PS and recomd ltrs

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ihope

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Hi, I'm a MS3 here. Do I need use different PSs and Recomd LTRs for TY/prelim and radon applications? Thank you for your help.
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Probobly. If you do a prelim then yes. Many will want a letter from your med or surgery chair and rad onc won't need that letter. It's also a good idea to send a PS that says why you picked med or surgery as a prelim choice. I think it's a good idea to send a different PS for TY years that demonstrates you know what your applying for and how it will help you.

This is very easy to do in ERAS. Minimal extra work on your part once you get the frame work of your PS done. The PS is criticle though so take the time to get a good one put together.

Don't write different letters tailored to different programs within rad onc. That's a waist of time unless there is one you REALLY want to go to.
 
Great information. Thank you both very much.
 
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I honestly don't think anyone cares what your PS says. I submitted the same PS to both, and sent 2 rad onc letters + 2 medicine letters from attendings I rotated with on medicine and medicine sub-I (no medicine chair letter). Got plenty of TY interviews and a few prelim interviews. Maybe the prelim medicine programs care more than the TY's. Who knows.
 
I did not write a separate personal statement and received plenty of TY and prelim interviews. I had a medicine letter from my Sub-I and three rad Onc letters that everyone received (rad Onc, TY, and prelim).
 
lol at different personal statement.


ahahahaahhaahahaah let me catch my breath.



Don't bother. No one cares.

Also, it's March yo. You're way ahead of the game, eh?
 
Did not use a Chair letter (although did have a letter from a medicine subi) and got interviews from every single medicine prelim and a generous number of TYs. Chair letters are usually generic and therefore terrible--unless you were literally in the top 10% of your IM rotation they often do not make you look good. I changed only the very last line of my PS for prelim v. TY v. rad onc.
 
Increasing the N. Used the same PS and letters, got plenty of interviews. From the feedback at the prelims/TYs, it seemed they offered me interviews based off three factors: performance on IM rotation, scores, and publications (oddly enough; that is. the number of pubs etc, rather than the actual strength of the pubs (like radonc programs cared about)). If you have competitive scores and did well on your IM rotation, you will get plenty of interviews using the same PS and letters. If you don't, ask your IM chair or PD to email a particular program or two for you, write a prelim/TY specific ending to the PS, and you'll do fine. You're likely very competitive with these programs if you're applying to radonc.

Definitely do not tailor PSs to individual programs - you may scare away some with tactic. If you really want one in particular, ask a chair or PD to email them, or email the student coordinator yourself. Good luck.
 
ihope said:
Hi, I'm a MS3 here. Do I need use different PSs and Recomd LTRs for TY/prelim and radon applications? Thank you for your help.
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I had the exact same question when I applied. Every person I talked to said they did not do separate PS or letters for their prelim years. I opted to put the extra effort in.

For my personal statement... I basically changed "Radiation Oncologist" to "Physician" for my prelim year applications. Based on the content of my PS this worked out good as what drives me to practice Oncology also drove me to become a Physician.

I also got a letter from one of my attendings on Internal Medicine clerkship as well as my preceptor on my Surgery clerkship. I included these two letters with my transitional year apps, and the medicine letter with my prelim medicine apps. I had plenty of TY interviews... didn't do so well with prelim medicine though.

Anyways, its a nice touch if you do it but as others have mentioned its not necessary at all.
 
Just to reiterate, I recommended making MINIMAL changes if you are going to use multiple PS. Im pretty sure I did but I can't remember for sure. I do think 99.9% of your effort on this should be making a good PS for the rad onc pool.
 
Regarding medicine letters, how late is too late? I had IM first as a 3rd year and didn't think to get a letter then. A research year later, my medicine sub-I starts at the end of October (4 blocks in) and ends at Thanksgiving. Is this too late in terms of IM prelims and TYs? I know I can get into my local IM prelim and am fine going there for my intern year (as I know the EMR already). Just would like to keep my options open.
 
evilbooyaa said:
Regarding medicine letters, how late is too late? I had IM first as a 3rd year and didn't think to get a letter then. A research year later, my medicine sub-I starts at the end of October (4 blocks in) and ends at Thanksgiving. Is this too late in terms of IM prelims and TYs? I know I can get into my local IM prelim and am fine going there for my intern year (as I know the EMR already). Just would like to keep my options open.
Click to expand...

I would suggest getting your letters in for prelim and TY in as soon as ERAS opens because many of those programs send out invites within a week of recieving your completed application. Honestly though, don't stress out too much about it. I used one medicine dept letter (that was prob pretty generic) and 3 RadOnc letters for my prelim/TY, applied to 20 programs and got 13 invites. So you def don't need a stellar medicine letter or complete application geared towards medicine. Programs know you will be with them for only 1yr and your ultimate goal is getting into your advanced program.
 
evilbooyaa said:
Regarding medicine letters, how late is too late? I had IM first as a 3rd year and didn't think to get a letter then. A research year later, my medicine sub-I starts at the end of October (4 blocks in) and ends at Thanksgiving. Is this too late in terms of IM prelims and TYs? I know I can get into my local IM prelim and am fine going there for my intern year (as I know the EMR already). Just would like to keep my options open.
Click to expand...
Some programs send their first invite the first week ERAS is open. If you don't submit ERAS in those very first few days it's fine, but late october is definitely too late. I'm assuming you'll have done non-rad onc electives that you can get letters from? Letters from before your research year are stil usable if you think that you can get in contact with an attending that will still remember you
 
Alright, thanks for the points. I'll see if I can get one of my favorite medicine attendings from MS3 to write me a letter at the beginning of MS4.
 
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