What makes for a terrific residency LOR?

[658809]

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I've been hearing a lot about the importance of good LOR's for residency. What makes for a good letter?

1. Is a letter from a researcher/faculty member ideally someone from your med school?
2. How long should they have known you for?
3. For research experiences, is it best to have more than one summer's worth of research at a certain place or is it best to have different research experiences in various places?
4. Regarding letters from physicians, how long should they have known you for or how many experiences should they have observed you in?

Thanks!

 

[Alejandro]

Is this for med school or for residency? your status says "premed"...

 

[operaman]

Dear Colleagues,

I'm writing on behalf of Mr. John Smith who I have known for the past 3 years as both a student in my OR and clinic and as a researcher. I can say without hesitation and without exception that he is the finest medical student I have met in my career. I will do everything in my power as chairman to ensure that he is at the top of our rank list. He is destined to become a leader in our field and I give him my highest recommendation.

Please don't hesitate to call or write if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,
Michael E. DeBakey, MD, FACS
Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery
Baylor University College of Medicine

 

[Psai]

Dear Colleagues,

I'm writing on behalf of Mr. John Smith who I have known for the past 3 years as both a student in my OR and clinic and as a researcher. I can say without hesitation and without exception that he is the finest medical student I have met in my career. I will do everything in my power as chairman to ensure that he is at the top of our rank list. He is destined to become a leader in our field and I give him my highest recommendation.

Please don't hesitate to call or write if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,
Michael E. DeBakey, MD, FACS
Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery
Baylor University College of Medicine

I think that they might be suspicious about a letter from him for some reason

 

[Kaustikos]

My experience is that you just know. You rotate for a month and you get a feel for the person you work for. Talk to them at the end of the rotation. Don't suck up but be honest about your interest. Ask for feedback. Ask for advice. Then ask of they would write you a LoR.
Keep in touch with them. I'm not saying daily, but schedule meetings to give them progress and stuff. I had an advisor, but the other two people who wrote me letters were also pretty much advisors too. I kept in contact with them.
The other thing, I think, is to let them know how appreciative you are for what they did. Some people get the sense that they're being used (which is somewhat true) but if you let them know that you do appreciate their efforts and working with them, it makes it all the better.
Do you need to spend months on end with them? No. But it wouldn't hurt to be involved in their department.
In the end: be respectful, appreciative and communicate.


Edit: these people are also helpful when asking for a letter from the chair. They'll be able to help you proactively prepare for that meeting

 

[658809]

My experience is that you just know. You rotate for a month and you get a feel for the person you work for. Talk to them at the end of the rotation. Don't suck up but be honest about your interest. Ask for feedback. Ask for advice. Then ask of they would write you a LoR.
Keep in touch with them. I'm not saying daily, but schedule meetings to give them progress and stuff. I had an advisor, but the other two people who wrote me letters were also pretty much advisors too. I kept in contact with them.
The other thing, I think, is to let them know how appreciative you are for what they did. Some people get the sense that they're being used (which is somewhat true) but if you let them know that you do appreciate their efforts and working with them, it makes it all the better.
Do you need to spend months on end with them? No. But it wouldn't hurt to be involved in their department.
In the end: be respectful, appreciative and communicate.


Edit: these people are also helpful when asking for a letter from the chair. They'll be able to help you proactively prepare for that meeting

So...you could literally just have a few months of contact with a person during the first two years of medical school, and then ask for a LOR for residency if the relationship was good?

 

[cs24]

So...you could literally just have a few months of contact with a person during the first two years of medical school, and then ask for a LOR for residency if the relationship was good?

Well maybe... if you had a really good relationship with them and they knew you in a capacity where they had a general idea about your abilities (maybe did extensive research with them?). But you really don't get that many letters in ERAS, and if you are so desperate for letters that you can't get 3-4 good ones from people who had a longer relationship with you, evaluated you in a clinical setting, etc then it might be a bit of a red flag. If it is just someone you met with for a few months or shadowed who can say almost nothing about your abilities or compare you to other students, that would be pretty useless.

Disclaimer- M2, so I know nothing really.

 

[operaman]

So...you could literally just have a few months of contact with a person during the first two years of medical school, and then ask for a LOR for residency if the relationship was good?

Generally speaking, you will only want letters from clinical faculty. The exception would be a research mentor or someone else you worked very closely with for a prolonged period of time. MD/PhD students would definitely want one from their primary mentor as its absence would be noticed.

As a very general rule of thumb you will want the following:
1) Letter from dept chair of whatever field you're doing. You will have had very little contact with this person, but they generally solicit feedback from others and write something of a summative letter akin to what I posted above from the legendary Dr. DeBakey.
2) Letter from attending you worked most with/clicked with. You'll know who this is. Ideally it will be someone who is also well known in the field, but that's not essential.
3) Letter from attending you did most of your research with and hopefully worked with clinically as well. Could be a PhD if you did substantial work with them.
4) Letter to balance what's missing. Huge national name who knows you just enough to write a strong letter, or maybe a lesser known one who knows you well and will write a great one. This could be a PD letter if you've had some good interactions with them.

 

[LChristmas]

Dear Colleagues,

I'm writing on behalf of Mr. John Smith who I have known for the past 3 years as both a student in my OR and clinic and as a researcher. I can say without hesitation and without exception that he is the finest medical student I have met in my career. I will do everything in my power as chairman to ensure that he is at the top of our rank list. He is destined to become a leader in our field and I give him my highest recommendation.

Please don't hesitate to call or write if you have additional questions.

Sincerely,
Michael E. DeBakey, MD, FACS
Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery
Baylor University College of Medicine

Is this a standard length? I don't know why, but I guess I was expecting it to be longer. I've never written a LOR or seen ones that were written about me.

 

[the argus]

Is this a standard length? I don't know why, but I guess I was expecting it to be longer. I've never written a LOR or seen ones that were written about me.

Some of the best LORs for residency are the shortest, which is especially true if the letter writer is a big name. If they hit all the relevant information (like the one above), there is really nothing more that needs to be said.

You have to remember that residency programs, depending on specialty, will be personally screening (i.e. after step filters, etc) hundreds to thousands of applications, each with 3-4 letters. They are looking for specific information from LORs, anything else that they have to sift through is just filler and annoying.

 

[Kaustikos]

So...you could literally just have a few months of contact with a person during the first two years of medical school, and then ask for a LOR for residency if the relationship was good?

... Why would you get letters in the first two years?

I got mine in third year. Spending a month with someone should be more than enough for them to get an idea of who you are. Then you send them your cv, transcript and personal statement.
If you're spending a month with someone and don't know if they'd write you one... I dunno. A month working 6/7 days of the week?