Too Many LoRs?

[sonofthesouth]

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I know most psych programs ask for a minimum of 3 LoRs (2 psych, 1 non-psych). But do you all know of any program with a maximum number of LoRs? Somehow (it's a long story) I ended up with 5 LoRs--2 psych, 3 non-psych. Would that be too many to send, especially to my top programs that I want to know a lot about me? I'm fairly sure all these letters are pretty positive. Sorry if this has already been asked, but I used the search and couldn't find anything.

 

[Still Kickin]

You should visit the ERAS/NRMP forum, there are tons of posts about this kind of stuff.

I'm pretty sure the maximum ERAS will let you assign to any one program is 4 letters.

I seem to remember from the ERAS/NRMP forum that if you assign a letter, it gets transmitted to the program, and later (after it is already transmitted), if you decide to "de-assign" it and send some other letter in its place, they can actually still see the previous letter, too. (It will just have some sort of designation such as "inactive" next to it.)

I think if there's an honest reason you need to de-assign a letter & replace it with another that is one thing, but if you employ this as a strategy to be able to "send" extra letters to a program, it is considered to be in bad form...

 

[psychattending]

4 LORs is all you have. 3 is adequate for most people. You need to ask yourself what are you trying to demonstrate in with your LORs. As a PD I want to know how you function in psychiatric and non psychiatric fields. If you want to do research, then I like seeing a LOR from your research mentor. I don't need a LOR from your neighbor/cousin/friend attesting to your good character.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

I had 5 letters too. 3 psych and 2 nonpsych.

A couple of programs wanted 2 psych and 2 nonpsych. A lot of programs asked for either 3 or 4 letters with at least one being psych

most of the time I sent 3 psych and my stronger nonpsych.

 

[PeeWee137]

where does it tell you what kinds of letters programs want (psych v. non psych)? i havent seen this mentioned anywhere for any program i applied to, not on frieda, or eras, or the program websites. am i missing something here?

 

[wolfvgang22]

Only some programs actually say on their websites, and they almost always say 3 letters. If they don't say, I assume they want 3, that seems to be standard.

I'm thinking about including a 4th letter, but it's non-psych. It's strong letter, from FP. Already have a peds letter, surgery letter, psych letter up.

Think I should add it?

 

[masterofmonkeys]

where does it tell you what kinds of letters programs want (psych v. non psych)? i havent seen this mentioned anywhere for any program i applied to, not on frieda, or eras, or the program websites. am i missing something here?

of the twenty or so programs I applied to, I believe only 3 mentioned how many psych vs. nonpsych. Maybe more. About 1/3 asked for 4 letters, the rest just 3.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Only some programs actually say on their websites, and they almost always say 3 letters. If they don't say, I assume they want 3, that seems to be standard.

I'm thinking about including a 4th letter, but it's non-psych. It's strong letter, from FP. Already have a peds letter, surgery letter, psych letter up.

Think I should add it?

If I were you I wouldn't necessarily see a need.

I included four letters to most places (even if they only asked for three) because I had three very strong psych letters. I wanted to put a non-psych letter in (peds) just to kinda say 'hey, I know there's more to med school than psych', so to speak.

My reasoning may have been a little off, I don't know. I just didn't want to submit ONLY psych letters, while at the same time didn't want to NOT submit a strong psych letter. *shrug*

 

[atsai3]

where does it tell you what kinds of letters programs want (psych v. non psych)? i havent seen this mentioned anywhere for any program i applied to, not on frieda, or eras, or the program websites. am i missing something here?

This information is typically available from program Web sites. For example, on the Cambridge Health Alliance psychiatry residency program site, they specify 4 LORs including 1 from psychiatry. Similarly, the UCLA program site specifies at least 3 LORs, with 1 from psychiatry "encouraged, but not required".

And if the information is not available on the program Web site, then you can simply call the program administrator and ask.

-AT.