I am a fourth year medical student and have still not decided on my choice of residency so I will be applying to residencies in different specialties. These include radiology, family medicine and pathology (don't laugh:( ). I was wondering since I can only send out 1 dean's letter to any and all programs, can i make that dean's letter generic (not put my reasons for going into a specialty since I'm applying to multiple specialties). My deans' letter writer was saying that I should put my reasons for going into my 1 and only specialty in my deans' letter or else it will look weird if I don't do this.

Thanks in advance for replies.

Well, at UVa, all the dean's letters are generic. (See here (http://www.med.virginia.edu/medicine/student-affairs/resid-4e.html).) We match OK (See here (http://www.med.virginia.edu/medicine/student-affairs/match02.html).) My only thought is that if a program knows your school's letters are usually not generic, they may draw a conclusion from it.