What if your Dean has changed from the time you were in med school? (MSPE q)

[RaraBovis]

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I'm an IMG.

The current Dean of my school is not the same dean when I was in school. So who writes the Dean's letter (MSPE)? Do I have to track down the old dean or does the new dean write it?

 

[ShyRem]

current dean writes dean's letter. It's not very personal at all - just basically a compilation of your med school experience.

 

[QofQuimica]

I'm an AMG who had this same situation where our old dean retired while I was still a student, and we got a new one midstream. Absolutely no problem occurred because of this; the new dean wrote my MSPE with input from the Student Dean, who knew me very well. Your school will have some kind of provision for dealing with the situation too, so I wouldn't worry about your MSPE at all. Instead, focus on getting strong LORs from attendings in your future specialty and doing well in your AIs. Hope this helps, and best of luck. 🙂

 

[RaraBovis]

I'm an AMG who had this same situation where our old dean retired while I was still a student, and we got a new one midstream. Absolutely no problem occurred because of this; the new dean wrote my MSPE with input from the Student Dean, who knew me very well. Your school will have some kind of provision for dealing with the situation too, so I wouldn't worry about your MSPE at all. Instead, focus on getting strong LORs from attendings in your future specialty and doing well in your AIs. Hope this helps, and best of luck. 🙂

Thank you both.

Quimica, do you know that if I apply to a program say in Sept with 3 LORs and manage to procure another LOR by October, can I somehow add the new LOR later, or swap it with one of the three? Or is it a one-time, permanent and non-modifiable application?

Thanks.

 

[QofQuimica]

Quimica, do you know that if I apply to a program say in Sept with 3 LORs and manage to procure another LOR by October, can I somehow add the new LOR later, or swap it with one of the three? Or is it a one-time, permanent and non-modifiable application?

Yes, you can add new letters or swap them out later. You can upload as many letters as you want to ERAS, and then you assign 2-4 of them to each of your programs. If you want to assign a different letter later, you can unassign one and assign another to replace it. But the program may already have a copy of the first letter if they've already downloaded it.

I don't think you'll have any issue though if you'll have the LOR in Oct. Many programs will accept a fourth letter (but check with each program before you send one), and some programs don't even download your app until MSPEs are available.