Psychiatry LOR

[Tachymeter]

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So I'm looking very strongly into a psychiatry residency except I have come up with a problem. The psychiatrist that I did a 6 week rotation with and asked for a letter from abruptly left the country. Now I haven't been able to get a psych letter from him. I have other letters from non psych docs but now I feel like I'm kind of stuck. I was hoping to apply to psych residencies in september but now I don't know my chances with out one, or at least which of the many residencies don't require one. All I know is that some of the better ones want a psych letter. I do have an audition psych rotation in October. Do you think it would be too late to obtain a letter from that program to use in my ERAS application to apply to other psych programs? Also that program's deadline is November 1st, so I would have to ask for a letter 2 weeks into the rotation so I could have a psych letter to use for their application which requires a psych letter. I'm hoping that even without a psych letter I'll be able to get a psych residency.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If it matters, I am a DO student, my comlex score is 500.

 

[Manicsleep]

So I'm looking very strongly into a psychiatry residency except I have come up with a problem. The psychiatrist that I did a 6 week rotation with and asked for a letter from abruptly left the country. Now I haven't been able to get a psych letter from him. I have other letters from non psych docs but now I feel like I'm kind of stuck. I was hoping to apply to psych residencies in september but now I don't know my chances with out one, or at least which of the many residencies don't require one. All I know is that some of the better ones want a psych letter. I do have an audition psych rotation in October. Do you think it would be too late to obtain a letter from that program to use in my ERAS application to apply to other psych programs? Also that program's deadline is November 1st, so I would have to ask for a letter 2 weeks into the rotation so I could have a psych letter to use for their application which requires a psych letter. I'm hoping that even without a psych letter I'll be able to get a psych residency.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If it matters, I am a DO student, my comlex score is 500.

There were no other psychiatrists there?

 

[cleareyedguy]

unless the psychiatrist you worked with has holed up in an ashram somewhere, he should be somehow reachable. reach him. of course, if he's freaked out or angry or something, perhaps best not to get a churlish letter from him, but generally, he has a responsibility to send off a couple of paragraphs.

if he's really not available, an option is to use non psych letters for eras, but then have the october supervisor write letters to every place you're applying. s/he could do it in early November, and they'd presumably be able to review it in time.

as should be true for all letter writers, please give him or her stamped, addressed envelopes, and/or email those addresses so they can be easily cut and pasted. while I mention the original supervisor has a responsibility, the flip side is that you should try to make it easy for him (and it's striking how few trainees seem appreciative of the time it takes to write a good letter).

 

[F0nzie]

I would say that depends on a several of factors.

1. How competitive you are.
2. How competitive the program is.

You can compare your overall competitiveness to other applicants that have matched into psychiatry residencies across the country by looking at their average USMLE scores. http://www.nrmp.org/data/

If you're significantly below average in terms of your USMLE scores compared to other psych residents or you have ambitions to match into Harvard, Yale, or Hopkins I would recommend you get at least 1 letter of recommendation from a psychiatrist just to be on the safe side.

Because Psychiatry is not as competitive as other fields, there is overall less selection criteria that is used to rank applicants. As long as your letters of recommendation reflect that you are a reliable, hard working, ethical, team player I think you'll be safe. 🙂

And obviously, your personal statement should reflect your interests in Psychiatry.

All the best

 

[F0nzie]

Sorry. Didn't notice your last sentence about being a D.O. and your Comlex score. I'm not sure what the Comlex averages for psychiatry are. Check to see if Comlex has statistics of average scores for psychiatry residents. There are plenty of D.O.'s in psychiatry and they are some of the best colleagues I have worked with. Check the list of residents for various schools for D.O.'s. It seems some programs are more D.O. friendly than others. However, you shouldn't rule out applying to a particular program even if they don't have D.O.'s.

 

[Tachymeter]

Thank you all for the great advice! I will definitely follow the advice.

Real quick, I was with a husband wife psychiatry team, and their arnp's. They both moved so I can't ask either for the LOR. They are currently in Pakistan and I haven't been able to get a hold of them by either phone or email. I'm still hoping he will be able to do it because he encouraged me to pursue psychiatry, and I gave him all my documents including addressed envelopes with postage. Although it has been 8 weeks since I asked.