LOR question

[Broomdy]

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Quick question: when we do our 3rd rotation in the specialty that we are interested in for residency, how many letters of rec should we try to get? I have been told by student affairs that we should try to think of 3 attendings during that rotation who would write a LOR, but that seems too much. In all of my rotations so far, it seems like I've only been able to establish a decent working relationship with 1-2 attendings in a given rotation.

Thanks!

 

[mdc848]

Quick question: when we do our 3rd rotation in the specialty that we are interested in for residency, how many letters of rec should we try to get? I have been told by student affairs that we should try to think of 3 attendings during that rotation who would write a LOR, but that seems too much. In all of my rotations so far, it seems like I've only been able to establish a decent working relationship with 1-2 attendings in a given rotation.

Thanks!

What are you going into? You should get 3 recs, no more than 4. Get at least 2 letters from the specialty you're applying to, at least that was what we were told for Medicine. Don't know about other specialties.

 

[IM Substance P]

Quick question: when we do our 3rd rotation in the specialty that we are interested in for residency, how many letters of rec should we try to get? I have been told by student affairs that we should try to think of 3 attendings during that rotation who would write a LOR, but that seems too much. In all of my rotations so far, it seems like I've only been able to establish a decent working relationship with 1-2 attendings in a given rotation.

Thanks!

I think it's reasonable to try to find *one* person in your third-year clerkship for the area you are planning to enter. If you can't find anyone else, that's fine!

When you're applying for residency, you'll need only three total letters, maybe four at the most.

Your other two letters are usually obtained on a fourth-year sub-internship experience no matter what the specialty. Just make sure you do a couple of month-long rotations from July to September to get two strong fourth-year letters.

From the people I've talked to, residency programs prefer to see strong fourth-year letters, especially if your third-year rotation was one of your earlier rotations.

 

[BrodieDurden]

It all depends what specialty you are going into. For the competitive surgical subspecialities you want 3 letters from chairmen and you'll look like a chump with 3 letters from 3 attendings in one department. I would get as many letters (again, no more than 4) from people during 4th year as I could -- you know more, you'll do better, and it is easier to impress than during 3rd year when you have other distractions going on. For something like IM or Gen Surg, I think a letter from your clerkship director would be good, even better if you did a sub-i with them at the beginning of your fourth year.