Standard Letter of Recommendation

[Lebesgue]

Anyone match without one, but with letters from ER physicians?

Is it "mandatory" or just "highly recommended"?

Thanks.

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[Praying4EM]

Sorry, I can't answer that question, but as a matter of fact, I have some LOR questions too, so I thought may as well piggyback this thread considering the answers to our ? may be helpful to all needing LOR's.

2 Questions
1- I did a 4 week rotation in Trauma surgery. It is in a academic hospital, through the surgery dept. It was very ER related, in fact, the surgeons handled ALL trauma's in that hospital, whether Level I, or Level II and I never once went into the OR. It was more or less an ER trauma rotation cuz that's where I spent all my time and was on trauma team w/ ER residents rotating from another hospital, as well as the surgical residents on trauma duty. I managed to impress the director of trauma, who is a surgeon, but a trauma surgeon, and he agreed to write a favorable LOR. question is, can I use a SLOR for his, or must it be from an ER attending? I know ER programs like LOR's to be from ER docs, but I figured it can't be all that bad to get one from the Director of Trauma at a level I trauma center?

2 - I got my ER rotation scheduled for the month of september. later than I would have liked. Is it going to hurt me to have LOR's in at begining of Oct at the earliest? And should I hold back my application till I have them? I know you can submit the app and then upload the LOR's when you get them, but I'm afraid they'll just reject me thinking I don't have LOR's or do they just wait on your app to be complete to evaluate it?

Thanks and good luck to all M4's going for ER!

 

[BKN]

Sorry, I can't answer that question, but as a matter of fact, I have some LOR questions too, so I thought may as well piggyback this thread considering the answers to our ? may be helpful to all needing LOR's.

2 Questions
1- I did a 4 week rotation in Trauma surgery. It is in a academic hospital, through the surgery dept. It was very ER related, in fact, the surgeons handled ALL trauma's in that hospital, whether Level I, or Level II and I never once went into the OR. It was more or less an ER trauma rotation cuz that's where I spent all my time and was on trauma team w/ ER residents rotating from another hospital, as well as the surgical residents on trauma duty. I managed to impress the director of trauma, who is a surgeon, but a trauma surgeon, and he agreed to write a favorable LOR. question is, can I use a SLOR for his, or must it be from an ER attending? I know ER programs like LOR's to be from ER docs, but I figured it can't be all that bad to get one from the Director of Trauma at a level I trauma center?

2 - I got my ER rotation scheduled for the month of september. later than I would have liked. Is it going to hurt me to have LOR's in at begining of Oct at the earliest? And should I hold back my application till I have them? I know you can submit the app and then upload the LOR's when you get them, but I'm afraid they'll just reject me thinking I don't have LOR's or do they just wait on your app to be complete to evaluate it?

Thanks and good luck to all M4's going for ER!

LeB. Very close to mandatory unless the rest of your app is stellar.

Praying. The trauma director ain't bad, but I want to see someone evaluate your skills for EM, which are frankly quite broader than Trauma. September is OK. On the first day ask for an appointment with the PD or Chairman. Tell them your goal is get a strong SLOR in the ERAS by mid-October. Ask for at least 2 shifts with him/her. Show up early to all your shifts, stay late. Do whatever it takes to get honors. Convince everyone that you are joy to live with and would be wonderful to train.

Don't hold your app back, we all review them when they are ready. But, very good appps might get an early interview. Very bad apps might be saved by a late SLOR, so that might be the exception to getting out in front.
Good Luck.