De-assigning a letter -- is this ok?

ajordan361 · Sep 17, 2008

I recently de-assign a letter of recommendation after it was downloaded and replaced t with a more strong letter. My original letter was good but the one I replaced it with was fantastic -- this won't hurt my application will it? I should add that I not did waive my right to these letters.
Thanks

ranmyaku · Sep 17, 2008

ajordan361 said:
I recently de-assign a letter of recommendation after it was downloaded and replaced t with a more strong letter. My original letter was good but the one I replaced it with was fantastic -- this won't hurt my application will it? I should add that I not did waive my right to these letters.
Thanks

If you did not waive your right then I think by de-assigning the letter it makes it painfully obvious that you are picking and choosing your letters.

ajordan361 · Sep 18, 2008

Now I only had the previous letter up for one day on ERAS before it was deassigned, and only 3 of the 20 programs downloaded the old letter -- will the rest of the programs only receive my updated letters versus my previous letter along with the new one?
Thanks

Winged Scapula · Sep 18, 2008

I think not waiving your rights to see the letters hurts you much more than deassigning a letter which 3 programs got.

ajordan361 · Sep 18, 2008

I agree, however 3 of my 4 letters I did waive my right -- just wondering as to whether the new programs will see my old letter versus the new one.

SoCuteMD · Sep 18, 2008

Oddly enough, a program director told me that although he's not SUPPOSED to be able to see letters once they'e been de-assigned, he still can. That being said, replace it with the stronger letter. Is the stronger letter the non-waived one?

ajordan361 · Sep 18, 2008

Letter replacing it is a stronger letter that is non-waived -- MD told me that it was very strong. Just wanted to make sure that it would not look bad...

NotAProgDirector · Sep 18, 2008

SoCuteMD said:
Oddly enough, a program director told me that although he's not SUPPOSED to be able to see letters once they'e been de-assigned, he still can. That being said, replace it with the stronger letter. Is the stronger letter the non-waived one?

This is not an ERAS error. If the letter is downloaded, and then you de-assign it, I still get to keep it. You can't "undo" your letters in your application.

To the OP:

The 3 programs that already downloaded the letter will see both -- the letter you de-assigned (marked "Inactive") and the new letter.

The 17 programs that hadn't yet downloaded the letter will only see the new letter, or so I believe.

Does this look bad? Hard to tell. Most programs will probably not care. More competitive programs might care.

Does not waiving your right matter? Also hard to tell. My personal feeling is that it won't matter much. Most LOR writers write the same letter no matter what. All letters (at least in IM) say that people are wonderful anyway. Again, in other more competitive fields it might be more important.

N-Surge · Sep 22, 2008

An aside... One could use this de-assigning to drop more than 4 letters in a programs lap, assuming that the program has already dl'd the letters. This could be intentional or not. I'd be careful, especially if any of your programs have a requested limit of 4.

logistic · Sep 23, 2008

From the ERAS website:
"If you wish to assign another document in its place, then the program will download both documents. However, the new document will overwrite the old document."

This should explain that even though I deassigned a letter even before a program downloaded it, they downloaded it anyway (so when I go to track applications, I am shown that the program has indeed downloaded it, although they shouldn't be able to see it).

De-assigning a letter -- is this ok?

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