question about LOR

[TypicalTuesday]

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So I had asked an attending to write me a letter several months ago and had dropped off my cv, etc. then today his assistant emailed me and said he would like to meet with me before he writes the letter. I'm on an away right now and can't meet him until Sep. 1.

Is that too late to have a letter written? Is there a concrete date for ERAS of when they need to be submitted? I did a search and saw previous posts of others with a similar problem and it sounds like many were offered interviews even without all 3 letters in, is that correct? Or should I just scrap this one and ask someone else (though not many options at this point)?

Any advice/info would be greatly appreciated.

tt

 

[yaah]

No. That is not too late. You can submit your application through ERAS starting sometime in September (I think, unless they changed it) but not everything has to be in at that time. Letters can be uploaded whenever they are completed and received. For many people that doesn't happen until october or even november. Generally it is best if they are received by the date you actually interview, the earliest interviews are probably in mid october but the bulk are later.

 

[Sean2tall]

I agree, it's not too late. Although, hopefully the faculty member will write it somewhat promptly after the meeting.

Unfortunately, you are at the mercy of several log jams in the LOR system: the letter being written, being mailed to your school or delivered, being input into ERAS by the school.

Last year Sept 1 was the first day you could actually submit ERAS to programs. Despite most of my letters being written already, I believe that none of them were in ERAS yet, for a variety of possible reasons: sitting on a stack of letters at the medical school, faculty gave the letter to secretary who hasn't mailed it yet, institutional mail takes mysteriously long to get to US mail, faculty claimed to have written the letter but really didn't yet, etc.

Nonetheless, you should be able to input the name and position of the anticipated letter writers in advance so that the school can upload them when ready.

Only rare programs will review the applications so quickly as to make a big difference, and those programs will understand that not all letters are in place. Most places simply won't get around to it until after letters are in, probably not intentionally. But if your other items are in place, a missing letter or two usually won't hold you back.

 

[TypicalTuesday]

I feel much better, thanks for your input.