to aprogdirector: letters of reference?

[viostorm]

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Aprogdirector (or others if they want to chime in) ....

I'm 3rd year and I want to give some of the more competitive programs a shot next year.

Problem: I go to what most fancy places would consider my school "podunk state" far from the east coast and I do not think many of the faculty would be known nationally. The IM department currently has no dept chair either and the interim chair went to medical school and residency here.

I'd like to start planning who to "butter up" for letters next year and plan if I should or should not do away rotations.

Question:

1) Would it be better for me to have letters from people here or if I did away rotations from faculty that might be better known nationally?

If the answer is that it would be better from people on my "away rotations" then how many aways should I plan on doing? I can do up to 3, but obviously, they all cost $$$ and I'll have to buy malpractice insurance.

Thanks in advance,

-Vio

 

[gutonc]

FWIW, I've been told by more than 1 PD that having >1 letter from away rotations can look a little bit sketchy. Like you are either ashamed of your home program or you couldn't get a good letter from enough people. Either way it's kind of a red flag. I would say that at the most you should have 2 of 4 submitted letters from away rotations but in general 1 is enough.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I think that the best option is to have 1 (or maybe 2) away letters, as mentioned above. Away letters will always be most useful at that institution, the more famous the person / institution the more valuable. Remember that when you set up an away rotation it is often difficult to choose whom you will work with (depends on the field).

You should not need to purchase medmal -- I thought that all medical schools had a system by which they cover each other's students (or that your home medmal covers you when you are elsewhere). I could be totally wrong about that.

 

[viostorm]

I think that the best option is to have 1 (or maybe 2) away letters, as mentioned above. Away letters will always be most useful at that institution, the more famous the person / institution the more valuable. Remember that when you set up an away rotation it is often difficult to choose whom you will work with (depends on the field).

You should not need to purchase medmal -- I thought that all medical schools had a system by which they cover each other's students (or that your home medmal covers you when you are elsewhere). I could be totally wrong about that.

Thanks so much.

Our institution only gives us like 250k or something (basically, the laws in texas are so good that is all we need). Most places want 1 million/6 million when you do away rotations. It is a frequent problem for us in Texas.

Rumor is that some places are only downloading 3 letters, I'm not familiar with the application but is that all you can have or is it that some places are only downloading and looking at the first 3?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Rumor is that some places are only downloading 3 letters, I'm not familiar with the application but is that all you can have or is it that some places are only downloading and looking at the first 3?

Programs must download all your letters -- we have no control over that.

Individual programs can certainly decide to only look at the first three if they want.