LOR Advice - VIRMP rotating

[OncoMitts]

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Hello!
I'm planning on applying for rotating internships for the upcoming fall cycle. I wanted advice on LORs - I'm planning on asking largely SA internal medicine and ER/ECC faculty depending on how rotations go. I have had a few externships at other schools in the area I am interested in (oncology), where I have received great feedback and offers for LORs. I have been told to focus on IM and ECC specialists at my vet school for LORs, but is it frowned upon if I did use a letter from a specialist from a different school than my own?

At my school, we don't work much with the ECC on faculty - I am doing the ECC elective in October (I completed my 2 weeks of days and nights already), but I am hoping I can build a better relationship with one to hopefully ask!

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[JaynaAli]

You want glowing reviews, not lukewarm ones. So if someone offered to write you a letter, I’d go with that over a situation where you have to still “build a better relationship”. It might look a little strange if you had NO letters from your own school, but I would go with whoever you think will say the best things about you.

 

[OncoMitts]

You want glowing reviews, not lukewarm ones. So if someone offered to write you a letter, I’d go with that over a situation where you have to still “build a better relationship”. It might look a little strange if you had NO letters from your own school, but I would go with whoever you think will say the best things about you.

Thank you! That is solid advice. I'll definitely have the majority of letters from my own school, but that helps me decide if having one from another school would be seen as odd.

 

[supershorty]

is it frowned upon if I did use a letter from a specialist from a different school than my own?

No. LORs should be from the strongest references you have.

One of my letters (funny enough, one from oncology) when I applied for rotating internship was from a faculty member at an institution I'd actually never been to, but he'd locumed at my institution enough that I asked him for one and no one thought anything of it.

And then I matched to that institution lol

 

[clembear]

It is not frowned upon! I asked a faculty member from a different institution for a letter as well because I had worked closely with him for several weeks during an oncology externship and then on a research project. I just finished my rotating internship at that institution and will start oncology residency this week. Please reach out if I can help you with the process