letters of recs for residency

[WHOIZME]

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from which department should I get letters from?

I'm planning one from IM, one from surgery, one from an anesthesiologist, and one from family practice.

Would they rather see one more from IM or surgery instead of the family practice one?

Thanks

 

[lakersbaby]

from which department should I get letters from?

I'm planning one from IM, one from surgery, one from an anesthesiologist, and one from family practice.

Would they rather see one more from IM or surgery instead of the family practice one?

Thanks

from what i know most programs only require 3. i think family would be pointless unless you really really impressed the guy and he wrote you a good letter. I'm using medicine, surgery and anesthesia

 

[darkmansaad]

would a letter from a surgery attending during residency hold more weight? Im a reapplicant so figured id ask..not sure if i should replace my other letters with this...also have a rotation in anesthesia scheduled end of september into october. Is that too late to get a letter or should I save a slot and submit it when I get it? Thanks a bunch guys really wanna make it happen this time around

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

I had 3, plus my MSPE.
1) Letter from my PI (anesthesia) who I worked for for a year.
2) Letter from Peds Pulmonary doc.
3) Letter from dept chair at home institution (probably the least familiar with me, worked with him maybe twice, but did have a meeting with him and I had just finished my anesthesia rotation so he had access to my anesthesia evals).

In retrospect, I would have gotten a letter from my surgery small-group attending, but at the time I applied it would have been almost a year since my rotation and I didn't want a generic-sounding letter. Which is kind of a shame because I think we connected pretty well.

One of the best pieces of advice I would give MS3s is to get letters right after you finish a rotation if you think you had a good connection.

So, overall pretty non-traditional letters as far as not having a surgery or medicine letter, but I did fine. I would go with whichever letters are going to show a deeper understanding of your talent/work ethic/teamwork, not by specialty. Though at least one anesthesia letter is probably a good idea.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

What type of anesthesia letter should one have. I have one from a non-anesthesia residency program. Is it better to get one from the Chair of anesthesia at a residency program?

 

[heathermed]

would it be very ill advised if I had 3 anesthesia letters?
I feel like these are my best letters in terms of quality, so any advice on what to do? I have an IM letter and a FM letter, but without having read them, I would think they would lean more towards generic as opposed to my anesthesia letters.... but I'm thinking 3 might be over kill...

 

[bonesmd]

All three of my letters were anesthesiologists. Some prelim programs require IM letters.

 

[Mman]

In general, the best letter you can have is from an attending that worked extensively with you on an inpatient setting (preferrably ICU). Programs want to see that people that you worked with on a hard rotation were impressed by your work ethic and ability to work as a member of a team.

Getting a letter from an anesthesiologist is OK, head of a department is preferrable (for name only). But really, no program cares if you are the best med student ever at intubating. You will come out fine after graduating even if you entered with zero successful intubations as a student. Programs care about finding qualified applicants that will work hard and not be a pain the in the behind to deal with.