Personal Question about Letter of Recs

[pathologyDO]

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So for those of you who don't know me, I am an M2, D.O. candidate.

I have done research starting this past summer and throughout the first semester of M2 with a PI whom I would call a prominent person in medical research. He received a post-doctorate from Harvard, and has put out 100+ publications in journals, and also has high ranking (Dean) with a masters program at our school. I am done doing research with him, but I wonder if I should ask him if he would be willing to write me a letter of rec.

The thing is, I am really not familiar with what residency PDs are looking for in your LORs. Being from an osteopathic school, I really don't have all the different departments that an allopathic school has (i.e. Rads, Surgical Specialties, IM specialties, Anesthesiology, etc) to ask for a letter of rec from. I am currently interested in Radiology, and am considering IM subspecialties as well as Anesthesiology. But, the only faculty member that has known me for long enough and I feel comfortable asking for a letter of rec is my PI from research.

Should I wait and ask physicians I'm assigned to work with during M3/4 for LORs? Our school isn't affiliated with any particular teaching hospitals so that concerns me a little bit, because I don't know if they will be the people I want to ask for LORs.

 

[pathologyDO]

I think if you have a significant research experience, then you should definitely ask this person for a LOR.

Usually for residencies you will need 3-4 LORs. Most of these should be from people you've worked with clinically, but if you have a significant research experience (and pubs/presentations?) - then having one LOR from your research mentor would definitely be appropriate.

The other thing is it never really hurts to have a letter in your file. You can get a LOR and then not choose to use it.

But I'm not sure if you really need to ask him now. For one, if anyone looked closely the LOR would be dated 2 years ago when you are applying. For another, you can just ask him in a year or whenever you are starting to put your app together.

Thanks. Well, things are being finalized for the paper to be published in a journal, he just needs to make finishing touches, albeit a lot of them, on the wording and structure of the data to be submitted. So I'm pretty sure I will get my name in the publication within the next 6 months.

So you believe that it would make more sense to wait? The reason I want to ask him now is mainly that he is a very busy guy and has tons of students do research with him. I wonder if he would not have as much meaningful things to write about me if I wait too long. What do you think?