show that the academic chops are there.
• one letter from a research professor I did significant work with
• one letter from a humanities professor I had several years ago, but with whom I still kept in touch.

You need proof of your academic/research skills, but I believe you also need to get an fantastic MD letter in there if at all possible. An MD letter from someone you shadowed for a few days is not "fantastic."

Note that despite working for several years, I didn't use a letter from my employer. While it would have been a great letter, it would have carried little weight. My employer hasn't seen any other people go off to med school, and isn't involved with research. I believe the adcoms want to see letters from people like them; "if I dealt with this student for several years, would I want them to go to this med school?"

 

[LaurieB]

I sent 2 LORs from docs I shadowed, 1 M.D. and 1 D.O. While I don't know how important they were to my app, I am certainly happy with how the process went. If you read my profile, you'll see that I did pretty decent considering my low GPA - you may also notice that I sent out 6 LORs.

Good luck!

 

[elephunt]

Does anyone else have an opinion on this? I have five LOR's at this point (two from post-bacc science profs, one from undergrad prof in my major, one from grad prof who I worked with on research, one from supervisor at my full-time job for last 3 years.) Is a letter from an MD necessary? Does it matter what specialty? My pre-med advisor says no MD letter necessary, but her knowledge of this whole process has proved sketchy and unreliable at best.

Thanks for the help!