question about LOR'S to a program director

[suryapet]

sir,
i have assigned 4 LOR's to all programs.Now, i have 2 more letters which i want to assign.

My question is: if i deassign two of my letters and assign the 2 new letters, does the new ones replace the old ones in the program director's workstation or do you still have access to 6 letters now. ( i am assuming you dont make hard copies of the letters). If at all you can see all 6 letters, does it mean we can assign any number of letters as opposed to a maximum of 4 letters? does that mean the program can print all the 6 letters now?

can the programs be able to print even the inactive letters,if they have been downloaded previously?

Thanks in advance.

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[NotAProgDirector]

sir,
i have assigned 4 LOR's to all programs.Now, i have 2 more letters which i want to assign.

My question is: if i deassign two of my letters and assign the 2 new letters, does the new ones replace the old ones in the program director's workstation or do you still have access to 6 letters now. ( i am assuming you dont make hard copies of the letters). If at all you can see all 6 letters, does it mean we can assign any number of letters as opposed to a maximum of 4 letters? does that mean the program can print all the 6 letters now?

can the programs be able to print even the inactive letters,if they have been downloaded previously?

Thanks in advance.

This question has been asked and answered several times in the last week, but I'll answer it again.

Once the program has downloaded the letter, it's permenently there. We will see all 6 letters, even if they haven't been printed. Two letters will be marked inactive. Theoretically, this means you could send as many letters as you wish. You could send 4, inactivate them, send 4 more, inactivate them, etc. This is a very bad idea. You should choose the best 4 letters that you have, and send them. Sending more than that suggests you don't know what you are doing / can't follow directions. Does it mean that programs will reject you for doing this? Maybe, maybe not, but it's best avoided.

Are these two new letters that much better than those sent before? If not, I would not send them. If so, then you really should have saved 2 slots for them. You'll have to decide what's best to do. If you're applying to IM, I expect most PD's won't care about 5, or maybe 6 letters. But some might. Any more than that is really ridiculous.

 

[suryapet]

aprogdirector,

thank you very much for your prompt reply. i sent the old letters because i thought the new letters (from recent rotations) are going to take some time to get uploaded and i didnt want my application to be incomplete. i thought if i assign some letters,atleast my application would be under review. but, i have few more questions if you dont mind.
1) if i waive my right to see,how do i know which of my letters are the best ones? how do we know whether the new letters are better than old ones ?
2) why do you want to print the inactive letters? do you do that routinely and is there any specific reason behind this?

sorry if my questions sound rude in any way.

thanks.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

i sent the old letters because i thought the new letters (from recent rotations) are going to take some time to get uploaded and i didnt want my application to be incomplete. i thought if i assign some letters,atleast my application would be under review.

Well, this is probably true. However, as a PD, I'm much more interested in how you're doing this year as an intern than how you did last year as a student. If I see you application without any letters from your current training, I might assume that things are not going well / you couldn't get anyone to recoomend you.

1) if i waive my right to see,how do i know which of my letters are the best ones? how do we know whether the new letters are better than old ones ?

You don't. You ask your letter writers if they can support your application. If they say yes, and you waive your right, then they write what they think. If you don't waive your right, then perhaps they are concerned that you will "see" their letter, and hence can't be "honest". IMHO, I expect that everyone assumes that you might see their letter somewhere in the future, and waiving your right makes no difference. However, some PD's might see an unwaive letter as "less believable". No idea how often this happens. Personally, I don't care. All LOR's basically say the same thing anyway.

2) why do you want to print the inactive letters? do you do that routinely and is there any specific reason behind this?

You sent me a letter of recommendation. Why would I not read it? In a paper application you can't just "take it back". Neither can you in ERAS. Personally, I would favor having ERAS max out at 4 or 5 letters -- once you send that many, that's it.

 

[suryapet]

dear aProgDirector,
thank you very much for your prompt and valuable replies. you are truly amazing.

 

[suryapet]

dear aProgDirector,
sorry for asking so many questions. i have a small query for one of your replies to a question posted below. Mr.craigkes thinks that both of his PS were downloaded. but,you told him that you can see only his second PS. does the same thing happens with LOR's and PS or not? isnt the old PS be marked as inactive? then,how come you can see both PS's in this instance?

dont assume that i am doubting you. i trust you completely because i can figure out from your other posts that unless you are a program director, you cant have such clear idea about everything.....i am asking these questions just to clear my mind.

Quote:
Originally Posted by craigkes

here was the question:
I accidently assigned the wrong PS to several of my prelim. year programs but before it was sent out I realized it, made some changes, and submitted the new PS to the programs before they were uploaded to any of them. However, upon looking, it looks like they received BOTH PS's. Did I do something wrong here? I didn't see an option to "deselect" a PS, only an option to select my new one. Also, does this tick programs off to see two slightly different PS's? It's no secret i will be doing Anesthesia but want to make sure that they know I want their IM prelim. year as well. Sorry for the long winded statement.

this was your response:
We can only see the last PS you sent. I guess that ERAS will simply send both PS's, and the second will wipe out the first before we get a chance to read it at all.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

...both of his PS were downloaded. but,you told him that you can see only his second PS. does the same thing happens with LOR's and PS or not? isnt the old PS be marked as inactive? then,how come you can see both PS's in this instance?

ERAS is set up to accept multiple LOR's. So, when you send a new LOR, the old one is retained also.

ERAS is only set up to have one PS. It also only has one profile, so when you make a change (such as updating your address, or your AOA status, etc) the old data is discarded for the new data. This is the way the PS works -- ERAS is designed to only have a single PS, so a new PS bumps out the old one.

Of course, once anything is printed, then I have a copy of it forever.