Questions regarding LORs

[DocHolliday21]

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I have 3 LORs right now. One from psych, one from peds (id like to do child psych..i know i know), and one from IM. I am currently on another psych rotation and will be getting a LOR from that attending which I am pretty sure will be very solid. So I could only use 3 out of 4 and will need to cut one.

Here is my problem. Of the 3 I have now, I thought my psych letter would be the best of the bunch, but my school adviser thinks it is too generic and thinks I should submit my peds and IM (because they were more personal) along with the psych letter I will soon get from my current attending. My thinking was that having 2 psych letters would be ideal and so I was planning on using both of those letters as well as the IM letter and not using the Peds letter.

Any advice on this? I did not think the psych letter was generic, but I'm sure the adviser has seen a lot more letters in her lifetime than I have. The attending that wrote the peds letter told me her letter was short (which I didn't like to hear) but I am sure it was fantastic as she really liked me during the rotation. The IM letter is written by the current program director.


Maybe I am just getting hung up on the whole 2 psych LOR thing. Any advice on this matter would be helpful. Thank you.

 

[PsychOhio]

You can submit 4 letter of recommendation on ERAS. Best of luck!

 

[The Long Way]

When I applied, I only used 3 letters...1 psych, one FM, and one IM. I had no negative comments from any of the places that I interviewed at, and had one person comment on the breadth from which I drew my LORs.

If the programs you are applying to accept/want four letters, then send all four. Otherwise, I would recommend sending the best 3 letters, whether that includes 1 or 2 from psych.

 

[DocHolliday21]

Interesting.


Thanks for sharing.

 

[Manicsleep]

If the 3rd is excellent from the psychiatrist then send the top 3. Otherwise send all 4.

LORs do help if they are excellent. RE: how personal they are, its not that big a deal as long as they talk about you as a person, your character and your skills in the clinical setting in a positive manner.

 

[atsai3]

I have 3 LORs right now. One from psych, one from peds (id like to do child psych..i know i know), and one from IM. I am currently on another psych rotation and will be getting a LOR from that attending which I am pretty sure will be very solid. So I could only use 3 out of 4 and will need to cut one.

Here is my problem. Of the 3 I have now, I thought my psych letter would be the best of the bunch, but my school adviser thinks it is too generic and thinks I should submit my peds and IM (because they were more personal) along with the psych letter I will soon get from my current attending. My thinking was that having 2 psych letters would be ideal and so I was planning on using both of those letters as well as the IM letter and not using the Peds letter.

Any advice on this? I did not think the psych letter was generic, but I'm sure the adviser has seen a lot more letters in her lifetime than I have. The attending that wrote the peds letter told me her letter was short (which I didn't like to hear) but I am sure it was fantastic as she really liked me during the rotation. The IM letter is written by the current program director.


Maybe I am just getting hung up on the whole 2 psych LOR thing. Any advice on this matter would be helpful. Thank you.

Each program has their own specific requirements. Cambridge Hospital, for example, requires 4 letters but only 1 of those needs to be from a psychiatrist. (Conceivably you could submit 3 surgery letters and they would be acceptable.) You should check with the programs where you are sending an application to see whether they have specific requirements. Many programs will list these on their web sites, and if not, a simple call to the residency program coordinator will clear it up.

-AT.