Question about LOR's

[AK_MD2BE]

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So, who exactly do you get your letters of recommendation from? Is it the attendings that you work with on a given rotation or the residents? I am only an MS2 right now, so I have time to start thinking about LOR's, but I was just curious for future reference as to how to go about getting LOR's. Thanks for your time and assistance. 😉

 

[patch28]

I am also interested in this. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[scotchnwater]

I did things a little non-traditionally, but apparently it all worked out in the end.

First off, you will want a letter from your Dept Chair. They will expect this and generally set aside time each year (around July/August) to meet with aspiring anesthesiologists. All I had to do was e-mail his secretary and they took it from there (gave me a time, told me what to bring - grades, PS, transcript).

So this leaves you with two more letters in most programs. I got my second one from my advisor (who turned out to be the PD at my school). He was well-known in the field and wrote a nice letter. I didn't do any work with him at all, and only met with him about 3 times prior to his writing the letter. I really wish I could have had a letter from someone I worked closely with, but I actually had a truly awful attending when I did my 3rd year rotation in anesthesia and wouldn't ask him for cold **** on a plate if I were starving, much less a letter of rec.

For my third letter I went to the Chair of the Dept of Medicine. At my school, this individual writes over 100 letters each year and gives the distinct advantage of ranking students relative to each other (which our school does not do). This really helped me as I didn't get AOA but he actually wrote in the letter that he didn't understand why I wasn't AOA. I believe this letter helped me for that reason, and because this guy writes so many letters that all the programs I applied to were very familiar with him and what he wrote.

From the vast majority of people I've talked to, you'll want to get (in addition to your Chair's letter) something from an attending you've worked closely with during a rotation (preferably anesthesia, but not necessarily). This is something I wish I would have been able to get. My best friend (who is also doing anesthesia) actually got one from his OB/Gyn attending who knew him very well. He told me he got great compliments on that letter during interviews.

I'm sure some of the attendings and residents out there may have a different take on this, but that's the advice I would give people regarding LORs.

So, who exactly do you get your letters of recommendation from? Is it the attendings that you work with on a given rotation or the residents? I am only an MS2 right now, so I have time to start thinking about LOR's, but I was just curious for future reference as to how to go about getting LOR's. Thanks for your time and assistance. 😉

 

[DrDre']

the more known or powerful the letter writer is best IF they can write YOU a great letter.

the best letter will be from someone who knows you well and is very impressed with you.


a famous chair who writes an anemic letter does you no good.

I did things a little non-traditionally, but apparently it all worked out in the end.

First off, you will want a letter from your Dept Chair. They will expect this and generally set aside time each year (around July/August) to meet with aspiring anesthesiologists. All I had to do was e-mail his secretary and they took it from there (gave me a time, told me what to bring - grades, PS, transcript).

So this leaves you with two more letters in most programs. I got my second one from my advisor (who turned out to be the PD at my school). He was well-known in the field and wrote a nice letter. I didn't do any work with him at all, and only met with him about 3 times prior to his writing the letter. I really wish I could have had a letter from someone I worked closely with, but I actually had a truly awful attending when I did my 3rd year rotation in anesthesia and wouldn't ask him for cold **** on a plate if I were starving, much less a letter of rec.

For my third letter I went to the Chair of the Dept of Medicine. At my school, this individual writes over 100 letters each year and gives the distinct advantage of ranking students relative to each other (which our school does not do). This really helped me as I didn't get AOA but he actually wrote in the letter that he didn't understand why I wasn't AOA. I believe this letter helped me for that reason, and because this guy writes so many letters that all the programs I applied to were very familiar with him and what he wrote.

From the vast majority of people I've talked to, you'll want to get (in addition to your Chair's letter) something from an attending you've worked closely with during a rotation (preferably anesthesia, but not necessarily). This is something I wish I would have been able to get. My best friend (who is also doing anesthesia) actually got one from his OB/Gyn attending who knew him very well. He told me he got great compliments on that letter during interviews.

I'm sure some of the attendings and residents out there may have a different take on this, but that's the advice I would give people regarding LORs.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I just went for who would write me the strongest letters.

-Pain doc I do research with
-Pain doc I did a rotation with
-Medicine attending (old guy)
-Urology attending (young guy)

I don't think I was hurt by not having a chairman letter, or even the strong pain emphasis (but my whole app has a strong pain emphasis).

I did get a medicine chairman's letter that I sent to prelims instead of the research letter.

 

[mcfreak]

So, who exactly do you get your letters of recommendation from? Is it the attendings that you work with on a given rotation or the residents? I am only an MS2 right now, so I have time to start thinking about LOR's, but I was just curious for future reference as to how to go about getting LOR's. Thanks for your time and assistance. 😉

You want a letter from an attending whom you had a good rotation with. If they have a nice title, thats gravy.

 

[scotchnwater]

I don't think I was hurt by not having a chairman letter, or even the strong pain emphasis (but my whole app has a strong pain emphasis).

I certainly have nothing more than my own experience to draw from here, but I was told that programs usually question why if an applicant doesn't have a letter from their Chair. I was also told many other things which turned out to be false. 😛

 

[lord_jeebus]

I certainly have nothing more than my own experience to draw from here, but I was told that programs usually question why if an applicant doesn't have a letter from their Chair. I was also told many other things which turned out to be false. 😛

Yeah, it never came up. Our chair told us that he'd write us a letter if we needed one, but it seemed implied that it wasn't necessary and I don't know how many took him up on it.

 

[Dr Serenity]

If you're applying to prelim medicine programs (to fulfill the CBY requirement for advanced programs), be sure to get a letter from your Chair of Medicine. Some internal medicine programs require this, some don't...but it's best to have all your bases covered.

Anesthesia programs don't seem to be nearly so picky in requiring a letter from your department chair. I'm only drawing from my own experience, though.

PS--by chair, I mean chairman (or chairperson), not chairs you sit in...I don't think those will do you any good 😛

Yes, I know...bad joke. You may flame me now.😀

 

[AK_MD2BE]

So, it sounds like letters from residents are not desirable. The reason I started this thread was b/c I was thinking about getting to know some of the Anesthesiology residents for the next two years (I am an MS2 now...so could get an LOR in two years) so that they could write a good letter saying, "blah, blah, we have worked with Mr...for two years and blah, blah, blah". Nonetheless, I am still going to get to know them and spend time with them to make sure that anesthesiology is the career for me. But it sounds like a better idea might be to try to get to know the chair of our Anesthesiology program. Is that possible? Are most department chairs guys (or gals) who just sit up on high and do "administrative work" and not get to know students. Forgive the ignorance. Thanks.🙂

 

[lord_jeebus]

You don't need to get to know a chair for a chair's letter

The key is to impress attendings in a clinical setting.

 

[Salt Creep]

Your plan of getting to know the residents well over the next year can apply to the attendings too. You can get to know the residents & find out who is best to have know you (whose case you be sure you go to when you have choices).

Come in on your own time away from school & see what the specialty involves - and don't just do it to get face time and suck up. You can use it to see if you really like the specialty or not, and get great exposure much earlier than most people.

I thought I wanted to do surgery for a long time, but saw the light while doing exactly this.

As for letters, you don't want them from residents. 3 of 4 of mine came from other specialties, but people who knew me very well.