sent wrong LOR to programs

[hope4residency]

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hi,
i applied to both internal medicne and family medicine,not necessarily one as a backup to other. the fact is i was unmatched last year. i want to be a practising doctor and i would be happy in whatever specialty i can, if i can practice as a physician.

i have an LOR which clearly supports my residency application for internal medicine. but, i sent it to all family medicine programs by mistake. i know this is a terrible mistake on my part. i still have, on my file, other LOR's from family physcians. Do i stand any chance at all in family medicine this year?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I really don't know. My guess is, since IM and FM are relatively similar, that it won't make much of a difference. In any case, if the letters have been downloaded by programs, there is nothing you can do about it now. best to leave it alone, calling attention to it will only make things worse.

 

[dragonfly99]

You can "deselect" that letter for the fm programs, but they've probably already downloaded it. I wouldn't worry about this a ton. They are similar fields. I think if you tell the fm programs what you've told us ("I really want to be a practicing clinician and I would be willing to do it in either field at a good program like yours") it should be OK in most cases. A few places might be "nazi fm" (i.e. "fm is the only good specialty and we do it all!") and might hold it against you, but I don't think there are that many. If you can give a reasonable reason(s) why you want to do fm, I think they would accept that. Think about a story you want to tell them about your long term career plans (i.e. "I want to go back to my home town and practice general fp or IM with hospital admitting privileges" or "I am thinking of doing family practice, then with a sports med fellowship afterward because I've always been interesting in promoting health and exercise, and I enjoy working with adolescents and young people").

 

[hope4residency]

thank you aProgDirector and Dragonfly99 for your valuable suggestions.
Hope for the best.