LOR for Residency Question

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Sparda29

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Do all your LORs need to be from pharmacists who practice in a clinical setting? Would LORs from retail pharmacists be any use? What about MDs who were the attending on your team during your Internal Med rotation?

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Typical lor is from pharmd bcps etc credentials. Don't bother with retail...amcare might work. I had all of mine from hospitals (work, faculty, critical care).

MD attending I'm not too sure about. Might be too much/not as appropriate as rph.
 
Typical lor is from pharmd bcps etc credentials. Don't bother with retail...amcare might work. I had all of mine from hospitals (work, faculty, critical care).

MD attending I'm not too sure about. Might be too much/not as appropriate as rph.

I dunno, personally I think I'd rather see a LOR from a retail RPh who knows the candidate really well than a LOR from a BCPS clinical specialist who barely knows the person. But then, I'm not a residency director.
 
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I dunno, personally I think I'd rather see a LOR from a retail RPh who knows the candidate really well than a LOR from a BCPS clinical specialist who barely knows the person. But then, I'm not a residency director.

I got a residency with a LOR from someone I worked with (in retail) for years and 2 from clinical preceptors (BCPS/BCOP). I think a well-written letter from retail can say a lot about your professionalism, communication skills, how hard you work, etc. Those are things programs care about just as much as your clinical skills.
 
I got a residency with a LOR from someone I worked with (in retail) for years and 2 from clinical preceptors (BCPS/BCOP). I think a well-written letter from retail can say a lot about your professionalism, communication skills, how hard you work, etc. Those are things programs care about just as much as your clinical skills.

Mine were from:

Dean of my COP
My advisor (BSPharm, not board certified but very accomplished career)
My longtime supervisor (VA pharmacist, BSPharm, no BCPS)
APPE preceptor (Director of Pharmacy in a community setting, BSPharm, no BCPS)

I honestly didn't even think about the qualifications of my recommenders. I don't think it held me back...
 
There's no formula. I think the most important thing to do is make sure that your letter writers know what they're doing - I've read LoRs from people (both retail and hospital) who have never written them before, with disastrous results. It makes the student look pretty bad, even though they had nothing to do with it.

If you genuinely don't have better options than the MD for a letter, it's probably a decent backup. The problem is that physicians don't necessarily know the ins and outs of the job that pharmacists do, so while the letter might be glowing, it might not be all that relevant. I'd try to get pharmacist letters if at all possible.
 
Side LOR question:

I'm gonna have an internal med rotation at a very reputable hospital, but this is my 6th block, which ends around December 16th or maybe a bit later depending on Midyear makeups. Think I could pull off a letter from my preceptor there? Or should I not count on being able to get an LOR from there and just get LORs from people that don't look as good on paper?
 
Side LOR question:

I'm gonna have an internal med rotation at a very reputable hospital, but this is my 6th block, which ends around December 16th or maybe a bit later depending on Midyear makeups. Think I could pull off a letter from my preceptor there? Or should I not count on being able to get an LOR from there and just get LORs from people that don't look as good on paper?

Another thing that I'm wondering about.

As of now, I think I'd have strong LORs from the retail pharmacist who was my boss at CVS for 3 years before management transferred him out, the DOP at the nursing home pharmacy where I work now, a former assistant dean at my school, my preceptor at my retail rotation, and the attending physician on the team that I worked with on my Internal Med rotation (the clinical pharmacist who was my preceptor, I only saw a couple of times a day and usually only to just pop by and show that I'm in the hospital or to present on something that he wanted me to find out about), and possibly a professor at my school.

And also hoping for a very strong LOR from a professor at my school who is going to be my ambulatory care preceptor as well as my adviser for my Capstone Project. Hoping to have my rotation there next month, and I'll probably be seeing a lot of her after that since we're supposed to work closely with our advisers on these projects.

I have mixed feelings about my other preceptors, in that I didn't talk to them much, or I just did my work and left, etc.

Also, what do you guys think about asking LORs from preceptors who you might have had some issues with? For example, at my institutional rotation, I felt that I learned a lot and that I contributed a lot during the rotation, however I had some professionalism issues such as constantly being 15-20 minutes late (it took me like 1/2 a month to figure out that the traffic patterns had changed a lot when September started).
 
My LORs came from, (not all are sent to every application site, each site have different requirement for the sources of your LOR)

1) former boss at Pfizer
2) hospital internship preceptor
3) Rho chi adviser/famous professor
4) industrial clerkship preceptor
5) ambulatory care rotation preceptor

Note, it's common curtsy to give the person at least a 1 month time. So preceptors from rotations after November likely too late.
 
Also, what do you guys think about asking LORs from preceptors who you might have had some issues with? For example, at my institutional rotation, I felt that I learned a lot and that I contributed a lot during the rotation, however I had some professionalism issues such as constantly being 15-20 minutes late (it took me like 1/2 a month to figure out that the traffic patterns had changed a lot when September started).

Did you and the preceptor get along despite these issues? If yes, then you could at least ask him/her for an LOR. If not, you'd be better off asking someone else.
 
Did you and the preceptor get along despite these issues? If yes, then you could at least ask him/her for an LOR. If not, you'd be better off asking someone else.

For our hospital sites, we generally have a faculty preceptor as well as a preceptor who works at the site, such as the DOP. Me and the DOP did not get along too well, however, me and the faculty preceptor got along well. The only issue I had was the chronic lateness. On my evaluation questionairre, pretty much everything was perfect except for the section on lateness.
 
For our hospital sites, we generally have a faculty preceptor as well as a preceptor who works at the site, such as the DOP. Me and the DOP did not get along too well, however, me and the faculty preceptor got along well. The only issue I had was the chronic lateness. On my evaluation questionairre, pretty much everything was perfect except for the section on lateness.

In that case, I'd say go ahead and ask. Sounds like the preceptor could give you a pretty good rec despite the tardiness issue.
 
My recs came from:
1. Professor I did research with
2. Professor I had for a clinical rotation
3. Clinical rotation preceptor who was not a faculty member

I have worked with the residency recruitment process for the last few years. I can honestly say the most oddball written letters I've seen have been from people's bosses at walgreens. Including one that was hand written in pencil...
 
Just keep making as many friends as possible. As a caveat to what I said, just because someone has good credentials doesn't mean they necessarily know how to write a good letter. My best letter came from a non-practicing faculty preceptor who had a rep for the hardest rotations (and therefore had the smartest students) and also served on residency committees, so they knew exactly what to write for pretty much every circumstance. My worst came from a brilliant clinician with publications who was really smart but not the best letter writer (and not because they had a lack of good things to say about me).

I also think that if you feel at all like someone won't give you a good recommendation, don't even bother asking them...or at the very least ask them "can you write me a good LOR". Also keep in mind that a good LOR is a HUGE pain in the ass for people. Even if they have a mad-libs cut&paste style LOR, they still have to enter them into residency websites (UW, i'm looking at you), email from their work to multiple places, print sign & seal them appropriately into envelopes...unless someone really hates you and wants to sabotage you, they're not going to write a mediocre/bad LOR and then do all that work/waste their time. Finally, in most cases the preceptors will give you a copy...if they honestly can write you a good one they will have nothing to hide from you.
 
I also think that if you feel at all like someone won't give you a good recommendation, don't even bother asking them...or at the very least ask them "can you write me a good LOR".

:thumbup:
 
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