Using Anesthesia letter of rec for Ortho

Started by datSattar
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datSattar

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5+ Year Member
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Hey all,

Quick question. I'm a DO student planning on applying DO Ortho and MD anesthesia as a back-up. I did an anesthesia elective and secured a solid letter. Was asked by the letter writer if i'd like the letter to be anesthesia-specific or keep it general? Thoughts?
 
Don't do it. Get Ortho letters if you're serious.
But of the 3 required letters, they don’t all need to be ortho right? Couldn’t a solid letter from an anesthesiologist still be useful?

Edit: as long as it’s not anesthesia-specific.
 
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Ask for two versions. Just have the letter writer change the name of the specialties in each version. This is what I did...


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I dunno man, I heard ortho wants all letters to be ortho. Hence I had 4 ortho letters.

You can still get the anesthesia letter and use it for you backup anesthesia apps.
 
Personally, I just matched into one of the ACGME initial accredited AOA programs, and I only have ONE letter that was an ortho letter. I honestly had a hard time getting letters. My other letters were a plastics surgeon letter and OBGYN letter, but both were really solid and full of praise. And a caveat is that my ortho letter was from the program director of my top choice program which I matched into.

So take that with a grain of salt... My recommendation is just to get as many stellar letters as humanly possible. Like letters that say something like, "After meeting X, I have had my faith restored in humanity and the blinding light of his awesome presence has proven to me the existence of the all-holy messiah himself reincarnated as a medical student."