Question about shadowing relatives

[Van Chowder]

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I have a question, would there be a problem with shadowing my father who is a physician? Or is there some sort of rule against that? Thanks!!

 

[steelblue89]

I was wondering the same thing about shadowing my father. He ended up getting me a shadowing opportunity with one of his other doctor friends.

I might shadow him later on though if I feel like I need more hours.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Posted only hours before you:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=628251

 

[Law2Doc]

I have a question, would there be a problem with shadowing my father who is a physician? Or is there some sort of rule against that? Thanks!!

Not wise. As mentioned you can't get an LOR from a relative, and if you really can't list this on AMCAS because if it is figured out that your EC was "handed" to you in this way it totally taints it. Not to mention that relatives have a way of shielding you from a lot of the negatives of the job -- so it's simply not regarded as as useful to really see what doctors do. I'd say if you have folks in the healthcare profession, you should definitely ask them to hook you up with colleagues in the field, not themselves. That way you will have shadowed someone you can get an LOR from, list on AMCAS, and get to see the real deal.

 

[eight sat up]

.

 

[Mattabet]

Right, I think you can shadow a relative, but you shouldn't just shadow them. When you go to tell AMCAS, if you mention 3 or 4 doctors that you shadowed and one of them was your Dad, I don't forsee a major issue there. I think people above correctly state that just shadowing a relative would alter the experience, and you lose out on the LOR and what-have-you.

 

[Law2Doc]

Right, I think you can shadow a relative, but you shouldn't just shadow them. When you go to tell AMCAS, if you mention 3 or 4 doctors that you shadowed and one of them was your Dad, I don't forsee a major issue there. I think people above correctly state that just shadowing a relative would alter the experience, and you lose out on the LOR and what-have-you.

If you have 3 other people you can list, you really want to leave off your dad. Sorry, but that's just the way it should be handled. Might not be a "major" issue, but you can avoid a minor one. And when schools are getting as many as 10,000 applications, all it takes is a minor issue for them to feel you aren't as good a fit. You want to take advantage of whatever contacts you have without coming across as privileged, the product of nepotism, etc. This nation (and adcoms) love the idea of people working hard for everything they get. Of course lots of people manage not to but the perception of this has to prevail. So you never ever ever want to list family on AMCAS, or use them for an LOR, or use them to bolster hours. You can do whatever you want with them on your own, unlisted, time, but for the purposes of the application, you need to find other folks to shadow. That's just the way it works.

 

[ravster08]

I don't agree with a couple of the above posters. On my AMCAS the only doctors I wrote that I shadowed were my Dad and Uncle. To be honest, I felt like at the interviews the only things people cared about were the things you wrote about in your personal statement.

 

[LizzyM]

I agree that shadowing parents just seems natural. Of course, you wouldn't ask a relative for a LOR but it is completely legit to shadow family members and to list that as a shadowing experience. In almost 10 years I've never had an adcom member downgrade an experience because it involved family.

 

[MDpride]

FROM PERSONAL EXP., Go ahead and Shadow

My uncle is a Doctor, and when family talk came in during interview, I was asked by BOTH the interviewers interviewing me separately for same college.

They wondered why I did not took advantage of shadowing opportunity. When i said NO, there was moment of silence during interview.


You may not add on AMCAS, but something to talk about if it gets raised during interview.

I got waitlisted and wasn't accepted eventually to my dream college.

 

[Law2Doc]

... In almost 10 years I've never had an adcom member downgrade an experience because it involved family.

Well, I actually was advised by a former dean of admissions not to work for a family member back when I was a premed, so I'm afraid your experience doesn't cover every adcom. At least at one place it would have hurt you a few years back. I can't speak for elsewhere (but nor can LizzyM). Just my two cents -- if you have the option to work for other than a family member (and it's always going to be an option if your family member makes a phone call), that's the stronger move. I'm just saying.

 

[dmblue]

I could swear I already posted in this thread, but it seems to have dissappeared.

I worked for my dad as a surgical assistant for well over 1200 hours. Several adcoms said this was sufficient for clinical experience, but they recommended that I work for someone else for a while to to procure a LOR. You can't use LOR's from family.

 

[LizzyM]

Well, I actually was advised by a former dean of admissions not to work for a family member back when I was a premed, so I'm afraid your experience doesn't cover every adcom. At least at one place it would have hurt you a few years back. I can't speak for elsewhere (but nor can LizzyM). Just my two cents -- if you have the option to work for other than a family member (and it's always going to be an option if your family member makes a phone call), that's the stronger move. I'm just saying.

Working for a family member and shadowing are two different situations.

I agree that adcoms differ and I agree that you can't get a LOR from a relative and I agree that anyone who has a family member who is a doc should be able to call in a favor from the relatives collegues and shadow people other than relatives.

 

[Law2Doc]

Working for a family member and shadowing are two different situations.
...

I meant shadowing, but actually still think the rule is the same for both. It's still obvious nepotism to have relatives names appear in AMCAS. And no good reason for it, because any relative in the profession can get you a hook up.

 

[LizzyM]

I meant shadowing, but actually still think the rule is the same for both. It's still obvious nepotism to have relatives names appear in AMCAS. And no good reason for it, because any relative in the profession can get you a hook up.

What's wrong with neoptism in shadowing or volunteering? For that matter, there isn't anything wrong with working in a family business, either. I interviewed someone last year who worked in a parent's dental office for several years -- it would have been a huge hole in the AMCAS application not to have included that information as it was f/t for several summers.

 

[chemnerd89]

If you have 3 other people you can list, you really want to leave off your dad. Sorry, but that's just the way it should be handled. Might not be a "major" issue, but you can avoid a minor one. And when schools are getting as many as 10,000 applications, all it takes is a minor issue for them to feel you aren't as good a fit. You want to take advantage of whatever contacts you have without coming across as privileged, the product of nepotism, etc. This nation (and adcoms) love the idea of people working hard for everything they get. Of course lots of people manage not to but the perception of this has to prevail. So you never ever ever want to list family on AMCAS, or use them for an LOR, or use them to bolster hours. You can do whatever you want with them on your own, unlisted, time, but for the purposes of the application, you need to find other folks to shadow. That's just the way it works.

I had an adcom member tell me it would be stupid not to shadow my dad. Who better to learn from?