quick question about residency

[CD4TH2]

Hey everyone, I have a couple quick questions for neurology application ...

I am planning on asking for LOR's from 2 neurologists and 1 gen surgery attending. Do prelim medicine programs require at least 1 medicine letter, or will these letters be enough?

I'm on the fence about whether or not I should apply for away rotations in neurology. Is doing an away in neurology during November to late? Will this encroach too much during interview season or do most interviews take place during Dec-Jan?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[TUGM]

You should try your best to obtain a medicine letter, if not two. The general surgery letter won't really do much. Preliminary medicine programs do not necessarily require medicine letters, but they will help, if they are good.

November is pretty late for away rotations, and programs start interviewing beginning that time. The season lasts from approximately mid-November to late January. You won't really be able to get LORs in time from your aways to affect your application at that point.

 

[TUGM]

You should try your best to obtain a medicine letter, if not two. The general surgery letter won't really do much. Preliminary medicine programs do not necessarily require medicine letters, but they will help, if they are good.

November is pretty late for away rotations, and programs start interviewing beginning that time. The season lasts from approximately mid-November to late January. You won't really be able to get LORs in time from your aways to affect your application at that point.

 

[Que]

Thanks for the info TUGM. I'm applying this cycle as well. Are you able to send in 4 letters or is that pointless? I have 1 IM and 3 neuro...

 

[TUGM]

Yes, ERAS allows for 4 LORs to be uploaded. I would utilize all 4 spots.

 

[CD4TH2]

I appreciate all of the advice TUGM and thanks for all the replies!

For those who recently matched, would you say most of your interviews took place at the beginning (November) or towards the end (January) of interview season?

Sorry if I come across as repetitive, I'm also trying to schedule when to take off

 

[BrocaWontShutUp]

Most people I interviewed with along the trail (the northeast) seemed to be frontloading their neurology interviews for November and December and backloading prelim medicine interviews for January. So pick your poison.

To the OP, drop the gen surg letter unless there is a significant connection beyond clerkship relationship. I used one IM, 2 neuro and 1 neuro chair for my letters. I think people debate whether chair letters are necessary, but my Dean told me to use the one that was written for me so I did. I had a second backup IM letter though in case.

An away rotation, especially that late, would (as TUGM mentioned) not be for a LOR but it would obviously get you an interview at that program so you could consider choosing a location that you would potentially be ranking very highly to try and give yourself an extra edge.

 

[afugazzi]

Most of my interviews were toward the beginning. Eventually you'll be really tired and won't want to do anything in January. But then I guess you might not be so tired if you don't front load too much. But yeah I'd recommend doing interviews earlier.

As for aways, I didn't do any, and no one ever asked me why. The advice given to me is that if there is a single program you really want to match at, then it might make sense to do an audition rotation (but even that can backfire if you don't perform well, and honestly being the M4 at a brand new place and being compared to M3s who are used to the hospital system can make your performance look not so great even if you're a stellar applicant). But if there's no place in particular you'd care about, then it's probably more reasonable to just do a neuro elective at your home institution.