Overlooked impact of COVID-19

[elitehacker1337]

How do I go about getting a physician LoR when no physician in their right mind is allowing people to shadow and the ones I emailed recently aren't responding?

I am applying to MD and DO schools.
Is there anything I could do besides not applying without ANY physician LoR?
I realize DO schools will care much more than MD but it's still a big limitation; even though physician LoRs from shadowing can't possibly say that much about a applicant

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[NITRAS]

Call the clinics. Avoid inpatient docs. Emails aren’t getting you anywhere.

 

[Dr. Anonymouss]

Yeah this is just a really bad time right now. If you don't have any shadowing at this moment you might be looking at a gap year.

 

[elitehacker1337]

Call the clinics. Avoid inpatient docs. Emails aren’t getting you anywhere.

I cold called local docs and no dice for more shadowing opportunities.

Do you mean call and ask for LoR? Most of the time some receptionist picks up so I'm never actually talking to a physician since they're doing something

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

There are some DO schools that don't require it, IIRC, but it limits your choices there for sure. The vast majority of MD schools don't require a physician letter, and they don't really add much. If you are competitive for MD schools, you might want to just go for broke with that and then only apply to the DO schools that don't require a letter.

However, if you have no shadowing at this point, it might be worth taking a gap year to make sure your app is really ready to go rather than risk being a reapplicant. A lot will depend on what your app actually looks like.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

There are some DO schools that don't require it, IIRC, but it limits your choices there for sure. The vast majority of MD schools don't require a physician letter, and they don't really add much. If you are competitive for MD schools, you might want to just go for broke with that and then only apply to the DO schools that don't require a letter.

However, if you have no shadowing at this point, it might be worth taking a gap year to make sure your app is really ready to go rather than risk being a reapplicant. A lot will depend on what your app actually looks like.

I agree... if you haven't started shadowing, you won't be for the next few weeks to months. This is a particularly scary time for front line health care providers and many physicians and nurses are at especially high risk. You won't be allowed to be anywhere close to the front lines if anyone can help it.

 

[WedgeDawg]

You definitely wouldn't be allowed to shadow at my institution and it would honestly be irresponsible for anyone to let you shadow anywhere else. If you have no shadowing and are planning on applying in a few months, I might recommend taking a gap year at this point given that 1) shadowing is something really done for yourself and not your application and 2) the current landscape means that this is likely going to be an odd cycle for everything anyway, so might be best to sit it out and let things stabilize a bit.

 

[oioeoelgd154]

I applied without any mention of physician shadowing on my AMCAS/secondaries and received 14 interviews. It sounds like some schools require it, but many must not. (That being said, I think shadowing is really helpful. I didn't talk about it in my application though.)

 

[Goro]

How do I go about getting a physician LoR when no physician in their right mind is allowing people to shadow and the ones I emailed recently aren't responding?

I am applying to MD and DO schools.
Is there anything I could do besides not applying without ANY physician LoR?
I realize DO schools will care much more than MD but it's still a big limitation; even though physician LoRs from shadowing can't possibly say that much about a applicant

I suggest that you simply wait until the crisis is over. It's an emergency and sacrifices have to be made.

 

[elitehacker1337]

All, I have shadowing, just no LoR.

I emailed the docs I shadowed for a LoR but since they only allowed one day of shadowing, I didn't bother asked for a LoR thinking I would be able to reach out around this time and get some last minute shadowing in and ideally a LoR

 

[gyngyn]

All, I have shadowing, just no LoR.

I emailed the docs I shadowed for a LoR but since they only allowed one day of shadowing, I didn't bother asked for a LoR thinking I would be able to reach out around this time and get some last minute shadowing in and ideally a LoR

A physician shadowing letter is entirely useless at all but a handful of MD schools.

 

[meronebib]

A physician shadowing letter is entirely useless at all but a handful of MD schools.

Seriously, what do you expect them to say? “Mr./Ms. X was excellent at being silent, getting out of my way, and periodically nodding to show interest in my work.”

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

All, I have shadowing, just no LoR.

I emailed the docs I shadowed for a LoR but since they only allowed one day of shadowing, I didn't bother asked for a LoR thinking I would be able to reach out around this time and get some last minute shadowing in and ideally a LoR

Then you don’t need to worry about it. You don’t need a physician letter for the vast majority of MD schools. If you’re competitive for MD and are just planning on using DO as a backup, just apply to the DO schools that don’t require one and hit MD hard.