Should I Just Submit an MD Letter to DO Schools that Accept it or Wait and Apply with a DO Letter?

[nhpboy]

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[Magus5454]

So I'm in kind of a weird situation. I already have an MD Letter that is part of my committee letter (which includes 4 letters in total). This means that every med school that receives my committee letter will get the MD Letter, so I believe this will fulfill the physician letter requirements of all schools that require one. The problem is, most schools say they prefer a DO Letter (still take an MD Letter though), but I won't be shadowing a DO till Mid-May (when I get back from school), which is 2 weeks after the application opens (No DO's within a convenient distance from my school are willing to let me shadow, so I have to wait till I get back home where I found one that will). I plan to submit the application after I finish up shadowing (about 2-3 weeks), but I also wanted to ask the DO in question for a letter after, in which I would probably give him at least 2 weeks to write it. This puts my timeline at about late June for submission (and probably mid to late July for verification) of the AACOMAS if I wait for the DO Letter (assuming the DO is willing to write me one, which I don't know yet). Do you think it would be a better trade off to just send the application as soon as I can without the DO Letter (but with the DO shadowing) or with the DO Letter after a couple week/month delay. Thank you for any input!

Edit: I heard that submitting my app ASAP with the DO shadowing and then updating with a DO letter might be an option. What do you guys think? If I were to update with a DO Letter, is this through AACOMAS or through a traditional update letter?

You can add the letter through AACOMAS. What you could do is submit to one school early to get verified, and add the rest. Etc

 

[Jdp00921]

So if I submit my committee letter with the rest of my primary app to one school in order to get verified, then a couple weeks later I can submit the rest of my primaries to other schools after adding my DO letter to AACOMAS? I thought you can't change whatever is in your primary application once it is submitted to any school (essays, LORs, etc.). Correct me if I am wrong please.

For AACOMAS, you cannot edit/remove things but I know you can add things after submission. Not sure specifically how it works with letters, though. I'd imagine they can be added. Worst case, you can have the DO send to interfolio and then send individually to each school you apply to!

 

[Magus5454]

So if I submit my committee letter with the rest of my primary app to one school in order to get verified, then a couple weeks later I can submit the rest of my primaries to other schools after adding my DO letter to AACOMAS? I thought you can't change whatever is in your primary application once it is submitted to any school (essays, LORs, etc.). Correct me if I am wrong please.

You can add letters after submission

 

[Ho0v-man]

So I'm in kind of a weird situation. I already have an MD Letter that is part of my committee letter (which includes 4 letters in total). This means that every med school that receives my committee letter will get the MD Letter, so I believe this will fulfill the physician letter requirements of all schools that require one. The problem is, most schools say they prefer a DO Letter (still take an MD Letter though), but I won't be shadowing a DO till Mid-May (when I get back from school), which is 2 weeks after the application opens (No DO's within a convenient distance from my school are willing to let me shadow, so I have to wait till I get back home where I found one that will). I plan to submit the application after I finish up shadowing (about 2-3 weeks), but I also wanted to ask the DO in question for a letter after, in which I would probably give him at least 2 weeks to write it. This puts my timeline at about late June for submission (and probably mid to late July for verification) of the AACOMAS if I wait for the DO Letter (assuming the DO is willing to write me one, which I don't know yet). Do you think it would be a better trade off to just send the application as soon as I can without the DO Letter (but with the DO shadowing) or with the DO Letter after a couple week/month delay. Thank you for any input!

Edit: I heard that submitting my app ASAP with the DO shadowing and then updating with a DO letter might be an option. What do you guys think? If I were to update with a DO Letter, is this through AACOMAS or through a traditional update letter?

In regards to your edit, that’s fine. I would just roll ahead with the app w/o the DO letter and fully submit to the ones that don’t require it. For the ones that do require it, you can fill out everything but not submit the secondary until you have the letter. Iirc I’ve read on these forums about people who’ve even been accepted “pending submission of a DO letter”. So they got the interview and acceptance w/o the letter. I think that VCOM does that.

Keep in mind that interviews won’t go out until probably mid July anyway and even that would be early. Good luck!