Question about submitting Letters of Recommendation

[CTR]

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When applying to psychiatry residency programs, does it matter if I submit 4 letters of recommendation instead of the standard number of 3? Also, does it matter much who the non-psychiatrist letter writers are? I have letters written by two psychiatrists, two internists, one family physician and one surgeon. I'm including both psychiatrists with every submission, but I'm curious if it matters whether I include certain specialties from the others, and if I should just pick one or two. Thanks. 🙂

 

[Chimed]

Hi. Typically, I checked with each program to see if it was OK to send more then 3 letters. I don't remember any programs that said, "only send 3", so I think I sent 4 to most programs. But all 4 were extremely good letters. I would, however, only send 3 excellent letters rather then 3 good ones and an extra 4th letter that was just so-so. But I would suggest looking into each program because you don't want some uptight place to get the impression you can't read direction. Stupid, I know.

Regarding who to get them from, I would definitively do the 2 from the psychiatrist and then use one or both of the internist letters over either the FP or surgeon, as long as they're good letters.

Hope that helps!

 

[psychattending]

If all 4 are strong letters then send 4 if the program will take 4. If all non-psych letters are equally strong, then I would go with letters from different specialties because it demonstrates that you have broad talents.