how many letters to submit?

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DocKat

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Hey guys

I just have a question concerning how many letters to submit. For most programs, they want 2-3 letters of rec, not including the department Letter. Do you know what would happen if I submit 4 letters? (3 clinical, 1 research) in addition to the chair letter? Would the programs only look at 2 or 3 out of the 4 letters? Will doing so annoy programs?

Thanks so much!

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Hey guys

I just have a question concerning how many letters to submit. For most programs, they want 2-3 letters of rec, not including the department Letter. Do you know what would happen if I submit 4 letters? (3 clinical, 1 research) in addition to the chair letter? Would the programs only look at 2 or 3 out of the 4 letters? Will doing so annoy programs?

Thanks so much!

Don't submit more than 4 total. Do the chair, 2 clinical, 1 research.
 
Don't submit more than 4 total. Do the chair, 2 clinical, 1 research.

sorry off topic :D

is the "clerkship director" more or less the same as the department chair? I dont think i've ever worked with or even heard of the "department chair" for my medicine clerkship and we worked at multiple hospitals... i'd imagine there would be a different chair in each hospital?
 
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sorry off topic :D

is the "clerkship director" more or less the same as the department chair? I dont think i've ever worked with or even heard of the "department chair" for my medicine clerkship and we worked at multiple hospitals... i'd imagine there would be a different chair in each hospital?

A lot of places will draft a letter from the Chairman of medicine. It's called a Chair Letter, and it tend to be kind of summation and general recommendation from one department to another. Most of the time they try and personalize these a little, but it's usually not a personal letter of recommendation they way the other letters of recommendation are, UNLESS you actually worked clincally or in the lab with the Chairman himself.

And NO the clership director is not the department chair. The academic food chain is often mysterious to students but the Chair is the academic and "spiritual" leader position appointed by the Deans of the school of medicine and approved by the University - he be the big boss. He may or may not also be the chief/director of medicine, which would probably be the next person down the food chain, next in line are your division chiefs, and as a resident residency director(s). Clerkship directors are in charge of the medical student education, and may or may not also hold one of the above positions as well, but generally are a more "junior" (in quotes for a reason, because some people love to teach and just want that job even if they've been around forever) staff working their up way to one of the positions above.

Hope this helps.
 
thanks so much for the reply! however what is the reason behind the 4 letter limit? isn't it better to have more rec letters than less? Sorry if this question is stupid
 
thanks so much for the reply! however what is the reason behind the 4 letter limit? isn't it better to have more rec letters than less? Sorry if this question is stupid

That's all that ERAS will let you submit, and someone people would probably get crazy and submit too many. There are a lot of applications to read and if everyone submits a tons of letters it get even more cumbersome than it already is.
 
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