Re-applicatant and LOR question

[caxoo]

Hi all,

I've seen multiple suggestions to get new LORs for reapplication, and especially to get a LOR from your PD. As I'm delaying graduation and don't have a TY/TRI/prelim, I wouldn't have a PD for the next cycle. As well, I'm planning to do a few new rotations and get new letters that way, but I may have to end up reusing a letter from the previous application. How badly would that hurt me, and is there any way around that/anything else I could be doing?

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[Piebaldi]

Hi all,

I've seen multiple suggestions to get new LORs for reapplication, and especially to get a LOR from your PD. As I'm delaying graduation and don't have a TY/TRI/prelim, I wouldn't have a PD for the next cycle. As well, I'm planning to do a few new rotations and get new letters that way, but I may have to end up reusing a letter from the previous application. How badly would that hurt me, and is there any way around that/anything else I could be doing?

You can use old letters, just have the writer update the date.

 

[c0pycat]

You can use old letters, just have the writer update the date.

Since I will be also a re-applicant, decided to do that do and reached out to my LOR writers to let them know...I'll try to get another one as well but mostly will use my current ones with updated date..

 

[caxoo]

You can use old letters, just have the writer update the date.

That's what I figured, but some posts here (some by PDs I believe) said it's best to have new letters

 

[Piebaldi]

Since I will be also a re-applicant, decided to do that do and reached out to my LOR writers to let them know...I'll try to get another one as well but mostly will use my current ones with updated date..

I re-used letters, just asked letter writer to update date and stuff, or change specialty for example, for PD letter from internship. Didnot have a single problem. one program even told me how i had very strong letters and I got the highest score in terms of however tehy did their ranking of stuff in the application for letters. There is a skill to the app process

 

[gutonc]

That's what I figured, but some posts here (some by PDs I believe) said it's best to have new letters

If you delay graduation, you're going to be asked what you were doing during that time. You'll be expected to have a LOR or 3 from that time, depending on what you're going into.

 

[GoSpursGo]

That's what I figured, but some posts here (some by PDs I believe) said it's best to have new letters

So you CAN use old letters, but you should almost certainly have at least 1-2 letters from your prelim/5th med school/gap year explaining what you've been up to and how you've shown you're going to be successful in residency.

Furthermore, it probably doesn't hurt to re-evaluate whether there could have been red flags in your letters. If your stats should otherwise have made you competitive for the programs you applied to and you still didn't match, maybe think about swapping out the letter that you suspect is your weakest.

 

[Piebaldi]

So you CAN use old letters, but you should almost certainly have at least 1-2 letters from your prelim/5th med school/gap year explaining what you've been up to and how you've shown you're going to be successful in residency.

Furthermore, it probably doesn't hurt to re-evaluate whether there could have been red flags in your letters. If your stats should otherwise have made you competitive for the programs you applied to and you still didn't match, maybe think about swapping out the letter that you suspect is your weakest.

While your point of evaluating red flags in letters is valid who would be so ugly as to go through the extent of saying something damaging in a letter of rec?

 

[GoSpursGo]

While your point of evaluating red flags in letters is valid who would be so ugly as to go through the extent of saying something damaging in a letter of rec?

They wouldn't outright say something like "caxoo was terrible, unprofessional, and lazy." But if the letter writer didn't REALLY know the applicant that well and the letter just reads like a form letter, that can come across. So if the applicant got a last minute letter from an attending who they only worked with for a week in passing, he/she might consider replacing that one.

 

[Piebaldi]

They wouldn't outright say something like "caxoo was terrible, unprofessional, and lazy." But if the letter writer didn't REALLY know the applicant that well and the letter just reads like a form letter, that can come across. So if the applicant got a last minute letter from an attending who they only worked with for a week in passing, he/she might consider replacing that one.

That is a valid point. In high school, while this is completely unrelated to med school, I had a geometry teacher who hated my guts for some reason and I did not realize this so I asked her for a letter for a summer program or something. She said awful things about me and my counselor was like umm are you sure you want to send this? I read it and was like umm no!

 

[gutonc]

While your point of evaluating red flags in letters is valid who would be so ugly as to go through the extent of saying something damaging in a letter of rec?

Students (pre- and med) aren't very good at evaluating who would be a good LOR writer. In retrospect, I count myself among them.

The thing about LORs is that they don't have to say anything formally "bad" in order to not say anything good. Read a few hundred of them, you'll very quickly see what I'm talking about.

 

[Piebaldi]

Students (pre- and med) aren't very good at evaluating who would be a good LOR writer. In retrospect, I count myself among them.

The thing about LORs is that they don't have to say anything formally "bad" in order to not say anything good. Read a few hundred of them, you'll very quickly see what I'm talking about.

Sure. Although sometimes it becomes challenging to find good letter writers.

 

[gutonc]

Sure. Although sometimes it becomes challenging to find good letter writers.

That is most assuredly "on" the requester. If you can't find a single person to write you a great (not good, great) LOR, then there's most decidedly something wrong with you.

 

[caxoo]

They wouldn't outright say something like "caxoo was terrible, unprofessional, and lazy." But if the letter writer didn't REALLY know the applicant that well and the letter just reads like a form letter, that can come across. So if the applicant got a last minute letter from an attending who they only worked with for a week in passing, he/she might consider replacing that one.

Shoot most of my letters from my school were by necessity like that...I didn't get much of a chance to get to know any of my psych attendings beyond a week or 2 (that being the field I'm interested in)

Thanks to all for posting feedback

 

[rokshana]

While your point of evaluating red flags in letters is valid who would be so ugly as to go through the extent of saying something damaging in a letter of rec?

Dude, you would be surprised...and a mediocre lor that doesn’t really show that the writer really knows the applicant is just as bad, if not worse, than an actual bad letter