Letter of rec question for anesthesia

[jamba1984]

I had a question about letter of recs for anesthesia.

I have 2 letters from anesthesia faculty (one from chairman, other from head of critical care).

I also have one solid letter from a medicine doctor.

I have also got two other letters from which I need to choose one.

1. Pediatrics letter (I feel this one may be stronger) plus would show my ability to work with pediatric populations and their parents
or
2. Another critical care anesthesiologist (may be similiar to other critical care doctor letter)

Which would be better to use (3 anesthesia letters + medicine) or (2 anesthesia, medicine and peds letter)

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[Jeff05]

i would go with 2 anes, one medicine, and one peds.

I had a question about letter of recs for anesthesia.

I have 2 letters from anesthesia faculty (one from chairman, other from head of critical care).

I also have one solid letter from a medicine doctor.

I have also got two other letters from which I need to choose one.

1. Pediatrics letter (I feel this one may be stronger) plus would show my ability to work with pediatric populations and their parents
or
2. Another critical care anesthesiologist (may be similiar to other critical care doctor letter)

Which would be better to use (3 anesthesia letters + medicine) or (2 anesthesia, medicine and peds letter)

 

[fakin' the funk]

2 anesthesiology, 1 medicine, and 1 "doesn't matter" since those first 2 will probably form >90% of the "LOR" portion of their pre-interview and post-interview assessment of you. Some places only want 3 LORs anyway. See if your 3rd anesthesia letter-writer, or the peds peep, did any training at any of your target institutions and go from there.

 

[UTKB]

I agree with fakin'. Mix it up a bit if you want to send four. That is too many anyway, most places only want three. Good luck, interviewing was so fun.

 

[RussianJoo]

so if places only want three but you send them 4 can you at least ask them which ones you want them to read? for example, my 4 letters are from: Vice Chair of Medicine, Chair of Medical ICU (IM dude not anesthesia) Vice Chair of Surgery, and Chair of Anesthesia. Obviosly I would want the programs to read my Anesthesia letter, however, this will be the last letter to be scanned since it was just sent out to ERAS today. If programs only read 3 letters they'll obviously just read the first 3 that arrive, should I email the programs asking them to read only two of the three that arrive and then read the anesthesia letter? or will they see that one is from an anesthesia chair and will wait to read that letter?

 

[UTKB]

Not sure. If they get to your file after the letter was scanned in and added to your file they'll probably read whatever is in there. I doubt they will only download three letters if four are uploaded. But if they go over your file before that letter was added they may never see it. Not sure how many times they go through your file, but because they have hundreds to go through, my guess would be once. Don't worry about it, I'm sure the letters you have will be fine. It's not worth emailing program directors about this.

 

[UTKB]

If, however, you don't get an interview from a program you're really interested in, then it's worth a shot emailing and asking them to reconsider, pointing out your anesthesia letter, maybe your Step 2 score if it was good.

I have a buddy who got rejected from a few IM programs, and after emailing asking them to reconsider he was granted interviews to two places (out of 4-5 emails he sent out). One of those were among his top ranked and he matched there.

 

[fakin' the funk]

so if places only want three but you send them 4 can you at least ask them which ones you want them to read? for example, my 4 letters are from: Vice Chair of Medicine, Chair of Medical ICU (IM dude not anesthesia) Vice Chair of Surgery, and Chair of Anesthesia. Obviosly I would want the programs to read my Anesthesia letter, however, this will be the last letter to be scanned since it was just sent out to ERAS today. If programs only read 3 letters they'll obviously just read the first 3 that arrive, should I email the programs asking them to read only two of the three that arrive and then read the anesthesia letter? or will they see that one is from an anesthesia chair and will wait to read that letter?

The answer to the bolded question is NO. Programs will probably prioritize letters as they see fit - most likely starting with the anesthesia letter. If I was you I'd do anesthesia, surgery, medicine.
(This of course assumes that they are all equally glowing and personally tailored)

 

[guitarguy09]

in your situation, it almost sounds like you've already decided. send the peds letter... it will be a good mix...

 

[RussianJoo]

thanks UTKB and Fakin' the funk.

 

[jamba1984]

Thanks for the responses, much appreciated. I sent the peds one to most places, a few I sent the second ICU one.