Suspect advice from pre-med advisor (LOR/shadowing)

[mootpoot]

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I’m going to be finishing up a 20-hour shadowing experience with a family physician that took place over the course of 2 months (we did half days). I’m thinking about asking her for a letter of recommendation since we got along well, and I think I have impressed her in some ways. 20 hours is not a long time, and I don’t imagine her LOR will be stand-out enough to put in my application, but I was thinking it might be a good idea to ask for one anyways. I’m still quite early on in my pre-med path, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get as much application materials as I can. I’m not sure if this is reasonable, so I ran it by my pre-health adviser.

When I talked to my pre-health adviser about this, he told me that I should try to get LORs from physicians I shadowed, as long as they know me well. He also said that I shouldn’t ask this physician for a LOR, not because she doesn’t know me well enough (which is what I would expect), but because LORs should be contemporary to when you turn in your application, and you shouldn’t ask for them so far in advance (years, in my case).

I’ve heard services like Interfolio being recommended on SDN or other methods of having LORs written in advance to be turned in later. My adviser expressly told me not to do this and not to use something like Interfolio (with no explanation as to why Interfolio isn’t good).

I’m not sure if I’m misunderstanding him. I’ve had a tough time communicating with the pre-health department about expectations and why they are the way they are.

Does it sound accurate that I shouldn’t ask for a LOR because it’s too far in advance, and more generally, that I have no business asking for LORs from people until I’m actually applying?

 

[deleted903608]

Don't know much about asking years in advance, but still it probably won't be a very useful letter since its someone you A) only interacted with for 20 hours and B) those interactions were essentially just you watching them. Shadowing letters aren't very helpful because they can't really attest to any of your abilities or skills because it's such a passive experience.

 

[OfMiceAndWomen]

I've been having a similar question in terms of asking LOR in advanced. I just graduated and decided to two gap years, with possibility of three. My pre-med advisor recommended that I use Interfolio to get all my prof letters before I graduated, and I did.

But then I later got (better) advice that you should tell your recommenders you want LOR from them before you graduate (or before you stop ongoing/immediate contact), have them draft it, but not submit until the year you're applying. I think it looks best (and some schools say this explicitly) if the letters are dated the same year you're applying. The hard part about this is that you should pick recommenders with whom you're comfortable maintaining longitudinal contact (which is important for strong LORs anyway).

So what I plan on doing for the profs who have written me letters already, is to keep them updated on my gap year plans as they come to fruition, and ask them to submit updated letters (even if it's just a date change) when I apply.

 

[Moko]

Shadowing letters are generally pretty useless, so I would recommend only submitting one to schools that explicitly want a shadowing letter. A letter that's over a few years old generally isn't that useful; so your adviser is correct in stating that the letters should be relatively contemporary. Saving the letter on Interfolio and having them re-date it prior to submission is one way to go.

 

[gyngyn]

The only thing worse that a shadowing letter (of any vintage) is a letter from a relative.
The exceptions are a DO letter for DO schools and the handful of MD schools that require a "clinical" letter.