LOR question (different from previous posts)

[sore eye asses]

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I have four LOR, and they're all pretty good from what I understand. ERAS allows only four total LOR to be submitted. I expect to get an even stronger letter within my field of choice in late October. Should I hold out for this letter and only submit 3 letters along with ERAS on sept 1st, or should I just submit all 4 that I have now? Is there any way to send 5?

 

[medsRus]

I have four LOR, and they're all pretty good from what I understand. ERAS allows only four total LOR to be submitted. I expect to get an even stronger letter within my field of choice in late October. Should I hold out for this letter and only submit 3 letters along with ERAS on sept 1st, or should I just submit all 4 that I have now? Is there any way to send 5?

I'm in the same situation. Can we send in the 5th somehow later?

 

[gutonc]

There are tricks to get 5 letters sent but they will prove to people that you don't know how to follow directions and there's no guarantee that they'll be downloaded, printed out or added to you file and read. You can upload as many letters to ERAS as you want, but 4 is the max that you can assign to any one program. Unless your specialty is something uber-competitive (don't make me list what that means) then the decision to invite you for an interview will probably NOT be made solely on the basis of LORs...they'll be far more important in ranking you. So if you have 4 good letters now and you KNOW this 5th letter will be the one that basically says you will be the next William Osler then submit 3 now and add the last one when available. If it's just going to be another good letter...do whatever.

 

[mcl]

Any more than four letters makes me roll my eyes and sigh heavily. Please think carefully before you send more than the program wants.