Chair's Letter Questions

[elr1983]

A few questions about this whole chair's letter thing....basically, I have 3 letters of recommendation already in and uploaded to eras from people who are not the chair of the department of pediatrics. Some (not all) of my programs have downloaded these letters. I'd like to submit a 4th letter from my research supervisor, who has known me for a long time, but haven't assigned her letter to any programs yet because she's been out of the country doing field research. I've known her a long time, and she said she'd do it for me. However, 3 programs I'm applying to require a letter from the chair of the dept or clerkship director. One of the letters that's already been downloaded is from the person who directed the clerkship last year, but she's no longer the director. I put her current title, which is assistant professor. My basic question is will her letter suffice for this requirement, since she was the clerkship director when i did the clerkship, or will programs not know who she is because I didn't put "former clerkship director" as her title? She mentioned she was clerkship director in her letter, but I'm worried programs will see that it's not in her title and not recognize that I've filled the requirement. Or, should I get a chair's letter just to put the question to rest? I don't think it'll be that strong a letter, since he doesn't even know me, and i'd rather them see my research letter. Thank you for all suggestions!!!

Oh, and also, I considered putting the "former clerkship director" in her title, but it wouldn't really fit, and 90 percent of the programs i'm applying to didn't require such a letter so I thought they'd think it odd that that's her title. Thanks again, guys!

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[NotAProgDirector]

My basic question is will her letter suffice for this requirement, since she was the clerkship director when i did the clerkship, or will programs not know who she is because I didn't put "former clerkship director" as her title? She mentioned she was clerkship director in her letter

If it's in the letter, I think you'll be fine. They'll read the letter and get the picture.

 

[Law2Doc]

While I defer to aPD, I think if a program specifically asks for a Chairman's letter, it needs to be from the current chairman. You have 4 letters to work with under ERAS. For the programs that haven't downloaded yet, why not just send the chairman's letter, this research letter, your former clerkship director's letter and either one of the two others you have? I don't see the issue.

I still really don't see why programs ever ask for chairman's letters in place of letters from folks who actually know who the students are, though. Seems like PDs are striving to get less info about applicants by doing this, not more. I mean, insisting on a letter from someone in the specialty who has worked with the applicant would provide PDs with an opinion of a colleague who knows the applicant, but a chairman's letter is generally given out to any student who requests one, and is really just a form letter written by someone who may not have ever laid eyes on the student until the letter was requested. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Wardens]

At least according to a chairman at my school, he doesn't trust a letter by anyone he doesn't know (granted this is a small specialty). Everyone knows other chairs, so he lines up all the letters from chairs for applicants from a given school applying to his program and then uses the letter wording to gauge whom the other chairs think is their best applicant. Maybe in smaller specialties the chair letter matters more, but I also never quite understood why a letter from a medicine attending who's mentored me for 4 years was viewed as "useless" by people in my specialty.

 

[elr1983]

I still really don't see why programs ever ask for chairman's letters in place of letters from folks who actually know who the students are, though. Seems like PDs are striving to get less info about applicants by doing this, not more. I mean, insisting on a letter from someone in the specialty who has worked with the applicant would provide PDs with an opinion of a colleague who knows the applicant, but a chairman's letter is generally given out to any student who requests one, and is really just a form letter written by someone who may not have ever laid eyes on the student until the letter was requested. Makes no sense to me.

This is exactly why I'd rather have letter from the people who know me rather than the chair, so if the clerkship director's letter will suffice for this requirement, I'd rather use that.