How many letters?

[Zoom-Zoom]

---

Members don't see this ad.

How many LOR's does one generally need when applying to residencies? Does it depend on the program?

Thanks

 

[BrickHouseMD]

I've always heard you need 3 quality letters.

 

[PenguinHead]

Depends on the program. Usually 3, sometimes 4.

 

[acridknight]

How many LOR's does one generally need when applying to residencies? Does it depend on the program?

Thanks

you're c/o '13 -- aren't residency letters a bit premature for you?

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Gotta plan ahead to know enough people who would be considered writers of "quality" letters.

Exactly. My theory is that LOR's should be easy to ask for. I had one mentor in college who really knew me well and wrote a great one, but my others were most likely just "he did well in my class" type letters.

It occurred to me the other day that little things like this, as far as the match is concerned, could be just as important as the entirety of my pre-clinical academic performance...preparing for the LOR's ahead of time seems logical to me, but I'm sure it might seem like "gunning" to some.

 

[JPmamd09]

Generally the minimum is 3 letters. I'm not sure what the upper limit is, but I've heard more than five is overkill. How many you ultimately submit may depend on what the residency programs asks for. If, for example, the program requires a chairman's letter (ie, the chair of medicine or peds or whatever at your school's hospital, you might submit more than the requisite three. The reason for that is that typically the chair doesn't know you and has written a somewhat generic letter (unless of course you've been lucky enough to do a rotation with him/her). I've heard some people recommend to get at least one letter in the specialty to which you apply (sounds like a no-brainer), and at least one in a different specialty - that way people know you're a genuine hard worker and you're not just gunning during the rotations you like.

Best case scenario you get three to five letters written by faculty who work with you on rotations in the 3rd or early 4th year, know you well from that experience, and can rave about your performance/gave you a good grade with good comments. Some people get letters from faculty with whom they did research during the first two years.

In my opinion (and take it with a grain of salt), the best thing you can do as someone starting med school soon is to work hard and really learn the material in the first two years so you can rock step 1. Work at retaining that knowledge to look like a rockstar on the wards. Work hard now, then work hard in 3rd year, and you shouldn't have much difficulty finding good letter-writers for residency. As far as prioritizing things to worry about, this should be low on the list right now in my opinion. Good luck to you!

 

[ensuii]

Sounds like really awesome advice--thanks! So getting LORs from basic science profs won't be too worthwhile unless they can really really write a good one?

 

[JPmamd09]

Sounds like really awesome advice--thanks! So getting LORs from basic science profs won't be too worthwhile unless they can really really write a good one?

I'd say (at least in my experience/what I've heard) that's a pretty fair statement. Unless you worked one-on-one with the prof doing research, or were like the number 1 student in their class or something like that, I believe it's fairly uncommon to have letters from basic science profs. The caveat might be if you are thinking of making research a significant part of your ultimate career - in that case my suggestion might be to use it as a 4th or 5th letter. What most residency programs are looking for, it seems (there are a few such as aPD who know better than I), are students who perform well on the wards - therefore, a strong letter from clinical faculty who worked with you in 3rd year seems to be the most important (unless of course you can get a chairman's letter from a chair who worked directly with you and thought you were a rockstar - that would rule).

Hope that's helpful (and not too long-winded!).

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

More letters is always better, obviously. On ERAS you can select which letters go to which programs. So it might be advantageous if not altogether necessary to get extra letters. Say if you have a prof/attending who's got strong ties to a particular program then you can substitute a letter. Certainly if you're applying for multiple specialties you'll want letters tailored to each. Another good reason to get extra letters is maybe somebody forgets to write theirs, gets fired, miscellaneous 'just in case' scenarios. Or if you choose not to waive your right to see the letter, you have a better pool from which to pick what to send out.

Bottom line I'd recommend shooting for 5. You won't need more than 3-4 for any one program though. BTW you can also write different personal statements for different programs.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Generally the minimum is 3 letters. I'm not sure what the upper limit is, but I've heard more than five is overkill. How many you ultimately submit may depend on what the residency programs asks for. If, for example, the program requires a chairman's letter (ie, the chair of medicine or peds or whatever at your school's hospital, you might submit more than the requisite three. The reason for that is that typically the chair doesn't know you and has written a somewhat generic letter (unless of course you've been lucky enough to do a rotation with him/her). I've heard some people recommend to get at least one letter in the specialty to which you apply (sounds like a no-brainer), and at least one in a different specialty - that way people know you're a genuine hard worker and you're not just gunning during the rotations you like.

Best case scenario you get three to five letters written by faculty who work with you on rotations in the 3rd or early 4th year, know you well from that experience, and can rave about your performance/gave you a good grade with good comments. Some people get letters from faculty with whom they did research during the first two years.

In my opinion (and take it with a grain of salt), the best thing you can do as someone starting med school soon is to work hard and really learn the material in the first two years so you can rock step 1. Work at retaining that knowledge to look like a rockstar on the wards. Work hard now, then work hard in 3rd year, and you shouldn't have much difficulty finding good letter-writers for residency. As far as prioritizing things to worry about, this should be low on the list right now in my opinion. Good luck to you!

Great advice. Thanks for taking the time 👍

I was cruising some residency sites and noticed that it is pretty frequent for them to request a letter from a dept chair. This seems kind of odd...do you generally end up meeting the chair during rotations?

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

More letters is always better, obviously. On ERAS you can select which letters go to which programs. So it might be advantageous if not altogether necessary to get extra letters. Say if you have a prof/attending who's got strong ties to a particular program then you can substitute a letter. Certainly if you're applying for multiple specialties you'll want letters tailored to each. Another good reason to get extra letters is maybe somebody forgets to write theirs, gets fired, miscellaneous 'just in case' scenarios. Or if you choose not to waive your right to see the letter, you have a better pool from which to pick what to send out.

Bottom line I'd recommend shooting for 5. You won't need more than 3-4 for any one program though. BTW you can also write different personal statements for different programs.

I was wondering if we could do that (send different letters to diff places). Thanks

 

[JPmamd09]

Great advice. Thanks for taking the time 👍

I was cruising some residency sites and noticed that it is pretty frequent for them to request a letter from a dept chair. This seems kind of odd...do you generally end up meeting the chair during rotations?

In my experience it varied from rotation to rotation. In peds we had weekly chairman's rounds, but he didn't really get to know us one-on-one. On surgery, I never met the chair (in fact, I don't know who he/she is). Some of the chairs at my institution will not write a chair letter unless he/she has worked directly with you; others meet with you first and ask you to bring along transcripts/grades/personal statement. It seems that asking for chair letters is just a formality with those programs, but must be done I guess.

When the time comes, your advisor (we picked them during third year) will help you get through the process of procuring letters, including a chair letter.

Hope that helps. Enjoy your summer!

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

I was cruising some residency sites and noticed that it is pretty frequent for them to request a letter from a dept chair. This seems kind of odd...do you generally end up meeting the chair during rotations?

Maybe to a limited extent, maybe not. In general writing these letters is just part of the chair's job. My school's medicine department secretary, for example, would send out an email in July requesting that anyone applying to Medicine contact her to schedule a sit-down with the chair. He'd talk to you, review your record, and if there were no huge red flags would sign his name to what amounts to a form letter.

The ENT department did things differently. Since it's a smaller department you had ample opportunity to have contact with the chair doing just a general ENT sub-I which every ENT applicant does anyway (whereas with medicine you would've had to do a sub-I in rheumatology). He would write you a letter that was just like your other LORs, only with department chair letterhead.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Thanks 👍