advice needed
Started by eyeball01
if they are strong letters then I suspect it wont be a problem...others may disagree....but if they are strong (and even bigger if they are from big-wigs) then I would go with those over luke-warm letters from non-peds ophtho people
Not a disadvantage if they are strong letters. That said, your application would be more well rounded if you had letters from other fields. Is your research, extracurriculars, etc. all in peds? If so, I would recommend you broaden your experience to demonstrate your skills and abilities in more than one area.
Not that it would necessarily be problematic, but I would try and avoid making all 3 letters be from ophthalmologists. I had 2 from ophthalmologists and one from my PhD advisor. If I hadn't had the latter, I would have gone with med or surg.
Visionary, for MD/PhD's, do you recommend having four letters (2 ophtho, 1 medicine, and the PhD advisor letter sent separately)? I don't want my application to seem "incomplete" by leaving out a medicine letter, but I definitely need to include a PhD advisor letter.
The key is getting strong letters. Your dissertation advisor will probably know you better than anyone, so that's a must have. Like I said, I went with two ophthalmology letters, in addition, but you could make one of the ophthalmology letters supplemental. If you expect solid letters from both ophthalmologists, that would potentially help more, as the programs are unlikely to know a medicine doc. Doors can be opened with connections, and ophthalmology is a small community.
three strong letters, especially with two from ophthalmologists, are excellent. the fact that you want to go into peds ophtho is also helpful, but certainly wouldn't hurt you. good luck.
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