Fellowship LOR

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CJ1281

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Hi guys,

I am planning on applying to pulm CC this year and was wondering if I needed all 3 LOR to be from pulm CC attendings. There are a few attendings who I've worked with that I feel know me well and could write good letters but they are from different medicine specialties.

Thanks in advance

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Hi guys,

I am planning on applying to pulm CC this year and was wondering if I needed all 3 LOR to be from pulm CC attendings. There are a few attendings who I've worked with that I feel know me well and could write good letters but they are from different medicine specialties.

Thanks in advance
1 is required, 2 is a good idea. They don't all need to be from the sub-specialty.
 
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I'm not PCCM fellowship program leadership, but...

I would think that more than 1 letter from a non-PCCM faculty member would be a big red flag. At most you will have 4 LORs (unless applying to special research track, etc.). 1 will be from you residency PD. The remaining 3 will be from other faculty members. For a specialty like PCCM, where you already have 2 subspecialties to choose from, being able to present at least 2 letters from faculty that know you well within the subspecialties really shouldn't be that hard.

You are applying to do this specialty for the remainder of your career, so presumably you actually spent a significant amount of time working in the subspecialty during residency. This should translate into knowing more than 1 PCCM faculty member well enough to write you a letter. Sure, maybe you know your residency continuity clinic preceptor very well and want to get a letter from them. But if you're applying to PCCM, there's really no reason you should know a cardiologist/gastroenterologist/etc better than PCCM faculty. Just my $0.02.
 
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I used 1 from PD, 1 from director of crit care, 1 from director of pulm, and an extra from a 2nd PCCM attending. Had a reserve from associate PD which I didn't end up using. Some believe that including one from another specialty like cardio, etc will make you appear more well rounded; I didn't go for that approach, but know people who did and matched as well.
 
Hi guys,

I am planning on applying to pulm CC this year and was wondering if I needed all 3 LOR to be from pulm CC attendings. There are a few attendings who I've worked with that I feel know me well and could write good letters but they are from different medicine specialties.

Thanks in advance

Use only ONE form non-PCCM
 
You should have a couple from pulm/cc, pulm, cc because thats what you want to go into. Not all need to be pulm/cc. Having diversified LOR, In my opinion, look good.Having sat in as a fellow assisting with the process, I can tell you that if you can not get someone in your field to write a good letter it looks suspect. Having a well established application with a few pulm/cc stellar letters, average to above average boards, pulm/cc research is always appreciated, and any intangibles (former athlete, military, have patents, lots of volunteer work) is a real good start. If possible audition rotations can also help solidify ones chances.
 
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