Sent out wrong LOR for residency application (EM)

[randomuser12345]

I feel like an idiot. I am applying to EM and have two departmental SLOEs and one letter from my EM advisor on that should be uploaded in the next couple of weeks. A surgery attending from third year also offered to write me a letter, and since we got along well, worked together a lot, and he is the director of general surgery, I asked him to write me one. He was the first to upload, so I sent his letter to all of my programs. I'm looking at program webpages, and some say semi-vague things like "we require 3 LORs" and some people on forums are saying it's obnoxious to send more than that. I didn't know, and if I had known, I would have just sent the three EM letters to them. About half of my programs applied to are like that.

As I see it, I can either send everyone all four or not send the EM faculty letter. I don't want to be obnoxious, but I also would prefer they see the EM LOR, though I believe the surgery one will be very good as well. I talked to someone from ERAS, and they said to withdraw the letter, I would have to withdraw my entire application and reapply. What's my best option here?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[joker2400]

I feel like an idiot. I am applying to EM and have two departmental SLOEs and one letter from my EM advisor on that should be uploaded in the next couple of weeks. A surgery attending from third year also offered to write me a letter, and since we got along well, worked together a lot, and he is the director of general surgery, I asked him to write me one. He was the first to upload, so I sent his letter to all of my programs. I'm looking at program webpages, and some say semi-vague things like "we require 3 LORs" and some people on forums are saying it's obnoxious to send more than that. I didn't know, and if I had known, I would have just sent the three EM letters to them. About half of my programs applied to are like that.

As I see it, I can either send everyone all four or not send the EM faculty letter. I don't want to be obnoxious, but I also would prefer they see the EM LOR, though I believe the surgery one will be very good as well. I talked to someone from ERAS, and they said to withdraw the letter, I would have to withdraw my entire application and reapply. What's my best option here?

Send 4, it's not obnoxious.

 

[Donald Juan]

Agreed, send the 4

 

[ACSurgeon]

Send 4 to the programs you applied to. If you're really paranoid, you can apply to an additional 10 programs and only send he 3 EM letters. That might be over kill.

 

[randomuser12345]

Thanks for your replies, guys. Maybe it's the neurotic med student in me, but I couldn't help but freak out about this. My adviser finally replied to my email and says it's not really a big deal.