LOR from previous program director required?

[Bold]

Hi, so I am applying to residency after resigning from my previous internship year in 2010 due to some personal issues that are now straightened out. I recently met with my past program director to ask him for a letter of recommendation and the meeting went well, but I'm not sure what type of recommendation he is going to write. He made a statement like "I think a small intimate community type program would be right for you." Ive already gotten some interviews without his recommendation, and I have three other strong letters of recommendation that I have recently uploaded to ERAS. I have been up front about the reasons for my resignation in the personal statement.

My question is this: is it "required" to submit a letter from my previous program director since I have been in residency before? I feel like his letter might be the worst one of the four, and uploading it could prevent me from getting future interviews as well as muddle up the interviews I already have. On the flip side, program directors may think I am hiding something if I don't upload a letter from a previous program director, and there is the possibility that his recommendation actually isn't bad. What do you think? Should I go with his rec as a fourth letter? Still waiting to hear from lots of programs. Thanks, I appreciate any advice.

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[mcl]

Hi, so I am applying to residency after resigning from my previous internship year in 2010 due to some personal issues that are now straightened out. I recently met with my past program director to ask him for a letter of recommendation and the meeting went well, but I'm not sure what type of recommendation he is going to write. He made a statement like "I think a small intimate community type program would be right for you." Ive already gotten some interviews without his recommendation, and I have three other strong letters of recommendation that I have recently uploaded to ERAS. I have been up front about the reasons for my resignation in the personal statement.

My question is this: is it "required" to submit a letter from my previous program director since I have been in residency before? I feel like his letter might be the worst one of the four, and uploading it could prevent me from getting future interviews as well as muddle up the interviews I already have. On the flip side, program directors may think I am hiding something if I don't upload a letter from a previous program director, and there is the possibility that his recommendation actually isn't bad. What do you think? Should I go with his rec as a fourth letter? Still waiting to hear from lots of programs. Thanks, I appreciate any advice.

My understanding is that the ACGME requires that the new Program Director receive a letter from the previous Program Director stating your competence for whatever PGY level you attained before you could join another program. So it's not an ERAS requirement in terms of your letters of recommendation, but I think most Program Directors looking at applications would expect one of the letters to be from your previous PD so that they would in essence already have the required letter before they would commit to you as a potential resident.

 

[MD forever]

The Program Directors will contact each other at some point regardless if you added the LOR or not. If I were you, I will let go of my concerns, and think positive, I will add the LOR. At the end of the day your previous PD seems wanted to help by writing the LOR, others might not, and his opinion about you is considered but can not dictate your future career, the recipient PD understand that as well.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

As detailed above, the answer is both yes and no.

No, you do not need to release your PD's LOR. There is no requirement in ERAS nor in NRMP to do so. That being said, many programs won't consider you without it. But, some will, and it sounds like you already have some interviews so that's good.

As mentioned, programs may contact your PD anyway (although I think that might actually be illegal). Or, they may ask for a letter somewhere in the process.

You might want to contact programs from whom you have not heard yet (although I would probably wait until after MSPE's are released next week). If you say "Hey, I have a letter from my prior PD" everyone is going to want it, so you might say "Is my file complete?" or "Is there anything else you need?" and see what happens. Again, I'd wait until after MSPE's come out before doing that.

As mentioned above, if you get a new spot the PD is required to get something from your prior program. Often that's just a list of rotations and some sort of overall assessment of your skills. In any case, a match (or a contract outside the match) would still be binding - they couldn't decide to drop you at that point unless the information in the report demonstrates that you applied fraudulently.

 

[Bold]

Thanks, I appreciate all of the helpful advice.