<p>I am in my first year of college and intend to apply to med school eventually. I set up a time to shadow a doctor next month and was wondering if it was too early to ask for a letter of recommendation. The doctor has been one of my specialists for about a year now and is very nice and seems to like me. She would be a perfect person to ask for one, but it seems a little to early to be asking for a letter of recommendation. When do pre med students normally ask for the letters of recommendation?</p>
<p>I would go ahead and ask, but I would wait until you have done some more shadowing/work with this physician so that the evaluation will be better. If you end up being involved with this doctor for several more years, I would ask for a revised letter so that she or he can give a better evaluation as who you are then. </p>
<p>I personally believe that the best letters are fresh, so if you have the opportunity to get a letter from a doc in your 3rd year of undergrad that will be a better evaluation as to who you are at the time of application compared to a letter that evaluated you as a freshman. However, there is no guaruntee that you will be able to GET one in the third year, so you might as well store it just in case.</p>
<p>What I have come to understand is that a letter from a doc you shadowed for 10-20-30 hours is not that valuable in the process. With a limited number of LOR slots available, you really want to save those for the big guns. I agree what you were told above- a continuing shadowing relationship over 3 years? That’s a letter I’d use. Two Tuesdays? Nope.</p>
<p>I’d go as far to say that, in general, shadowing a doctor is not something that deserves a LOR (except for super long shadowing relationships). A better way is to do volunteering, and personally I think that shadowing a doctor for more than a brief period tends to lose its insight. Volunteering is a better way to do something clinically oriented in the long term.</p>