Letters Of Recommendation

[airplaneboy]

Hi Everyone,

I plan on applying to general surgery this year and I have a few questions about obtaining letters of recommendation. My situation is that I will start 4th year this July after taking a year off from medical school in which I was doing research in international health (infectious disease). During the surgery clerkship in 3rd year, I got along well with a couple attendings but since I was usually on a service for only 2 weeks at a time and because it has been one year, I don't think I'd be too memorable. I feel like I am starting from scratch!

So I order to obtain some great LORs, what would you recommend? I plan on working extremely hard on my one surgery sub-I but should I do two surgery sub-Is? How did you approach attendings during your sub-I for LORs? What type of electives have you done in which you got some great LORs? Are away electives helpful? I usually like to spend rotations getting along with everyone and learning without the stress of having to target attendings for letters but it appears to be an important part of the application. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks and take care.

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[jubb]

I'm facing the issue of trying to get letters during 4th year because my 3rd year rotations didn't have the most med student oriented attendings. I'm planning on 2 Sub-I's my first two months of 4th year. I'm also going to try and meet the attendings before I start on my Sub-I's so they already know me before I go on service. Hopefully it works out for me. Good Luck.

Justin

 

[RSD11]

Before I applied this year, I was in an almost identical situation. I ended up doing 2 sub-I's and getting letters from those two attendings. For my third letter I used the chairman's letter - I worked with him during my third year, but I doubt he remembered me that well. He said he would talk to the 2 sub-I attendings I had and take their input into consideration when he wrote his letter. Things worked out for me well, so I hope that helps. Also, consider doing another surgical elective and getting a 3rd letter that way. As for how to ask for the letter, it really shouldn't be that big of a deal. Just make an appt w/ the attending towards the end of the rotation and ask if he/she would feel comf writing you a strong letter. best of luck

 

[jihu]

I didn't collect any LORs from my third year. I was starting from scratch when fourth year started.

I ended up doing THREE Sub-I's (2 away, 1 home), and collected three letters: 1 from each away, and 1 from the chairman at my home program. The chairman didn't know me at all (I never worked with him, I doubt he would recognize me in the hallways now), but according to some of my interviewers, he still wrote a nice letter.

I think the away rotations were a huge help to my application. My school isn't well-known nationally, and the attendings I worked with at my home program weren't VIP researchers. I knew that I didn't have the med school pedigree that the Harvard, Columbia, Hopkins applicants would have. I decided pretty early on to rotate through some of the bigger institutions, let my attendings benchmark my performance against their students, and then let my LOR's speak for themselves.

I tried to target one attending on each rotation and worked my tail off. Midway through the rotation, I approached them and asked if there was any way I could more effectively help the team, if there was anything I should be doing more or less of. Then I asked, if I continue to work hard and contribute to the team, would you feel comfortable writing a LOR for me?

Things worked out well and I got the letters I needed. My last Sub-I was in September, and all my letters were uploaded in time.

Good luck!