Question regarding letter of recommendation

[bestcoast]

Hi guys
So I am in the process of getting a couple more letters of recommendation and organizing the ones I've got in the past.

Now here's a dilemma for me.
I have three recommendations from two psych attendings and one from my IM clerkship. The IM clerkship director and one of the two psych attednings wrote me the letters when I was still trying to decide between neurology and psych.

Should I ask them to write me new letters to specify my interest in psych, or it doesn't matter?
I don't want the letters to ruin my match simply because the letters say, "he will be a great internalist" or "he will be a great neurologist or psychiatrist"

You know what I'm saying? How is it frowned upon if a letter comments how great the student will be in another field?

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[atsai3]

Hi guys
So I am in the process of getting a couple more letters of recommendation and organizing the ones I've got in the past.

Now here's a dilemma for me.
I have three recommendations from two psych attendings and one from my IM clerkship. The IM clerkship director and one of the two psych attednings wrote me the letters when I was still trying to decide between neurology and psych.

Should I ask them to write me new letters to specify my interest in psych, or it doesn't matter?
I don't want the letters to ruin my match simply because the letters say, "he will be a great internalist" or "he will be a great neurologist or psychiatrist"

You know what I'm saying? How is it frowned upon if a letter comments how great the student will be in another field?

Doesn't matter as much in psych. It's not as if you are applying for derm with internal medicine as a backup, and one of your derm letter writers accidentally writes "this woman would make a great dermatologist".

We don't expect that all of your letter writers will be able to assess your suitability for psych. If you had a surgery attending who told us, "she would make a great psychiatrist", that comment would probably be regarded with mild bemusement. What we really want to know is whether you are any good, and to get that information we need to hear from medicine attendings, neuro attendings, ob/gyn attendings, etc.

Finally, being described as good for another field is not necessarily a bad thing. Often we get letters with passages like "I really wish she were going into ob/gyn, but she's not. Too bad -- that is a loss for our field", and that's a nice compliment.

 

[bestcoast]

Doesn't matter as much in psych. It's not as if you are applying for derm with internal medicine as a backup, and one of your derm letter writers accidentally writes "this woman would make a great dermatologist".

We don't expect that all of your letter writers will be able to assess your suitability for psych. If you had a surgery attending who told us, "she would make a great psychiatrist", that comment would probably be regarded with mild bemusement. What we really want to know is whether you are any good, and to get that information we need to hear from medicine attendings, neuro attendings, ob/gyn attendings, etc.

Finally, being described as good for another field is not necessarily a bad thing. Often we get letters with passages like "I really wish she were going into ob/gyn, but she's not. Too bad -- that is a loss for our field", and that's a nice compliment.

thanks for the response!

ya, what got me worked up was this thread
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=610843&highlight=224
Someone with step score of 232, good LORs and good number of interviews didn't match because some of his LORs said he would be a good internalist or something.

 

[atsai3]

thanks for the response!

ya, what got me worked up was this thread
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=610843&highlight=224
Someone with step score of 232, good LORs and good number of interviews didn't match because some of his LORs said he would be a good internalist or something.

If you sent in 5 letters that all say "this guy would be a great ENT" then that might raise some questions.

 

[psychgeek1]

I think it would do you more good if they specified although it might not matter

 

[whopper]

With so many psychiatrists forgetting their basic medical skills, a letter from an IM doctor telling me a candidate has great medical skills and would make a good IM doctor would impress me.

I just would want to make sure they really do want to go into psychiatry. Other elements of the application such as the personal statement could do that.