Letters of Rec question

[ChipLeader]

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Okay here's the deal: How should one use/assign letters of rec from outside path faculty (i.e. letters that you get from an attending you worked with during an away rotation)? I have two letters from path faculty at my home school, and one from a faculty member at a west coast school that I did an away elective at. ( I also have a letter from a internal med attending I worked with which I could use if I see fit.)

Anyway, I was originally planning to send all three of my path letters to all the programs I'm applying to. It's important to note that I'm applying to programs all over the country and my home school is in the west. However I was talking with one of my classmates today who is applying to surgery and she said that I should not use my away letter for any schools other than the one I rotated at because it would give other schools the impression that I was less interested in coming there versus the school that I rotated at. She is in a similiar situation and was thinking that assigning your away letters to other schools just highlights that you didnt rotate there and are biased towards another program(s). Is this making sense?

I really think this is kinda stupid. I mean I can't rotate at every school that I'm genuinely interested in and it's rediculous that programs would hold our away rotations against us. What do ya'll think? I'm leaning towards keeping things the way I had planned, but I need some back up!

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

Okay here's the deal: How should one use/assign letters of rec from outside path faculty (i.e. letters that you get from an attending you worked with during an away rotation)? I have two letters from path faculty at my home school, and one from a faculty member at a west coast school that I did an away elective at. ( I also have a letter from a internal med attending I worked with which I could use if I see fit.)

Anyway, I was originally planning to send all three of my path letters to all the programs I'm applying to. It's important to note that I'm applying to programs all over the country and my home school is in the west. However I was talking with one of my classmates today who is applying to surgery and she said that I should not use my away letter for any schools other than the one I rotated at because it would give other schools the impression that I was less interested in coming there versus the school that I rotated at. She is in a similiar situation and was thinking that assigning your away letters to other schools just highlights that you didnt rotate there and are biased towards another program(s). Is this making sense?

I really think this is kinda stupid. I mean I can't rotate at every school that I'm genuinely interested in and it's rediculous that programs would hold our away rotations against us. What do ya'll think? I'm leaning towards keeping things the way I had planned, but I need some back up!

I think if the letter from your away elective is good, use it. It may well be different for the surgically inclined, but I think any good letter will suffice for you. I'm sure your letter writer knows that you will be sending it to other programs, too.

Good luck!! 👍

 

[CameronFrye]

Okay here's the deal: How should one use/assign letters of rec from outside path faculty (i.e. letters that you get from an attending you worked with during an away rotation)? I have two letters from path faculty at my home school, and one from a faculty member at a west coast school that I did an away elective at. ( I also have a letter from a internal med attending I worked with which I could use if I see fit.)

Anyway, I was originally planning to send all three of my path letters to all the programs I'm applying to. It's important to note that I'm applying to programs all over the country and my home school is in the west. However I was talking with one of my classmates today who is applying to surgery and she said that I should not use my away letter for any schools other than the one I rotated at because it would give other schools the impression that I was less interested in coming there versus the school that I rotated at. She is in a similiar situation and was thinking that assigning your away letters to other schools just highlights that you didnt rotate there and are biased towards another program(s). Is this making sense?

I really think this is kinda stupid. I mean I can't rotate at every school that I'm genuinely interested in and it's rediculous that programs would hold our away rotations against us. What do ya'll think? I'm leaning towards keeping things the way I had planned, but I need some back up!

I think your surgery classmate needs to get a life and quit overanalyzing things. If it's a good letter, then I would definitely use it. A program can't possibly be arrogant enough to expect you to only be interested in their program (well, maybe a surgery program could be).

 

[yaah]

A letter is a letter. If it's good and says good things about you, it is vastly superior to one that is geographically convenient. There is something to be said for having a letter from someone in the area you are applying though, because in general names are more recognized in the immediate area. Like, if you are applying to programs in the midwest but you went to school and had all your experience in the southeast, doing a 4th year rotation in Chicago and getting a letter might help you slightly. At least it "proves" you are interested. No one is going to hold anything against you though. They want good candidates who are interested in coming there, that's it.

 

[ChipLeader]

Thanks guys, that helps. I'm gonna send my away letter to all the programs I'm applying to, as I originally intended. If some programs are turned off by it then so be it. 😳

 

[cytoborg]

I think your plan is fine. A good letter is a good letter. The only exception I can think of is sending the letter to that program's direct rival(s) which might not help you at said rival program. Some programs seem to harbor some animosity toward other programs, for whatever reason, sometimes it's between individuals and sometimes it's more of a general bitterness. Dumb, but it seems to happen, and I blundered into it a couple times on the interview trail...i.e. mentioning that I was also visiting program X (when asked, so really couldn't avoid this one) which seemed to trigger a hot button of some kind in the interviewer, as well as another interviewer who had some kind of personal/professional issue with someone in my home school's program so he seemed to have a chip on his shoulder from the get-go (again, kinda out of my control). But, it is probably impossible at this point to know what the politics are, so if it's a strong letter I say send it.