Did anyone NOT use a chairman's letter at some programs?

[Blesbok]

I have a chair's letter plus quite a few other letters and was wondering if I should use a chair's letter at all programs or just those that ask for it. The chair's letter is a superficial letter, but it has a really big name in the field behind it.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[northtexdoc2010]

I didn't ask my chair for a letter at all. I asked 2 people that basically offered me a letter without my asking and 1 that I worked one-on-one with for over 2 months and knew would give me a good letter.

 

[AttyHubby]

I didn't ask my chair for a letter at all. I asked 2 people that basically offered me a letter without my asking and 1 that I worked one-on-one with for over 2 months and knew would give me a good letter.

I assume the OP is talking about the required chair's letter for a lot of/most IM programs, not just getting a normal letter from your dept chair.

To the OP: For the programs you're positive don't want a chair's letter, I don't see any reason to include it. They basically say the same thing your MSPE says anyway, so if your chair didn't include any personal touches it shouldn't really matter. From what you wrote, I assume the chair barely knows you, so can't really speak personally to your qualifications? If not, then his "big name" won't matter, because the program will know he only wrote the letter because he had to.

If my assumptions are wrong, please feel free to ignore/chastise

 

[wince]

well what about for the specialty you're applying to? if i'm applying to radiology but i don't have a letter from the chair of radiology at my home program, is this a red flag? i have one from the program director.

 

[Mental Gymnast]

I assume the OP is talking about the required chair's letter for a lot of/most IM programs, not just getting a normal letter from your dept chair.

To the OP: For the programs you're positive don't want a chair's letter, I don't see any reason to include it. They basically say the same thing your MSPE says anyway, so if your chair didn't include any personal touches it shouldn't really matter. From what you wrote, I assume the chair barely knows you, so can't really speak personally to your qualifications? If not, then his "big name" won't matter, because the program will know he only wrote the letter because he had to.

If my assumptions are wrong, please feel free to ignore/chastise

AttyHubby,

With all due respect, this is definitely incorrect. The MSPE is NOT the same thing as your chair/dept letter. The MSPE includes a breakdown of your performance on ALL clerkships, performance in preclinical years, class ranking, extracurricular activities, research, etc. On the other hand, the dept letter is usually written by someone in the department that knows you well and discusses your performance mostly IN THAT FIELD. It is usually based on your performance on a single clerkship and/or sub-internship. Depending on your school, it varies in how personal or generic it is. At our school, it is written by an attending who knows you well, and is co-signed by the clerkship director, residency director, and chair of medicine - and is therefore not only very personal and descriptive, but carries a lot of heavyweight names on it. In this setting, I highly recommend including it in your application to even programs that do not explicitly require it.

good luck to all!

 

[Frugal Traveler]

I have a chair's letter plus quite a few other letters and was wondering if I should use a chair's letter at all programs or just those that ask for it. The chair's letter is a superficial letter, but it has a really big name in the field behind it.

The Chair's letter is not superficial if your school does it correctly. It basically gives a global view of your performance in medicine rotations you took at your school. Most IM programs (all the ones I applied to did require it) ask for the CHAIR or DEPARTMENTAL letter... make sure to read the pages carefully of the programs you are applying to... not doing so can result in your application being incomplete and subsequent rejection once the deadline passes.