LOR not waived

[butters23]

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Hi

All of my LORs are non-waived. I did not understand the importance of waiving my right to see them before I decided to upload them myself. I am an IMG from Ireland and was worried the letters would go missing in the mail (this has happened to me before with mail to the US) so I decided to do the uploading myself via OASIS. Will this be a big red flag for PDs? Would a PD decide not to give me an interview based on this?

Thanks

 

[septoplasty]

Mostly likely you'll be invited to the interview based on your scores, then your LORs will be discussed during the IV itself. That's 1 side of the coin i've seen.

I'm also in the same boat, but facing the different direction. I was contemplating getting letters directly from attending (non-waived), so that I could get them up into myeras up in time with the rest of my app. Lets see what everyone else suggests.

 

[gutonc]

I'm also in the same boat, but facing the different direction. I was contemplating getting letters directly from attending (non-waived), so that I could get them up into myeras up in time with the rest of my app. Lets see what everyone else suggests.

This is a horrible idea.

 

[DrSnips]

Why do they even allow unwaived letters as an option if there will be a giant stigma against them?

 

[shan564]

Why do they even allow unwaived letters as an option if there will be a giant stigma against them?

Everybody has a different situation. Maybe your attending doesn't know how to use a computer, and refuses to try. Or maybe he sent you his letter on paper and then went on a safari in Africa with no Internet access. An unwaived letter is still better than no letter at all.

 

[michaelrack]

Why do they even allow unwaived letters as an option if there will be a giant stigma against them?

legal reasons. you have to be given the option

 

[septoplasty]

This is a horrible idea.

Hmm.

That's BS then because we understand attendings are busy, but that doesn't mean they screw applicants over does it?

Not only are they screwing us over by not having LORs done on time (understandably), but it also looks bad if its unwaived as you mentioned.

Doubled edged sword that's only cutting the student.

 

[splik]

just because you waive your right to see the letter doesn't mean you can't see it and send it in. I mailed my letters to ERAS and they were waived. schoolboy error really.

 

[shan564]

That's BS then because we understand attendings are busy, but that doesn't mean they screw applicants over does it?

If you think about things from a student's perspective, that's true. But I don't think most attendings are thinking "I don't care enough to do this rec letter on time"... instead, they'll think "oh, I'll do it tomorrow... one day won't make a difference"... but if you say that every day, it adds up.

FWIW, I requested a letter from one attending back in February, right after my rotation. He wrote me an excellent evaluation and even emailed the PD to recommend that they accept me for a residency (and then forwarded me the email). Then I reminded him about the letter in early July. And then another soft reminder after about a month (i.e. "oh, I just wanted to send you an updated copy of my CV", or something along those lines). He never replied, so I sent him another message saying something like "I just wanted to send this from a different email address, just in case it went to your junk folder." He finally replied to say that he's received all of my messages and it's on his to-do list. As of yet, I still haven't heard back from him, so I had to request another letter (from a supervisor in a different specialty, and not even in the US - so a much lower-impact letter) to substitute, since it's now unlikely that the letter will reach ERAS on time to go out on 9/15 (since ECFMG takes ~2 weeks to process them).

 

[gutonc]

just because you waive your right to see the letter doesn't mean you can't see it and send it in. I mailed my letters to ERAS and they were waived. schoolboy error really.

This.

You can waive your right to see a letter and the writer can still send it to you with a note asking you to pass it on to ECFMG or your Dean's office.

I waived my right to read my letters and got to see 3/4 of them.