Any advice on additional LOR for Neuro app?

[hiiiiiiiiiii]

Hi all, I am currently an M4 who is applying to neurology this cycle and am seeking advice on my LORs. Currently, I have 3 confirmed LOR writers. Of these 3, one is from an IM doc who I have known since M1 and have a close relationship with and is known to be an excellent LOR writer. Another is from a neurologist who I had as a facilitator in small group learning for the entirety of M2 and then for a week and a half during M3 clerkship who likes me very much and offered to write a letter without prompting. The last is not technically a neurologist but a "famous" neurodevelopmental pediatrician who I have known since undergrad and have published 5-6 papers with and am very close with both professionally and personally.

With all that said, I was a little concerned that I technically only have 1 letter from a neurologist. But, on the flip side, because all of my other three will be very very strong, I was concerned that trying to get another neurologist to write a fourth letter would water down the others since I do not really have another mentor-mentee relationship that is on the same level as these.

What do you guys think I should do? I was also wondering, might the neurodevelopmental pediatrician be looked at similar to a neurologist given that all her clinical work is very neuro focused, as is our research together?

Thank you!!

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[mrbreakfast]

Would recommend three, if not four, letters from neurologists, as many of your fellow applicants will have that; however, it's up to you. If you don't have a good relationship with another neurologist at your program, the good news is you have ~6 weeks to develop one, particularly during your sub-I.

 

[hiiiiiiiiiii]

Would recommend three, if not four, letters from neurologists, as many of your fellow applicants will have that; however, it's up to you. If you don't have a good relationship with another neurologist at your program, the good news is you have ~6 weeks to develop one, particularly during your sub-I.

Thanks a lot for the response! I have decent relationships with some other neurologists at my program, just none that I really feel certain about like the other writers. I guess I'll start trying to feel them out a little better and ask 1-2 over the next couple weeks

 

[kazill]

Would recommend three, if not four, letters from neurologists, as many of your fellow applicants will have that; however, it's up to you. If you don't have a good relationship with another neurologist at your program, the good news is you have ~6 weeks to develop one, particularly during your sub-I.

Counterpoint: this twitter thread has some PDs/APDs saying it's not imperative or even particularly common to have only letters from neurologists and they prefer letters that are from writers who know you. I'd say OP is in a fine position.

Full disclosure: I will probably only have one letter from a neurologist when I apply so this is me rationalizing that reality.

 

[hiiiiiiiiiii]

Counterpoint: this twitter thread has some PDs/APDs saying it's not imperative or even particularly common to have only letters from neurologists and they prefer letters that are from writers who know you. I'd say OP is in a fine position.

Full disclosure: I will probably only have one letter from a neurologist when I apply so this is me rationalizing that reality.

Good to hear from a fellow applicant! For transparency, I ended up asking one more neurologist today who said she'd be happy to write one. I decided to ask her because we have a pretty decent relationship and she used to work at my number 1 program earlier in her career; I'm hoping her name might still carry some weight there. That'll bring me to 2 neurologists which is where I think I'm going to stay

But after looking up a bunch of programs it does seem that many programs don't have a preference, as long as you have one neurologist and 1-2 others from physicians who know you well, irrespective of specialty. There were a few that I want to apply to though that seemed to prefer >/=2 neurologists but these were in the minority

 

[NotAProgDirector]

For neurology, 1-2 neuro letters is fine. And the pedi neurodev writer would "count" as a neuro letter. My only concern is that you mention that this person has a personal relationship with you. I'm not a fan of family friends writing letters.

 

[hiiiiiiiiiii]

For neurology, 1-2 neuro letters is fine. And the pedi neurodev writer would "count" as a neuro letter. My only concern is that you mention that this person has a personal relationship with you. I'm not a fan of family friends writing letters.

Thanks @NotAProgDirector !! I especially appreciate your response regarding the neurodev specialist. I meant personal in that we have become close over the years through our extensive work together, travelling for conferences and whatnot, and we feel comfortable talking about things not related to work/medicine. For instance they've met my wife, I've met their fam, etc. My job title at one point was "personal assistant" so its kind of hard not too haha. I come from a blue-collard family with minimal education so they've sort of been like a "parent" to me in guiding me through the maze of medical education. They're basically just like a long-term colleague (more like boss in this case) that you get to know well just from working together for so long.