Need LoR Advice

[QuietSylph]

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OK, I've asked four people for LoRs:

1) Path chair (nice guy but doesn't know me well)
2) OB/GYN attending also boarded in path
3) Psychiatry attending
4) Dean of medical education

Kind of a motley group, but unfortunately I tended to work with a large assortment with attendings during my path electives -- so none of them knew me very well. Anyway, so far the only letters in to ERAS are from my path chair and the psychiatry attending. I am concerned that they are the weakest letters of the four because one is from a chair that doesn't know me well and will certainly only say a few general positive things, and the other is from a psychiatrist -- not a field too close to pathology. I think that the letter from the OB should be pretty good (she did give me Honors) but may be the slowest in coming as she is incredibly busy. The letter from the Dean should be strong and I am hoping it will come in the next week or ten days.

Thus far I have released the chair's letter and the psychiatrist's letter to one program only (I'm unlikely to go there). Should I release them to all the others since they're the only two letters I have in? Should I give it more time and see if other letters come in and then choose? Should I just release all 4 and let the programs sort out which they want, or is it better to only give them 3? Ugh. I hate having to provide LoRs to begin with -- it's such a contrived process. 🙁

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

[yaah]

I would release them, simply because the programs are going to see them at some point anyway, so why not? To be honest, I think LORs are more important when it comes time for programs to rank you than to decide whether to interview you. Unless of course one of your letters says something to the effect of "this person is unqualified" I wouldn't worry so much.

You don't want to accidentally forget to do so at a later point. How do you know these are bad letters? Chairmen who write letters are often quite good at them - they know what to say, how to synthesize information, etc. And the psychiatrist may talk about your work ethic, enthusiasm, things that are important to any field. You don't need LORs to say that you have a superb diagnostic eye or a magnificent frozen section technique. That is what residency training is for. LORs assess motivation, enthusiasm, teamwork, and other "intangibles."