More LOR Questions

[med123456]

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I have a total of 5 LORs so i'm having a hard time picking between which one i should send to whom. I'm between 2 letters: 1 is from a plastic surgeon i worked with during my 2nd year of med school--he is very well known, from harvard, very political, he's the editor of a journal (which i have a couple of papers published in with), he also know a few PDs at the schools that i'm interested in--he is now in private practice, although still have some affiliation with my school. However, he doesn't know me that well and his letter was very neutral and short--like half a page and doesn't have any personal touch to it. I'm afraid that while it may not hurt me, it probably doesn't say much positive things about me either. His letter is already uploaded to ERAS.
Letter #2 is from my internal medicine chair person--again, i don't know him very well, never worked with him, but we did have a short meeting (20 min) because it's required that anyone doing IM or prelim yr would need a letter from him. He also had us filled out a questionnaire with personal information. I will probably never get to read this letter so i don't know if it's going to be good or not, but i'm assuming since it's his job to write letter maybe it would be a good one. He told me that he doesn't send out the letter until november.
So my question is which of these letters should I use or not use? i'm applying for prelim and derm.

thank you

 

[ChocolateKiss]

Honestly, if you have 3 other great letters, I wouldn't use either of these. The key thing is not WHO a person is but rather what the letter says. Submitting a mediocre letter from a top name will only dilute out your other letters. However, if a program requires 4, I'd probably go with the chair's letter since programs realize that the chair's letter is often not personal.

 

[gutonc]

Umm...what are you applying for? If surgery or PRS then include the surgeon's letter. If IM, include the IM letter. If neither, neither.

 

[smq123]

1 is from a plastic surgeon i worked with during my 2nd year of med school--he is very well known, from harvard, very political, he's the editor of a journal (which i have a couple of papers published in with), he also know a few PDs at the schools that i'm interested in--he is now in private practice, although still have some affiliation with my school. However, he doesn't know me that well and his letter was very neutral and short--like half a page and doesn't have any personal touch to it.

I wouldn't use this one. He doesn't know you personally, has certainly never seen you work clinically, and has no idea if you can tell a patient's heart from his elbow. And that's what an LOR should do - be able to talk about you personally, or at least comment on your knowledge/skill base during MS3 and MS4.

Letter #2 is from my internal medicine chair person--again, i don't know him very well, never worked with him, but we did have a short meeting (20 min) because it's required that anyone doing IM or prelim yr would need a letter from him. He also had us filled out a questionnaire with personal information. I will probably never get to read this letter so i don't know if it's going to be good or not, but i'm assuming since it's his job to write letter maybe it would be a good one. He told me that he doesn't send out the letter until november.

That's standard procedure for a chairman's letter, since most chairmen never work with students that closely.

I hope that you're not going to get to read his letter. Programs tend to get kind of leery if they know that a student has had a chance to read his/her LOR.