Bad LOR advice???

[jfanman]

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I just wanted some other students opinions about a bad LOR they received from a faculty member. I did a month of neurology at my home school and worked my ass off with the clerkship director and hoped that I would get a great letter from him. But anyway, long story short, I only received a mediocre letter and to top it off, there ARE grammatical mistakes in it!!

Anybody have any advice for me? I only worked with two attendings during my month there but mostly worked with the clerkship director because I had really hoped to get a great letter from him. Should I approach him about the letter? Or just move on and try to get a letter from the 2nd attending that I did not have as much interaction with? Thanks for any input or suggestions.

 

[GopherBrain]

You are in a tough spot. There isn't really a good solution.

Who are your other letters going to be from? This makes some difference.

If it was me, I would go for the combo approach. First, I would talk to the course director about his letter. Do you have a neurology advisor? See what he thinks. It might be easier to say "I was discussing my letters with my advisor... He mentioned that I may want to talk to you about some minor revisions to stengthen it" than "Your letter sucks, didn't you take high school english?"

At the same time, I would ask the other guy for a letter. If you get two good letters - super - use them both. At the very least, you could pick the best one (although don't assume that you are qualified to judge, there is a bit below the surface in these things... It may be a good job for your advisor.)

 

[jessimai1]

I'm confused, or naive. How did you end up seeing the lor? I thought the best idea was to waive the right to see the letter,or is this an urban legend?

 

[GopherBrain]

No, you definitely should waive the right. However, the writers can choose to give you a copy anyhow. This is a personal preference thing on the part of the writers. If they offer it to you, only a fool would say no.

 

[swedcrip]

No, you definitely should waive the right. However, the writers can choose to give you a copy anyhow. This is a personal preference thing on the part of the writers. If they offer it to you, only a fool would say no.

what are you trying to say

signed,
someone who said no 🙂

 

[GopherBrain]

what are you trying to say

signed,
someone who said no 🙂

Fool!

Actually, I didn't read any of my letters either. I knew the faculty well, and I took it on faith that they would do a good job.

However, if someone had slipped me a copy "for my file" I think I would have taken it. 🙂

 

[swedcrip]

Fool!

Actually, I didn't read any of my letters either. I knew the faculty well, and I took it on faith that they would do a good job.

However, if someone had slipped me a copy "for my file" I think I would have taken it. 🙂

i was shown it and read it but when asked if I wanted a copy said no 🙂

anyways Student Affairs has it on file

 

[TruTrooper]

i was shown it and read it but when asked if I wanted a copy said no 🙂

anyways Student Affairs has it on file

I am kind of upset because one of my Attending kept pushing asking me if I wanted the letter and I told him I wanted him to mail it to Student Affairs once I received the letter. I even stated that I belive programs look more favorably on unseen letters but he kept suggesting that I could take it myself until I felt pressured to take it and before he printed off my copy, he started typing for a few seconds and once I read the letter, I was so disappointed to see that he noted that I waived the right to see the letter.

I am still wondering why would he do that when I specifically told him that I would rather not see the letter. I thought he just wanted to show what a great letter he had written for me, off the record.

Word to the wise: Never ask to see the letter. Don't even touch it!

 

[medlaw06]

Word to the wise: Never ask to see the letter. Don't even touch it!

what if they ASK you to see it, or make you pick it up. for example, the ED doc I got a letter from emailed me and said to come and pick up the letter. when i came there, he had the letter in his briefcase and just handed it to me. i picked it up and (naturally) read it (it wasn't in a enclosed envelope or anything). he even asked me if i wanted a copy, so i guessed he didn't care if i read it.

so, then did i waive my right or not? but since he gave it to me, and i dropped it off to the student affairs' office, will the office automatically waive my right or no?

now, i am getting a little nervous!!

 

[moya moya]

what if they ASK you to see it, or make you pick it up. for example, the ED doc I got a letter from emailed me and said to come and pick up the letter. when i came there, he had the letter in his briefcase and just handed it to me. i picked it up and (naturally) read it (it wasn't in a enclosed envelope or anything). he even asked me if i wanted a copy, so i guessed he didn't care if i read it.

so, then did i waive my right or not? but since he gave it to me, and i dropped it off to the student affairs' office, will the office automatically waive my right or no?

now, i am getting a little nervous!!

I've been reading this thread and now I'm confused too! I thought that we send the sealed & signed LORs directly to CAS ourselves. Therefore, we have to "touch" the letters. I don't understand why many people are saying don't even touch the letters, how is it possible not to pick up the letters from our letter writers when we're the ones responsible for getting them to CAS? What I've been doing is having my letter writers make two signed & sealed copies; one goes to my school and the other one I'm keeping to send to CAS when I'm done with the entire CAS packet. Is this the wrong approach? Someone please help! It's getting way too close to application time for me to still be confused about this.

 

[ihateschool]

Hey Moya, I believe that the way you are doing it is the right way...i'm doing the same thing, getting two sealed enveloped letters from docs...one goes to my student affairs, the other to CAS in the big ass packet that we need to send out pretty soon here...so rest assured.

Good luck with the match, and lets get this freakin headache overwith...oh yeah one more question, do we ever stop having to to be judged by superiors/elders?

PEACE...and oh yeah, people go out and have some fun...its Saturday for Gods sake, the spinothalamic tract will be waiting for ya in the morning 😛

 

[syrinx]

People seem a bit confused about the SFMatch LOR thing. Don't worry, I was a bit anxious too when I went through this last year. In case anyone else is still confused, here it what you need to do.

The SFMatch and NRMP are completely separate. A big pain in the ass but this is the way it is.

Ask your letter writers to print out two signed copies and enclose them in separate envelopes. Ask them to sign the the back of the envelope so that they remain confidential. One letter goes to your student affairs office (i.e. for the NRMP) and the other goes DIRECTLY to you. Try not to have both letters sent to student affairs with the idea that they will save one for you. In fact, at my school the secretary reflexively tears them open so they know who it is from and who it is for. You are kinda of screwed since the SFMatch needs these letters in their official envelope.

So what if you want to send in more letters than is allowed by SFMatch or a letter way past the deadline. I had the problem of an "extra letter" when I applied. Here is how I got around this. I had my letter writer email the coordinator (only at my top programs) a MS Word doc done on his institutions official Word template and asked to be added to my file. At every interview, I saw his letter in my file and everyone read it. No one cared that I had an "extra" letter.

You have many letters and can't choose which ones to send? I think the age old advise that letters from people who know you better are more meaningful than shallow letters from big wigs is generally true. That being said, neurology, especially academic neurology, is a very small and tight community. Speaking from my experience, the name of the letter writer carried a lot of weight. It was pretty common to be asked during my interview "Oh I see Dr. so and so wrote a letter on your behalf....how is he doing these days....he was my chief resident at MGH...."

 

[TruTrooper]

I've been reading this thread and now I'm confused too! I thought that we send the sealed & signed LORs directly to CAS ourselves. Therefore, we have to "touch" the letters. I don't understand why many people are saying don't even touch the letters, how is it possible not to pick up the letters from our letter writers when we're the ones responsible for getting them to CAS? What I've been doing is having my letter writers make two signed & sealed copies; one goes to my school and the other one I'm keeping to send to CAS when I'm done with the entire CAS packet. Is this the wrong approach? Someone please help! It's getting way too close to application time for me to still be confused about this.

Sorry for the confusion. Touch the envelope that the letter is in but not the letter. In other words, just explain that you feel the letter would carry more weight if you declined viewing the letter.