LOR and the match

[sevoflurane]

For those of you out there who understand what program directors are looking for, I have a question regarding LOR. I currently have 4 LOR from different GAS doc's. I believe them all to be excellent. In fact, of the 7 I have, the 4 GAS letters are in a class of their own. The other three are good, but are not excellent. Should I send all the gas LOR to ERAS or should I substitute one of the other LOR (internal medicine/OB/GYN) to show some sort of diversity????? I really don't want to do this as all 4 GAS letters shine in their own way, yet i don't want to look as if I did not have a broad medical foundation. Heads up on this situation would be greatly appreciated.

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[2ndyear]

Realize that on ERAS you can select different letters for each program if you so desire. Just a suggestion, but I know that letters from alumni of programs are helpful, so you might want to at least make sure that those programs get those letters. What specialties are each of the 4 anesthesiologist letters from? I mean if you had one from peds, pain, critical care, and some other sub-specialty then that's different than all from the same one. I wish I could tell you what to do in this situation, but most of us only have 1-2 letters from anesthesiologists. If I had to go with my gut though, I would say put in at least one non-gas letter, preferably two. I don't know exactly what PD's are looking for, but I do know that many commented on my letters from my surgery and OB clerkships in what seemed to be a positive way in the interview.

 

[thegasman]

I think the most important thing about a letter is if its author is known to the reader. If any of your gas letters are from well known anesthesiologists I would definitely include them. And if someone is an alumnus of a program you apply to I would use that for that program. All of my letters were gas, one pain and one from the pd and one from chairman of home program, all very well known. Interviewers would say, I see Dr. blank wrote you a letter, how is he doing, tell him I said hello, etc. I think this helped me.

 

[sevoflurane]

Thanx for the responses, although I'm still kind-of feel'n the limbo sector. Here is another angle to this situation: How does one know if an attending is "known" in the GAS field (unless the individuals last name end w/ miller, barash, stoelting, cullen etc...)
Research, journals, etc = "known" ??? Lectures @ ASA meetings = known???? Do you mustard up the courage and ask them directly? "Hey Dr. X, are you well known in anesthesia circles?"
I have a feeling that geographical area has a lot to do w/ it, i.e. Someone who lives in Florida might be known in the SE but might not be so in the NW. In other words, how tight is the anesthesia community? As impressed as I was w/ these attendings, I have no Idea if my LOR are from "known" GAS docs. I know 2 of them come from the Cleveland clinic and the other two from Brigham and Womens (one was on staff for 4 years). Good programs... yes... but does that mean anything to other programs if they've never heard of the anesthesiologist?

 

[gaslady]

Surely you know some residents at your home school you could ask about this??

 

[sevoflurane]

Nope, I'm Caribbean. Not so easy from my point of view. Did my third year in Ireland, and now am almost done w/ my fourth, having been to ohio, cali, florida and detroit. Being a US-FMG has it's consequeces. Guidance w/ these types of issues is sadly non-existant, at least at my school. Spending 2 years on beautiful St. Maarten on the other hand, was a dream come true!

 

[yu-gi-oh]

sent you a private message.

 

[sevoflurane]

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