In a bind with LORs

[Seces]

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I'm a 4th year with a late interest in psych, and I'm kicking myself for not being more proactive on this.

Everything has been going well up to this point: good grades, step scores, evals, ECs ect. My adviser told me that I need 4 LORs, but I only have one lined up as of now (psychiatrist). I only have 2 more rotations left before LORs are due (internal med elective and psych elective). I've emailed a couple of attendings who gave me solid evals during core clerkships, but they haven't responded.

What do I need to do to get 2-3 LORs in within the next 2 months? I've had great evals almost across the board, but we work mostly with residents, so my options are drying up quickly. I figured that a good week with an attending would be enough for an LOR. One of them wrote a glowing eval, remarking that I was well ahead of other students, but no reply. I didn't know that I needed to be spending Saturday mornings teeing off on an 18-hole with these attendings to get an LOR. Getting pretty nervous about this.

 

[ACSurgeon]

I'm a 4th year with a late interest in psych, and I'm kicking myself for not being more proactive on this.

Everything has been going well up to this point: good grades, step scores, evals, ECs ect. My adviser told me that I need 4 LORs, but I only have one lined up as of now (psychiatrist). I only have 2 more rotations left before LORs are due (internal med elective and psych elective). I've emailed a couple of attendings who gave me solid evals during core clerkships, but they haven't responded.

What do I need to do to get 2-3 LORs in within the next 2 months? I've had great evals almost across the board, but we work mostly with residents, so my options are drying up quickly. I figured that a good week with an attending would be enough for an LOR. One of them wrote a glowing eval, remarking that I was well ahead of other students, but no reply. I didn't know that I needed to be spending Saturday mornings teeing off on an 18-hole with these attendings to get an LOR. Getting pretty nervous about this.

How did you reach out to these attendings? If you emailed them directly, you might have better luck by emailing their administrative assistant instead and ask to set up a meeting. I would imagine academic physicians end up with students on their schedule without really knowing why, and once you’re there talk to them about the LOR and ask if they’re willing to write a strong letter, and what they need to write such a letter (personal statement, CV etc).

Other options would be to go to grand rounds and try to “run into them”.

Also, ow many of the 4 letters have to be psych? People usually get letters from fourth year rotations... so, you could get letters from this month and next, even if not all written by psychiatrists.

Finally, reach out to student affairs for guidance to make sure you don’t miss deadlines or apply too late.

 

[Seces]

How did you reach out to these attendings? If you emailed them directly, you might have better luck by emailing their administrative assistant instead and ask to set up a meeting. I would imagine academic physicians end up with students on their schedule without really knowing why, and once you’re there talk to them about the LOR and ask if they’re willing to write a strong letter, and what they need to write such a letter (personal statement, CV etc).

Other options would be to go to grand rounds and try to “run into them”.

Also, ow many of the 4 letters have to be psych? People usually get letters from fourth year rotations... so, you could get letters from this month and next, even if not all written by psychiatrists.

Finally, reach out to student affairs for guidance to make sure you don’t miss deadlines or apply too late.

I emailed them directly. I think it probably would be best to get some face time. I need 1 more psych letter and preferably 2 non-psych letters, so I guess I'll have to bank on getting those the next two rotations. A bit stressful, but I guess that's the name of the game.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Email the psychiatrists' assistants as mentioned above. Even as a resident if I got a cold e-mail from a medical student I'd be unlikely to respond immediately to it.

 

[Crayola227]

Yes, myself, like most medical graduates I know, had to play at least 9 holes of golf to get our LORs.