MD letter for DO residency and vice versa

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CCOMER

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Well. I am currently an MS3 currently on rotations… If I am getting a LOR from a residency program director at my current surgery rotation... Do program directors, DO or MD, differentiate whether the LOR is from a DO or MD program director? I am reffering to only medium-very competetive competetive specilties only...

Lets just say I want to do Anesthesia. In order to do MD and DO matches would I really have to do rotations at both MD and DO institutions which would account for about 2 months? Is it better to have a solid DO program director letter or a solid MD program director letter when applying to both programs? Assuming both program directors have the same “pull” in the field. Which letter is it more important to have if I only have one month left to do an away rotation. I am afraid that i will now have enough elective hours to cover both MD and DO programs. I hope other people can relate to this as well.

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I cannot speak for the DO programs because 1) the specialty I applied to does not exist in the DO world (pathology) and 2) i never looked closely into DO residencies when I was thinking IM before I decided pathology. However, as a DO student applying completely allopathic, there has been no issue with 2 of my 4 letters coming from DO's. At least with my specialty, no one seems to care. At almost every interview I have been at, someone has made it a point to tell me what great letters I have.

The DO residencies may be different. I don't want to start an MD vs DO argument but in my experience and what I've gathered from others, the DO community seems to have a much bigger chip on its shoulder about the MD/DO divide than the MD's do. But I don't know if that would make a difference with LORs and the application.
 
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