SLOR ???--please humor me!

[joaquin13]

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i have a question regarding SLORs...which I am sure have been beat to death. How much does the end question, "How highly would you estimate the candidate will reside on your match list" matter? Does it mean anything?! Assuming the SLOR comes from an attending at an EM residency program you are very interested in.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[FoughtFyr]

i have a question regarding SLORs...which I am sure have been beat to death. How much does the end question, "How highly would you estimate the candidate will reside on your match list" matter? Does it mean anything?! Assuming the SLOR comes from an attending at an EM residency program you are very interested in.

Thanks for any advice!

I would say that it only matters if they say "wouldn't rank / don't match" (sorry, I forgot the exact wording).

First of all, cool that you got to read it. But now you will probably be pondering each word - DON'T! It says what it says. There is no way to know how that program will feel about you once your full application is considered and compared with others. This includes your interview, where you will obviously have an edge already. If they haven't "taken you out of the game" by indicating against a match - don't read any further into it.

Remember, even the most competitive programs can not reliably predict how deep in their ROL they will go in a given year, so if you make the list at all anything is possible!

- H

 

[Sessamoid]

I would say that it only matters if they say "wouldn't rank / don't match" (sorry, I forgot the exact wording).

- H

Too many variables, especially things you can't possibly know. If the LOR comes from somebody who writes a lot of letters, his/her particular style is probably well-known and what you may read as negative may not actually be so. Don't stress it. You can't change it anyway.

 

[DrQuinn]

Too many variables, especially things you can't possibly know. If the LOR comes from somebody who writes a lot of letters, his/her particular style is probably well-known and what you may read as negative may not actually be so. Don't stress it. You can't change it anyway.

Agreed. I remember last year I was reviewing applications, sitting next to my Program Director. There was this one LOR, wasn't a SLOR but it was from an EM PD. I said to my PD "This is the BEST LOR I have ever seen, holy crap this is amazing." He took a look at it, laughed a deep belly laugh, and said "I know the author of the LOR, he didn't like the candidate!"

😕 😱

Yeah, so go figure. He could read subliminally or knew the author enough to know that even though superficially it was an awesome LOR, that it wasn't that strong a recommendation. Weird.

SO don't read into them. As Foughtfyr said, as long as they didn't blackball you by saying "don't match" don't worry about it.

Q

 

[joaquin13]

Does it matter at all whether they mark you as "very competitive?" I received "very competitive" from a program I rotated at along with an overall eval of outstanding... and am very very interested in going there...but its a super competitive program...does that mean anything at all in anyone's experience??!