Chair Letters

[rdm]

Good evening, everyone. I am in the process of putting my LOR's on ERAS. However, I have a question. Will automatically say if a Chair letter is required? or Do I have to find that out for every single program I want to apply to?

Thanks!

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[NoodleIncident]

No, it will not say if a chair's letter is automatically required. I suggest going to each program's individual website. Of the programs on my list, I have yet to find one requiring a chair's letter (for anesthesia at least). One of my prelim medicine's requires a chair's letter.

 

[chicamedica]

can an anesthesia chair letter count as one of the LORs?

 

[ThinkFast007]

just wondering...could those of you that have found programs that necessitate chair letters PLEASE post those programs. I've yet to find one, if I do, I shall post them


thanks

 

[NoodleIncident]

Yes, an anesthesia chair letter can count as a LOR.

 

[Zeffer]

Yes chair letters count as a LOR. They are also very important for any academic program. I did not interview at a single academic program where my chair letter was not commented on. If you are gunning for an academic program you really need this letter to keep on equal footing with the other applicants. If you don't have a strong chair for a letter then an away rotation will be very beneficial (unless you are a terrible student).

 

[chicamedica]

If i have a chair letter, do i still need a letter from another anesthesia attending from my rotation? I have 2 other letters from IM attendings from my research work.

 

[Zeffer]

If i have a chair letter, do i still need a letter from another anesthesia attending from my rotation? I have 2 other letters from IM attendings from my research work.

This is program dependant. Some programs require 2 letters from anesthesia and one from elsewhere. If you are able to get a good letter out of your current anesthesia attending you should. That way you base is covered. Some people I applied with sent four letters to every program, 2 Anesthesia, and 2 from elsewhere and let those programs pick the letters they wanted to use. Hope this was helpful.

 

[chicamedica]

This is program dependant. Some programs require 2 letters from anesthesia and one from elsewhere. If you are able to get a good letter out of your current anesthesia attending you should. That way you base is covered. Some people I applied with sent four letters to every program, 2 Anesthesia, and 2 from elsewhere and let those programs pick the letters they wanted to use. Hope this was helpful.

Yes actually very helpful. My original plan was to do this, but the way my anes rotation works is, every day I work with someone different. There are 2 possible attendings I can ask for a letter.

One is my advisor, with whom i've only worked on one occasion during the past 2 weeks and once about 1.5 years ago during MS3 (which he didn't remember). But he will be getting the evals from all the people I worked with over the past 2 weeks (I think).

The other attending I haven't worked with at all yet since he's at another site, but I will be at that site the next 2 weeks, and I will be working one-on-one with him tomorrow (Saturday) the whole day. He offered to write an LOR for whoever volunteered to work with him this Saturday, and he'd prob write a nice letter, but prob is, since he loves students so much, a lot of ppl ask him for letters. And since he doesnt' know me that well, I'm concerned that it'll just be one of his extremely nice, gushing "form" letters. Also, it just feels more that he'll be writing this letter in exchange for my coming in, since he promised this in advance. This makes me think that this letter might not be as strong as it would be from someone who writes one because they are really impressed with me.

Any advice?

 

[Zeffer]

Yes actually very helpful. My original plan was to do this, but the way my anes rotation works is, every day I work with someone different. There are 2 possible attendings I can ask for a letter.

One is my advisor, with whom i've only worked on one occasion during the past 2 weeks and once about 1.5 years ago during MS3 (which he didn't remember). But he will be getting the evals from all the people I worked with over the past 2 weeks (I think).

The other attending I haven't worked with at all yet since he's at another site, but I will be at that site the next 2 weeks, and I will be working one-on-one with him tomorrow (Saturday) the whole day. He offered to write an LOR for whoever volunteered to work with him this Saturday, and he'd prob write a nice letter, but prob is, since he loves students so much, a lot of ppl ask him for letters. And since he doesnt' know me that well, I'm concerned that it'll just be one of his extremely nice, gushing "form" letters. Also, it just feels more that he'll be writing this letter in exchange for my coming in, since he promised this in advance. This makes me think that this letter might not be as strong as it would be from someone who writes one because they are really impressed with me.

Any advice?

I would hit up your advisor. Even though you have not worked with him much he should be familiar with everything about your professional and public life. This info should give your advisor enough info to write a great letter about you. In all honesty I never spent a minute in the O.R. with my advisor, but he knew me very well, received feedback from the anesthesia docs I did work with, and saw the results of my research. He felt very comfortable writing me a killer letter because he knew me (and not in the biblical sense).

However if you do not feel your advisor would write you a great letter and time gets desperate then take the other letter.

Also you should schedule occasional meetings with an advisor to discuss the programs you are applying to and interviewed at, hone your interview skills if you feel they need it, and just chew the fat.

This is the time the rubber really hits the road for your advisor. If you feel they are not cutting it for you then find someone else, but do it soon.

 

[chicamedica]

I would hit up your advisor. Even though you have not worked with him much he should be familiar with everything about your professional and public life. This info should give your advisor enough info to write a great letter about you. In all honesty I never spent a minute in the O.R. with my advisor, but he knew me very well, received feedback from the anesthesia docs I did work with, and saw the results of my research. He felt very comfortable writing me a killer letter because he knew me (and not in the biblical sense).

However if you do not feel your advisor would write you a great letter and time gets desperate then take the other letter.

Also you should schedule occasional meetings with an advisor to discuss the programs you are applying to and interviewed at, hone your interview skills if you feel they need it, and just chew the fat.

This is the time the rubber really hits the road for your advisor. If you feel they are not cutting it for you then find someone else, but do it soon.

Well as far as that goes, I honesty dont really need that much advice from him. I find out everything i need to know here. He told me himself at my last meeting, that i dont really need him. There isn't much that he could tell me that i didn't already know. Also, this other attending, i also met with for advice, even though he's not by "official" advisor. I just don't want him to write a "form" letter that he has written for like 10 other people applying this year.