Really ******ed LOR Question... and MORE!!

[EctopicFetus]

I am a 3rd yr and I am about to start planning my 4th yr. As far as getting LORs do I just tell an attending on day one or at some point going forward?

In addition, I am currently in Chicago and I plan on doing one rotation at Cook County (cause of the solid rep) and then doing at least one more local ER rotation, I am wondering if people have an idea on where to do it? Northwestern, UofC, Christ?

Also, I dont want to end up in chicago, so should I just scrap the 2nd local rotation and just go for another away rotation?

I know I should do a rotation where I want to match but I wont know my location until later (when my wife gets her job).

Anyways thanks in advance for the help!!

Ectopic

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[Jeff698]

I'd recommend asking for the letter while you still have shifts to work with the attending, ie let 'em know up front.

If you don't yet know the type of program you're interested in, do an away rotation at each. I hadn't decided on county vs community/academic yet so I did one of each. Based on that experience, I tailored my applications to what I was looking for.

Good luck!

Take care,
Jeff

 

[EctopicFetus]

Thanks Jeff. Wondering if anyone else has thoughts or is this the standard way to go?

Also, I know a lot of programs require a LOR for 4th yr electives and sadly I didnt know this so I didnt get a LOR from EM, or IM when I did 'em. I just did psych and am about to do OB, PEDS and Neuro.

Where should I get this letter or should I just go back to one of the old EM attendings I worked with and get an LOR from them?

Thanks
Ectopic

 

[deleted52758]

dont worry about LOR's from third year for EM. it's better to get them as a M4 acting like a subi in a EM rotation. if you dont want to stay in chicago, I would definately try to do an outside rotation. I rotated at cook, i loved it. buti did my other one at one of the institutions from my home school... and had a so so experience. however, because i only rotated at these two, i dont think i got as many interviews if i had rotated at an outside institution (outside chicago that is). so i would definately think about rotating at a non county program in another state...

 

[Dr.Evil1]

Do not do a rotation at University of Chicago as a medical student unless you want to go there. Although they have a great residency training program the actual Mitchell ER isn't all that great as a student. You won't see anything there that you wouldn't see just about anywhere else plus near zero trauma. The only reason to do a student rotation at U of C is to try to impress Howes and that probably isn't the best way to do it (go golfing with him instead).

 

[EctopicFetus]

Ok thanks for the info. One other question which I obviously did a poor job in asking before.

I know a lot of programs require a LOR in order to do a 4th yr elective at their site. Sadly I didnt know about this until recently so I didnt get a LOR from EM, or IM when I did 'em. I just did psych and am about to do OB, PEDS and Neuro.

Where should I get this letter or should I just go back to one of the old EM attendings I worked with and get an LOR from them?

I know for Match I need 4th yr LORs but what about to get into my 4th yr electives?

Le' Ectopic Fetus

 

[roja]

You shouldn't need LOR's to get 'into' a fourth year rotation. YOu just have to figure out where you want to do them and get it set up. Early.


I asked for my letters retrospectively.

 

[jazz]

my experience was that you didn't need letters to sign up for away electives in EM. the biggest difficulty was scheduling (this in terms of getting the blocks to match up at your home and away institutions) and scheduling (this in terms of places running out of spots early on). some places had a small application fee. the most popular blocks are august, september, october for away rotations. they fill up fast especially at top notch em residency places.


for em letters as a fourth year elective, try and get the attending schedule after you get yours. figure out who you will be working multiple shifts with. if you have a good first shift, consider asking early on for a letter so that the attending can notice you and then present as much as possible to him/her. since the nature of the field means that you may work with multiple attendings one time each, most places have evals that you hand out at the end of your shift which is then compiled. at the end you get a letter from the rotation coordinator. you can also get individual letters if you happen to work with someone multiple times and the attending seems to like you.

good luck

 

[Hercules]

I also didn't need any LOR's to apply for away rotations this year. As far as scheduling, I would just get the away rotation and then schedule around it at your home institution.

For the LOR at the away, you can go about it two ways. You can work your month and just see which attendings you hit it off with. The other thing that you can do (if you know you want a letter from the PD or some other big name) is to ask ahead of time that they schedule several of your shifts with that attending. They know that every visiting stduent needs to come out of their rotation with a strong LOR so they're usually pretty helpful (at least in my limited experience).

Also, I would start applying now for away rotations since spots are limited.