Military: FITREPs in place of LORs?

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

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I posted this thread in the non-traditional applicants forum, but received no response. For those of you that applied to medical school FROM the military (not necessarily to HPSP or USUHS), can you please provide any advice on this topic?

Has anybody that is prior military submitted copies of Fitness Reports / Performance Evaluations instead of a LOR?

I am considering asking this question of the schools I am applying to, since I may not be able to get a LOR from my former commanding officer (who is currently deployed). I know these don't address my potential for success as a MD directly, but they are at least real-time evaluations of my performance in relevant areas (leadership, academic skill, composure under stressful conditions, etc.).

Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks!

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

shameless bump...bueller?

 

[Pemberley]

Has anybody that is prior military submitted copies of Fitness Reports / Performance Evaluations instead of a LOR?

I am considering asking this question of the schools I am applying to, since I may not be able to get a LOR from my former commanding officer (who is currently deployed). I know these don't address my potential for success as a MD directly, but they are at least real-time evaluations of my performance in relevant areas (leadership, academic skill, composure under stressful conditions, etc.).

Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks!

I did this for grad school. I have exactly one personnel evaluation that means something (the rest were poorly written hyperbole and largely fictional): the one written by an Australian Army LtCol for whom I worked in Baghdad.

Unfortunately, this isn't quite the same as experience with applying to med school. The grad schools didn't dispute my claim that locating him again would be extremely difficult. I got into grad school. I might do this again for med school, because I'm immensely proud of the job performance it reflects, but my feedback from that experiment won't come soon enough to help you 🙂 .

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

I did this for grad school. I have exactly one personnel evaluation that means something (the rest were poorly written hyperbole and largely fictional): the one written by an Australian Army LtCol for whom I worked in Baghdad.

Unfortunately, this isn't quite the same as experience with applying to med school. The grad schools didn't dispute my claim that locating him again would be extremely difficult. I got into grad school. I might do this again for med school, because I'm immensely proud of the job performance it reflects, but my feedback from that experiment won't come soon enough to help you 🙂 .

Thanks for at least letting me know that you had done this with grad school, and are considering it for med school. I guess the best thing for me to do at this point is to contact each school, and ask them what they think about it.

 

[notdeadyet]

Keep in mind that if you've seen the FITREP, it doesn't qualify as a confidential recommendation, which many med schools require.

 

[Mirror Form]

It might work for some schools, but you're really better off getting LOR's. I'd say only use a fitrep as a very last resort.

 

[dpill]

Unless you apply to USHUS or you apply for an HPSP scholarship- you really shouldn't need a letter from your commanding officer. I asked our vice wing/ CC to write an LOR for me. I gave him copies of all of my OPRS (FITREPS) and various awards so he could take what he wanted out of them. I didn't even bother asking my CC at the time to write an LOR for my med school applications. Instead, I tried to pick someone (that I had worked with) who could basically summarize my entire service in the military. When I applied for HPSP (after I was accepted into med school), I asked the vice wing/ CC to "modify" his letter toward the HPSP board and submitted it for that as well.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

Keep in mind that if you've seen the FITREP, it doesn't qualify as a confidential recommendation, which many med schools require.

An excellent point I had not considered...thanks!

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

Thanks for all of the input! As a general comment (with a follow-up question):

I am only considering a CO LOR / submission of my FITREPS as a supplement to the standard 3 LORS (2 science / 1 non-science) required by most medical schools. I am concerned that while I know these 3 profs well (and they remember me well), that the ADCOMs won't give them much weight, since it has been six years since my graduation.

For those of you that have responded, did you find that submission of these 3 LORs alone was sufficient?

 

[dpill]

Thanks for all of the input! As a general comment (with a follow-up question):

I am only considering a CO LOR / submission of my FITREPS as a supplement to the standard 3 LORS (2 science / 1 non-science) required by most medical schools. I am concerned that while I know these 3 profs well (and they remember me well), that the ADCOMs won't give them much weight, since it has been six years since my graduation.

For those of you that have responded, did you find that submission of these 3 LORs alone was sufficient?

I submitted 2 additional LORs in addition to the 3 "standard" LORs for similar reasons (I had been out of school for a while). One covered my military experience and one covered my volunteer medical experience. I used interfolio service so I could pick and choose which schools received which letters- and I didn't have to ask the LOR writers to send them individually to the schools. None of the schools had a problem with me using the interfolio service. Military service makes you stand out- so in my opinion, having an LOR that specifically addresses your military service is a good thing. Unless a school had a specific limit, I usually sent them all five of my LORs. It worked well for me.

 

[GMO_52]

Thanks for all of the input! As a general comment (with a follow-up question):

I am only considering a CO LOR / submission of my FITREPS as a supplement to the standard 3 LORS (2 science / 1 non-science) required by most medical schools. I am concerned that while I know these 3 profs well (and they remember me well), that the ADCOMs won't give them much weight, since it has been six years since my graduation.

For those of you that have responded, did you find that submission of these 3 LORs alone was sufficient?

I would not submit a fitrep as an LOR. Think how hard a fitrep would be for an unfamiliar person to interpret. Its not like they would know what to make of EP, MP, etc, let alone to interpret your score in the context of your Reporting Senior's average. If you got a great fitrep from someone, have that person write a letter.

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

I submitted 2 additional LORs in addition to the 3 "standard" LORs for similar reasons (I had been out of school for a while). One covered my military experience and one covered my volunteer medical experience. I used interfolio service so I could pick and choose which schools received which letters- and I didn't have to ask the LOR writers to send them individually to the schools. None of the schools had a problem with me using the interfolio service. Military service makes you stand out- so in my opinion, having an LOR that specifically addresses your military service is a good thing. Unless a school had a specific limit, I usually sent them all five of my LORs. It worked well for me.

Thanks for the advice! I am actually utilizing Interfolio as well! It seemed like a no-brainer when I found out about it. I also plan on submitting a LOR from my volunteering/shadowing experience...just need to get some more time under my belt before I ask for that one. I've only had the opportunity to volunteer since March (being assigned to a fast attack submarine tends to keep you from participating in any outside activities).

Thanks again!

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

I would not submit a fitrep as an LOR. Think how hard a fitrep would be for an unfamiliar person to interpret. Its not like they would know what to make of EP, MP, etc, let alone to interpret your score in the context of your Reporting Senior's average. If you got a great fitrep from someone, have that person write a letter.

Yeah a great point. I was thinking they could still benefit from the information contained in bullets/descriptions. Based on all of the feedback I have received, it's sounding more and more like a bad idea. I'll see what I can do about another LOR. Thanks for the input!