Physician call admissions office to recommend me?

[TFredrick]

I worked at an a ophthalmology clinic for a year and a half and one of the physicians that I worked for called me the other day and wants to call a few schools that I am applying to hoping that it will help my application. He is already writing me a letter of recommendation and wanted to to this on top of that.

My question is will this help and should I take him up on the offer or will it hurt me in any way? I am not applying to the schools that he went to so he does not have any connection to the schools that he will be calling.

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[deleted480308]

I doubt it hurts if they're polite but I also doubt it really helps. They already have a LOR

 

[fldoctorgirl]

Doesn't help. A dean at my school tried to do this for me (I told him it likely wouldn't work, but he wanted to try anyways). The response he got at almost every place was "we don't take verbal recommendations. write a LOR if you want".

It won't hurt, but I don't think it helps unless there's a personal connection, like calling a friend who happens to be involved in admissions at the school.

 

[lpp06]

If the physician is a donating alumnus of the school - it could help.

If the physician has a personal relationship with someone in the admissions office/dean - it could help.

If the physician is famous (eg Dr. James Andrews, Dr. Gupta) - it could help.

Most likely, the LOR alone will serve the same purpose and put his/her opinion directly in the lap of someone making decisions on your app.

 

[Catalystik]

I worked at an a ophthalmology clinic for a year and a half and one of the physicians that I worked for called me the other day and wants to call a few schools that I am applying to hoping that it will help my application. He is already writing me a letter of recommendation and wanted to to this on top of that.

My question is will this help and should I take him up on the offer or will it hurt me in any way? I am not applying to the schools that he went to so he does not have any connection to the schools that he will be calling.

It's great that you have such a strong champion, but what could he say that isn't already in the LOR, which has a letterhead, and gives proof of his identity? A random call to a dean, to whom one is a stranger, is unlikely to give you a more positive outcome.

 

[TFredrick]

Thank you for all the responses. The doctor is a great guy and I am thankful to have someone who believes in me so much and would be willing to call. I had a feeling that it was have a minimal impact though. I might just ask him to call a few of the reach schools as a hail mary to see what happens then.

 

[LizzyM]

The only time I've seen it help is if the caller has a personal relationship with a big cheese (Dean of the entire medical school, President or Provost of the University) and makes the call to that friend who then tells the Dean of Admissions what action must be taken ("interview this kid"). It very rarely gets further than that. A call made lower down the chain (to member of admissions committee, dean of admissions) will not have any effect.

 

[Goro]

I worked at an a ophthalmology clinic for a year and a half and one of the physicians that I worked for called me the other day and wants to call a few schools that I am applying to hoping that it will help my application. He is already writing me a letter of recommendation and wanted to to this on top of that.

My question is will this help and should I take him up on the offer or will it hurt me in any way? I am not applying to the schools that he went to so he does not have any connection to the schools that he will be calling.

This will accomplish noting but annoy the Admissions office staff.

SDNers are advised that individuals like doctors, PIs, dep't chairs, alumni, friends of Deans, even governors and senators, have very little power to get preferential treatment for their personal candidates, unless they have a six figure donation check in hand.

Even when they do, the most common outcome is that one gets a polite interview, followed by a polite wait list decision, followed by an even more polite rejection at the very end of the cycle.