Chair/Department Letter for IM residency

[Fat_Albert]

I noticed that most programs require three LOR from the physicians you worked with during rotation, but there will be a few, primarily academic programs, requesting 2 LOR + 1 department chair letter. I contacted my school to get this department letter, but I'd imagine it be very generic. I have three strong letters from my attendings. Would programs disregard my application if I don't have the department/chair letter? I read that chair letters from DO schools are useless anyway, but I don't want my application to be filtered out because I didn't meet the minimum requirements of letters.

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[southwestpremed06]

Same boat. Two options here.
Option 1: Send 4 letters (3 strong ones with the 4th being the chair)
Option 2: just send the chair letter to programs that specifically require it and send your better letters to the ones who don't specifically say they do

A lot of program sites are pretty vague (3 LORs, but when you ask them via email to clarify they really want you to include the chair in those 3 LORs), so it's tricky. You can try contacting every program you're applying to and see if they really want the chair letter, but if you don't get responses (my experiences) and want the easy way to deal with this I would go with option 1.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

in general, "Chair" letters from DO schools are worthless. IM Programs do not actually want a letter from the Chair. They want a Department letter. They want this: AAIM Guidelines for Internal Medicine Structured Evaluative Letter - AAIM

No DO program I have seen does anything like this.

 

[Fat_Albert]

Same boat. Two options here.
Option 1: Send 4 letters (3 strong ones with the 4th being the chair)
Option 2: just send the chair letter to programs that specifically require it and send your better letters to the ones who don't specifically say they do

A lot of program sites are pretty vague (3 LORs, but when you ask them via email to clarify they really want you to include the chair in those 3 LORs), so it's tricky. You can try contacting every program you're applying to and see if they really want the chair letter, but if you don't get responses (my experiences) and want the easy way to deal with this I would go with option 1.

Ahhh I see. I wasn't aware of that. I know a few upperclassmen were able to secure plenty of IM interviews without a department letter. It makes me wonder how important it is. But ya, I think I'm leaning towards option 1

 

[Fat_Albert]

in general, "Chair" letters from DO schools are worthless. IM Programs do not actually want a letter from the Chair. They want a Department letter. They want this: AAIM Guidelines for Internal Medicine Structured Evaluative Letter - AAIM

No DO program I have seen does anything like this.

Ya, it doesn't seem like I will be getting a letter that resembles that lol. Despite that, should I still include it with my application?