LORs from Away Rotation

[1tbspofpatience]

I was wondering if the attendings or residents could comment on what would be the best way to go about requesting a letter from a chairmen or a prominent faculty member during an away rotation? I imagine that it would be very difficult to get a significant amount of facetime them while on the rotation for them to write a very personable letter. I realize that you must be a good rotator to begin with, but Neutropeniaboy also stated in one of his threads that few students go out of their way to seek out the chairman of a program. How does one go about doing that without seeming overly aggressive? Should you schedule 1-to-1 meetings with them or try to get more time in clinic/OR with them? I'm sure this could vary per person, but I was hoping to obtain some general tips to maximize my chances of exposure to them.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[neutropeniaboy]

Make sure you have 1 on 1 clinical time with the person you want to write you a letter. Make sure it's more than just a day or so. You should have substantial interaction with this person, otherwise I can guarantee you that it will be a generic letter.

You shouldn't feel anxious about asking. We expect that rotators will be asking for letters. We may not all get asked, but we know you will in all likelihood ask. If you don't, we won't lose sleep over it. If you do, most of us have the good sense to accept the invite if we've spent some reasonable time with you. If not, most would tell you why. Most will not write you a bad letter, so if we refuse, it might be because we don't have anything positive to say. So, if an attending accepts, you know that you'll at least get a generic letter, possibly a good letter.

Sent via mobile device.