I've been doing basic science research for the past year in between MS2/3. Several people in the lab have offered or would be willing if I asked to write letters of rec for me. Because I haven't done 3rd year, I'm not totally sure how this works. My dean's office told me I could put as many letters on file as I wanted. Is that advisable/useful? I don't know what kind of residency I will do, but it probably won't be closely related to my research. From what I understand, the letters that actually go to residency programs will need to be from clinical faculty I work with during 3rd/4th year. Is there even any point to asking my research mentors to write letters? (In case it matters, the people I could ask for letters are all either MDs or MD/PhDs).

Thanks for your advise!

Ask for the LOR. Choose someone who's either 1) a good mentor 2) politically savvy and a good writer of such letters, or 3) famous in their field + a good mentor.

You can submit one research letter as part of your residency application, no problem. You can upload up to 4 LORs of your choice (not including the Dean's Letter); I uploaded just 3 and could have sent a research letter if I wanted to. I had one advisor suggest that a research letter is a good thing, as well -- someone who knows you in a different capacity.

Thanks, so . . . .if there are 2 (or 3) people that offer to write for me, I'm clearly not going to use all the letters as part of the residency app, but is it still reasonable to have them on file at my school so that they can be used when my dean's letter is being written, in the same way that 3rd year evals are used? I guess I don't really know what goes into the dean's letter, as I haven't experienced all the 3rd year advising yet.

Ask for the LOR. Choose someone who's either 1) a good mentor 2) politically savvy and a good writer of such letters, or 3) famous in their field + a good mentor.

You can submit one research letter as part of your residency application, no problem. You can upload up to 4 LORs of your choice (not including the Dean's Letter); I uploaded just 3 and could have sent a research letter if I wanted to. I had one advisor suggest that a research letter is a good thing, as well -- someone who knows you in a different capacity.

Thanks, so . . . .if there are 2 (or 3) people that offer to write for me, I'm clearly not going to use all the letters as part of the residency app, but is it still reasonable to have them on file at my school so that they can be used when my dean's letter is being written?

Yeah, there's no harm in doing that. My dean's letter writer just sat there and copied stuff out of my evals. When you meet with him/her, you can just let him/her know those letters are there.

So is the dean's letter something you have access to, then? I know we can see our evals, but I assume the letters (maybe with the exception of the dean's letter?) are confidential . . .?

Yeah, there's no harm in doing that. My dean's letter writer just sat there and copied stuff out of my evals. When you meet with him/her, you can just let him/her know those letters are there.

So is the dean's letter something you have access to, then? I know we can see our evals, but I assume the letters (maybe with the exception of the dean's letter?) are confidential . . .?
Depends on the school. But the Dean's Letter also lets the residency know what the school's policy is (student can't see any, student sees part, or student sees all).