Dean and Department Chair are the same person... Letters?

[ashik33]

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I'm applying to IM. A lot of programs ask for Department Chair's LOR. The dean of my medical school himself is the Chair of Internal Medicine. What to do in this condition? Should I have a separate Dean's letter (MSPE) and LOR written by the same person? Do I ask another professor to write the LOR? Or a single letter would suffice? Thanks.

 

[Dral]

The Dean's letter isn't exactly what you think. It's more of a 'story form' of your med school career with a few (hopefully) glowing comments thrown in. If you read yours you'll understand...it almost reads in a formulaic sort of way...at least ones from my school did.

Thus it isn't odd to have both from the same person.

 

[gutonc]

The MSPE (Dean's Letter) isn't really a LOR and is rarely actually written by the Dean. Get the Chief's letter and let the MSPE play out however it does at your school. My school had 8 or 10 faculty (mostly Dept. Chairs/Division Chiefs/Residency PDs/aPDs) that students were assigned to to do their MSPE. Yours will likely do something similar.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

The Department (or Chair) letter is rarely written by the chair either. It's usually another standardized letter written by someone in the department. In any case, just ask for both. It's not a problem.

 

[ashik33]

Thanks to you all.