LORs

vtucci said:

Hello all.

I have seen some previous posts on this subject and just wanted to ask some follow up questions.

For those of us who are third years and preparing to get letters, I understand that it is generally good to get at least 2 SLORs from ED faculty and that it is usually good to sit down at the beginning of a rotation with a faculty member and express our hope for such a letter so they can give us more constructive feedback.

For other letters, I have seen it stated that internal medicine and surgery are good options.

For those of you who have gone through the process or who are on the committees reviewing apps, what do you think about Family Medicine? What about research mentors (I have some quite a bit of work with Infectious Disease faculty)? Is a PhD letter at all useful? How many is too many? OR is there such a thing? Should we accept as many LORs as possible and have them incorporated into our dean's letter if we don't use them directly?

Thanks,

Click to expand...

1-2 SLORs, at most 1-2 additional. Two total works, three will be ok, do not have more than 4.

As far as the PhD, I would only consider it if they are a very well known person AND they think very highly of you. If its some 'normal' PhD at a 'normal' school, I would be very careful about using that.

If FM will write you a very strong LOR, then I think that is ok. Make absolutly sure they know you intentions of EM and that they are not one of the FM bashers of EM. That can vary; at my particular school we had many. Even though I could have gotten great LORs from FM, I would have been too afraid about what they may have written since they felt FM is the way to go if you want to work in an Emergency Department...

IM/Surgery is just sort of the generic backbones to all. So if you have a good LOR from each of those, then chances are, you are a rather sound candidate.

Do meet early with the PD of the programs you are at, tell them you want to EARN a SLOR during your month with them. Ask them a few questions about the program. When working, show up early, stay late. Tidy all your stuff up. Be avaliable to any residents for additional procedures. Meet/greet with all attendings you see and all other people/staff you run into. Secretaries are important to! At the end of the month, meet again with the PD and hopefully all will be well for a SLOR. Make sure you try to work a 'few shifts' with the PD. This can usually be arranged with whoever is doing you schedules, and should hopefully already be in place as they know that is your real reason for visting..

Good luck and keep my advice in perspective as a new intern.

I feel that as long as you have 1-2 LORs (preferably SLORs, but any from an EM'er), that's enough. The PDs and staff have enough applications to go over, that its hard to read absolutely every sentence in every paragraph in every sheet of paper in an application. Out of four LORs that you can submit, the ones written from EM or SLORs are going to carry the most weight.

That being said, I had one SLOR, one LOR from a community EMer, one trauma surgeon, and one pulmonologist.

Q

vtucci said:

What do you guys think about getting multiple letters and then having them incorporated into the dean's letter and then sending the 2 SLORs and 2 other letters.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I think you may be trying to make this overly complicated. Stick to the "usuals."
Your deans letter will be a compilation of all the third-year clerkship evals...basically all the good stuff. It is almost always glowing so don't fret and don't mix in anything (if your school would even allow this) so that it could be confusing to readers. Again, 4 letters is more than enough. Get one from each of your EM rotations (probably 1-2) and then 1-2 non-EM letter(s).
I actually did 3 EM rotations, therefore got 3 SLOR, and 1 from (gasp-PSYCH!). Really, don't get like 6 letters because no one will read that much. it's quality not quantity.
And on a personal note, a phd letter would not mean anything to me, but maybe it would to a PD (but why use one of your 4 letters on a risky situation?)
just my lowly PGY1 input,
streetdoc

Are you a 3rd year? You're stressing WAY too early if so.
Anyhoo, you will sign a waiver saying that you waive your right to see your letters. So you can't "pick" the best. Get your EM SLOR and then get ONE where you clicked well with your attending/had a meaningful interaction. Doing research with someone will not necessarily speak to your clinical acumen.
hope this is helping,
streetdoc

I will admit one of my letters was copied and mailed to me. It was a surprise (I waived my right) but such a relief to actually KNOW what was said about ME. It only seems fair. If I ever write letters, I will send a copy to the applicant.
streetdoc

vtucci said:

Hello all.

I have seen some previous posts on this subject and just wanted to ask some follow up questions.

For those of us who are third years and preparing to get letters, I understand that it is generally good to get at least 2 SLORs from ED faculty and that it is usually good to sit down at the beginning of a rotation with a faculty member and express our hope for such a letter so they can give us more constructive feedback.

For other letters, I have seen it stated that internal medicine and surgery are good options.

For those of you who have gone through the process or who are on the committees reviewing apps, what do you think about Family Medicine? What about research mentors (I have some quite a bit of work with Infectious Disease faculty)? Is a PhD letter at all useful? How many is too many? OR is there such a thing? Should we accept as many LORs as possible and have them incorporated into our dean's letter if we don't use them directly?

Thanks,

Click to expand...

One of my LOR's was from the FM faculty, I wonder if it's the same one who wrote me one that is offering to write you one. I'm 100% sure it was very strong. I had 4 SLOR's from EM faculty from 3 institutions which was overkill because 2 is all you need, 3 max. None of the 17 places I interviewed at mentioned my non-SLOR from the FM faculty, so my opinion is that nobody pays much attention to it unless it's bad. PhD letters will not help one bit, and you can't send more than 3 SLOR's to each place you apply to via ERAS so there is no point in getting more than that. Listing your research on ERAS and who you worked with on those projects is more that enough because you will definitely be asked about them on your interview.

The Dean's letter from USF has no space for LOR's. It's compiled with information about you from your evaluations from your 3rd year rotations. You'll see that USF does a damn good job at making it very strong. I was surprised by it when I saw it.

Some advice...don't worry about overkilling this process, it's much easier than getting into medical school. Good luck!

I only have 3 LORs, all from EM physicians from Hospitals with residency programs + Dean's letter. Is it bad not to be diversified, i.e. lors from IM, FM, Surg.? Thanks.

It's not bad to not be diversified - we don't really care about the other folks. If they're great leters then fine, otherwise it's not too improtant. In contrast to what previous posters have said, you can go up to 4 SLORS if they're good.