Changing specialties and LORs

[SandP]

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Say you are interested in specialty X in the beginning of 4th year and get a LOR for that. Then come August you decide to switch to specialty Y. If you tell the letter writer of X that you are actually going into Y, will he/she get pissed and write you a worse letter for not being commited? Or should I ask the first writer to just write a general letter, not directed toward specialty X?

Edit. Ie using obgyn letter for anesthesia

 

[mrbreakfast]

I think the general advice is that all of your letter writers should be in the specialty into which you are applying. So if you asked an IM doc for a letter but then decided to do OBGYN, for example, you wouldn't use a letter from that IM doc.

Also, based on my experience, letter writers typically write letters at most a few weeks before the deadline regardless of when you asked them.

 

[LyMed]

You can get a general letter, although that works better for primary care residencies. Surgical subspecialities usually only care about letters in their field.

 

[Aurum]

The answer to this question depends entirely on what specialty you initially were planning on and what specialty you've switched to. Certain specialities like to see letters from different specialities in addition to their own. Rads (both DR and IR), anesthesia, pathology, PMR, and some others come to mind as specialities that like to see some IM/surgery/etc letters as part of your package.

As an example, I switched from anesthesia to radiology during August of 4th year. I was planning to apply to anesthesia with 2 IM letters and 2 anesthesia letters. My anesthesia letter writers declined to change their letters for me, whereas my IM letter writers were more than happy to do so.

 

[samac]

I think the general advice is that all of your letter writers should be in the specialty into which you are applying. So if you asked an IM doc for a letter but then decided to do OBGYN, for example, you wouldn't use a letter from that IM doc.

Also, based on my experience, letter writers typically write letters at most a few weeks before the deadline regardless of when you asked them.

Yeah no that’s not quite right I don’t think.
You’d want one letter from your chosen specialty.
Past that:
Using letters from docs that know you well and like you in any specialty>crappy letters from your specialty.

But I’d just be honest from the get go if you’re not solid on a specialty. “Hey doc I’m really interested in OB and IM, I haven’t decided yet. Would you care to write me a letter that could work for either?”

If they’re commenting on how great you are interacting with patients, your impeccable knowledge, easy to get along with, etc it works.

 

[SandP]

Idk if this helps but I am thinking obgyn with anesthesia as a backup if I hate it

 

[differentiating]

Yeah no that’s not quite right I don’t think.
You’d want one letter from your chosen specialty.
Past that:
Using letters from docs that know you well and like you in any specialty>crappy letters from your specialty.

+1

I used mostly letters related to my chosen specialty, but I had one from an unrelated rotation that went really well and the attending liked me. It came up on interviews as a letter that was really positive and spoke to my strengths as a provider. For sure you want a letter from a related sub-I, and other specialties have specific recommendations, but unrelated positive letters can also strengthen an application.