A couple of Letters of Rec Questions

[Smiths11]

4th year med student here in need of some advice. I've heard mixed things on this topic. I've searched the forum history and found some old threads with mixed opinions, so I wanted to post a new one.

Scenario 1: 3 letters from MD Anesthesiology programs
Scenario 2: 2 letters from MD Anesthesiology programs, 1 letter from an FM doc

Is scenario 1 better than scenario 2? Or is scenario 2 better since the student is more "well rounded"? Or it doesn't matter?

I have the option to go down either route. I also am applying to EM and haven't made up my mind on which way to go yet, and time is running out. That's why I might need to settle for 2 vs 3 Anesthesia letters. I've heard Anesthesia programs appreciate diversity in letters as opposed to EM programs which only want to see SLOEs.

Since it probably matters; I'm a DO with average or slightly below stats.

My 2nd question is: I will be doing my Anesthesia rotations in Sept - Nov, so I won't have my first Anesthesia letter until some time in Oct, is this a bad thing? My application in Sept will be going out with only the FM letter.

Thanks for all the help in advance.

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[rakotomazoto]

Get the highest quality letters possible from people who can write a strong letter. Strong FM letter >>>> weak anesthesia letter. A strong letter is written by someone who has observed you in a clinical setting, taking care of patients. Everyone is smart, dedicated, and "great to work with". Some med schools don't even have an official anesthesiology rotation, so it shouldn't be held against you too much if you haven't had enough time in the field to obtain 3 strong anesthesia letters. Due to the timing of your schedule, it would help you to get those letters out ASAP, given the constraint of not doing anesthesia until Sep-Nov. Especially as a DO, you want to submit as complete an application as possible quickly before you get lost in the shuffle. I had average numbers, but great letters and I submitted my application quickly and followed up personally (but NOT repeatedly to the level of being super annoying) with programs that I was highly interested in. That is just my experience and advice, others will surely chime in with their differing perspectives. Be assertive and go after it if you decide this is what you want, sounds like you are still undecided.

 

[vector2]

I had two anesthesia letters and what I imagine was a strong FM letter. Matched at first choice.

 

[Nivens]

Besides the "strong letters are more important than anesthesia letters" advice that gets repeated here a lot (and is totally valid, btw), I think the one other thing to keep in mind is some schools have one "person" that is very well known is the wide world of anesthesia and almost blesses the new applicants every year. IF your school has such a person, it's probably a good idea to get a letter from them. Often you won't have worked with this person clinically, in fact they may hardly know you, but their letter is such a traditional part of applicants from your program's file that it would be weird not to have one yourself. This is of course only valid if such a person happens to exist at your institution, but I think bears mentioning.