Dean's Letter: whats best for EM?

That you're not a psychopath and that you did well on rotations. There are apparently "code words" that appear in Dean's letters that let them know this stuff. Unless your school is very different you usually don't have much input into the dean's letter. We were only able to review ours for errors after a brief interview to see if there was anything about us that should be included that wasn't in the file. The Dean's letter really only serves to do 3 things, the two I already mentioned and give a class rank of sorts. Again - code words here. Mine said that I was "Highly recommended" which was code for "he is in the middle 50% of his class."

I actually have mine if you want to see what one is like. Of course each school's is different, sometimes very much so.

C

Yeah, nothing special for EM, except for evals of how you did on any EM rotations that appear in the letter. Many schools only include required rotations in the letter so EM frequently isn't included. It's pretty much like I said before - it's a screen for personality in many ways so if there are comments in your rotation evals that raise questions about your personality I would try to get them pulled out.

C

Does your school still use a Dean's letter, or has it adopted the Medical Student Performance Evaluation Letter (MSPEL)? The MSPEL has a specific format that they follow and includes guidelines from the AAMC about what to include in the letter.

Yeah we have MSPE's.

C

no red flags

Desperado said:

no red flags

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Naive third year med stud here ... what would be a not-so-obvious red flag? I ask because I am sure I have more than a few. Thanks!

MD'05 said:

Naive third year med stud here ... what would be a not-so-obvious red flag? I ask because I am sure I have more than a few. Thanks!

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Things that suggest you don't get along well with others. Bad comments repeated for multiple rotations etc. "shows up late" "occasional treats patients poorly" etc. They're pretty obvious.

MD'05 said:

Naive third year med stud here ... what would be a not-so-obvious red flag? I ask because I am sure I have more than a few. Thanks!

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Eats at Quizno's often.

Q, DO