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[Neopolymath]

It is not strictly required by any means. A strong letter is a strong letter. Research productivity is important to clear that hurdle. These things are more important than a sub-i grade. Many people don't do their sub-I until later in the season or after matching, particularly radiology folks.

 

[collegestud2013]

Planning on applying radiology this cycle. I am currently lacking any research and figure it will be more worthwhile to do my required research electives this summer and hopefully produce something to put on applications rather than take my medicine subI (which I could delay to October). However, I am not sure if a sub I grade on my transcript is necessary for prelim/transitional years and or radiology programs? I received honors in medicine and have 2 attendings that can write letters of recommendation from that rotation, so I don't need a LOR from the sub-I. My concern in doing it is that if I don't get honors it will only hurt my app and negate the honors I got in the core clerkship (which was the lowest in terms of % students getting honors at my school). My concern in not doing it is if attendings inherently write stronger letters for sub-I students as an unwritten rule (like how most people get honors in sub-I), am I shooting myself in the foot by not getting one?

Not necessary as long as you can strong LORs for IM or Surgery. Not only do you need them to apply for your IM/Surgery/TY prelim year, most but radiology programs consider these "clinical" letters more closely than LORs from a radiology rotation. The assumption here is that most radiology rotations as a med student involves largely shadowing and without much true responsibilities (for example, no radiology department will allow med students to dictate reports for their images), so it's hard to separate applicants based on radiology rotations. Usually most med students are much more involved in their IM or Surgery rotations (either 3rd year or as a sub-I) so these tend to get looked at more closely even though they may appear much less relevant for someone going into radiology.

 

[collegestud2013]

If for whatever reason one of the IM letters were to fall through, would it still be reasonable to apply to radiology residency with 1 DR rotation, 1 medicine rotation, and 1 DR research letter? Or do programs prefer research letters only be used in the optional 4th spot (when available)

Reasonable but would try to get a strong 4th LOR if possible (either another IM/Surgery or radiology). The strength of the letters and rest of your app will probably matter much more since radiology has been quite competitive the past few cycles.