Should I get these letters of recommendation?

[Hygge]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi, if anyone could give me any advice on whether I should get these letters of rec for my committee packet, that would be great 🙂

1) A physician I shadowed for a few days agreed to write me a strong letter. I know in general you don't want to get a letter from a physician you shadowed, but half of my personal statement is about me watching him treat a very unique patient. I gained a lot of insight from the case, which I showed him in my personal statement, so I feel like he could talk about my traits that would make me a potentially good doctor.

2) I've been working for another doctor for about 3 months, but he said that since he hasn't known me for long enough, he can try to write a good letter, but more likely it'll turn out to be an okay letter. the reason I'm worried though is because on amcas I wrote the experience down as one of my most meaningful and a good chunk of my personal statement is about an experience I had at the clinic. so since it clearly looks like I value this experience, would it look bad if I didn't have a rec from this doctor?

 

[desiredmembername123]

Hi, if anyone could give me any advice on whether I should get these letters of rec for my committee packet, that would be great 🙂 so far, the ones I already got and including are two science, one non-science, and one lab mentor.

1) A physician I shadowed for a few days agreed to write me a strong letter. I know in general you don't want to get a letter from a physician you shadowed, but half of my personal statement is about me watching him treat a very unique patient. I gained a lot of insight from the case, which I showed him in my personal statement, so I feel like he could talk about my traits that would make me a potentially good doctor.

2) I've been working for another doctor for about 2 months as a medical assistant, but he said that since he hasn't known me for long enough, he can write me an okay letter, but not an outstanding one. also on amcas I wrote it as one of my most meaningful experiences.

1) can't hurt

2) Can hurt. Do not get a letter from someone who says "okay letter". I think I read somewhere that the most damning praise from a letter is "he is nice". These people should be singing your praise from a rooftop.

 

[Hygge]

1) can't hurt

2) Can hurt. Do not get a letter from someone who says "okay letter". I think I read somewhere that the most damning praise from a letter is "he is nice". These people should be singing your praise from a rooftop.

Thanks for the reply 😀 I updated my situation #2, would you still recommend not getting a letter from the doctor?

 

[candbgirl]

He still said it would be an okay letter. What do you think? And realistically if a doc you have worked with for three months can only write an okay letter how strong can a letter be from a doc you shadowed for a few days? I'm sure he wants his letter to be strong and he'll probably think it is strong but really?


Sent from my iPad using SDN mobile app

 

[gyngyn]

Please don't send shadowing letters unless you are applying to DO schools and one of these is a DO.