Lor

[finnpipette]

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my attending asked me to write my own letter of recommendation for my resdiency app, but I have no idea what one is supposed to look like. Any thoughts? thanks for your help.

 

[Dr.PPBBB]

my attending asked me to write my own letter of recommendation for my resdiency app, but I have no idea what one is supposed to look like. Any thoughts? thanks for your help.

Heh, I was in that situation when I applied to Med School. It sucks. I wrote what I thought was a glowing recommendation for myself, and when I gave it to the Professor, he responded, "I thought you were going to take this seriously."

Your best bet, I would say, is to take a look at some residency application books, and see what they have to say about it. They discuss what programs look for in a "good" letter, and some books even have handout and outlines to give to your letter writers to guide them when they write your letter.

"Iserson's Getting Into a Residency," by Kenneth Iserson is in its seventh edition now, and while I can't wholeheartedly recommend the book (a LOT of the information is outdated, they still talk at length about paper applications, etc) it does have a fairly detailed section on what goes into a LOR.

Their outline lists 5 elements that should go into a LOR:
1) Extent of writer's contact with student
2) Student's academic record
3) Student's medical abilities
4) Personal characteristics
5) Overall impression
(The book goes into much more detail, but I don't wanna get sued 😉 )

That should be a good enough guide to get you started. Just remember that no one ever taught your other letter writers how to write a letter either, and in as little as 4 short years, you may have to start writing letters for students as well.

Good luck!

 

[oldbearprofessor]

my attending asked me to write my own letter of recommendation for my resdiency app, but I have no idea what one is supposed to look like. Any thoughts? thanks for your help.

This issue has come up before on SDN and my opinion on this may not be popular, but I see it from the perspective of a faculty who writes many of these letters AND reads them for various situations.🙂

I think that you should not agree to write your own letter, but should offer to send the attending your CV, your ERAS or other personal statement and some ideas about things they might include. The reason for this is that I believe that the letter of recommendation is a form of relationship between the writer of the letter and the person who reads it and must evaluate the candidate for that post. If the letter is actually written by the applicant, then that relationship is not the one expected. This is not about any legal issues, just my perspective as a faculty who must read many such letters and expects them to be written by the person who signs them. I am not naive, I realize what goes on in the real world, but that doesn't change my view on what "should" be and how we should relate to students.

In addition, letters one writes for oneself are almost never as good as the ones the faculty will actually write.

If the faculty doesn't get the hint from your offer to provide the info but not actually write the letter, thank them for their time but tell them that you will see if you can find others who are more comfortable with writing the letter.

Regards

OBP