when do you ask for letters?

[kcrd]

When is the best time to ask for a letter from your attending? Also, any advice on how to ask? I know we just went through this a few years ago for medical school admissions, but it seems so far away, and I always felt awkward asking.

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[kristing]

I ask at the half way mark -- at the same time I ask if there's anything I need to improve upon. I just come right out and ask. Blunt and quick.

 

[Samir Desai]

At the end of a rotation, it is acceptable to ask a faculty member who gave you a good evaluation to write you a letter of recommendation.

Some students prefer to wait until the third year is over before requesting letters. This is also acceptable, but asking soon after a clerkship ends does offer you one advantage. If the writer drafts the letter after the clerkship, you are fresh in the writer's mind. A letter written at this point in time is more likely to include specific details and examples that back up any praise. Letters of this sort are more effective in supporting your application. During the residency application process, you can ask the writer to update the letter incorporating information about your specialty choice and career goals.

When asking, be sure to ask the attending if he or she can write you a strong letter of recommendation. If the attending says "yes", then you can be confident that the letter will be supportive. If the answer is "no", then you can move on to the next attending on your list of potential letter writers. Do the same for any attending who seems hesitant or unenthusiastic about writing the letter.

I understand that you may feel awkward about asking but remember that attendings expect to be asked to write these letters for students who performed well. It's just one of their many professional responsibilities. Too often, awkardness and hesitancy get in the way and students procrastinate. Don't procrastinate when asking for letters because if you delay, attendings may not be able to write the best possible letter because of time constraints.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions.

Good luck securing those strong LORs,

Samir Desai, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine

 

[Amy]

Maybe these are stupid questions, but I'm pretty ignorant about the whole residency application process. How many LOR's do you need? Also, if you ask for a letter a long time before applying (like, early in 3rd year), where do you have the attending send the letter? I assume the applicant isn't supposed to see it.

 

[ckent]

Originally posted by Amy
Maybe these are stupid questions, but I'm pretty ignorant about the whole residency application process. How many LOR's do you need? Also, if you ask for a letter a long time before applying (like, early in 3rd year), where do you have the attending send the letter? I assume the applicant isn't supposed to see it.

I've heard 3-5 letters are recommended, depending on your specialty. I asked one of my attendings to write a draft for a letter of recc back in December, hopefully she actually did this because I'm sure that she has forgotten me by now. We are supposed to ask our letter writers to hand the letters to us in a sealed envelope, and then we personally deliver the letters to the OSA so that we can be sure that they all get there. You can't turn in letters until your OSA says that it's ready to start accepting letters though. I suppose that you could get someone to write a letter, date it to the future, if they were willing to let you hang on to it for a while.

 

[MOZ D.O.]

are you only supposed to get letters of rec from people in the specialty you want to go into or is it okay for any doctor to write you a letter. for example, if i want to go into im but i happened to kick ass in surgery and develop a good rapport with my attending would it be improper to ask him for a letter? also, when doing electives at programs you potentially would like to go to is it important to get letters from the faculty there or is it okay if you just have letters from you core attendings?

MOZ D.O.

 

[Asher]

Most programs ask for three to four LORs in addition to the Dean's Letter. Who these letters should be written by will vary from speciality to speciality and even from program to program. In general though (I think), if you are applying to pediatrics your letters should be from pediatric attendings, etc. Most programs/specialities do not accept letters from residents (I think I heard that some surgery programs may accept letters from chief residents). For other specialities, such as psych, the programs may request that one letter be from a medicine attending.

What I've found is that if an attending thinks that you have done well on their rotation, he or she will offer to write you a LOR. It also helps to check the campus grapevine to see which attendings write good letters and which ones merely send out a form letter.

Good luck!

 

[kcrd]

thanks, everyone, for the advice!

 

[BPKurtz]

Being in the midst of getting some LOR's now, here's what I have found:

Everyone needs at least 3 LORs. For each program to which you are applying, it seems you can only send a maximum of 4 LORs. At least that is how I am reading what the ERAS site says (I am working on my ERAS now). What happens is this: you ask the person for a letter of recommendation and ask them to send it to the designated administrator person at your school (this may be someone in the Dean's office, or in my case a specific person in the Student affairs office). In the case of my school, I think this person takes the letter and scans it into the computer or something. Then the administrator sends the letter on to the ERAS people. You can do this for an infinite number of letters of recommendation, if you want. Then for each school to which you are applying you can choose a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 4 letters that are on file with ERAS to go to that school (the process by which you do this is through the ERAS online website). So basically, you can pick and choose which letters go to which programs. I can imagine a couple of scenarios in which this would be useful. For instance, if you are applying to more than one kind of residency (e.g. Ophthalmology and family practice) then you can make sure that any letters from the ophtho people which talk about what a kick-ass ophtalmologist you would make go to all the ophtho programs and all the letters from family docs would go to those programs without jeopardizing your chances for either one. Another example might be if you did an away rotation at one place (say Mass Specific Hospital) and got an LOR from the doc there and you wanted to make sure the program saw that letter, but you wanted another program to which you were applying (say Bob Hopkins) to get another set of letters entirely and never see that letter from Mass Specific.

As far as when to ask, I usually ask at the end of my time with the attending if they would be willing to write a letter; if they say yes then I follow up later with a reminder email or phone call to make sure it is still okay (to give them another chance to back out) and then drop off a CV and the address of the person in student affairs where they have to send the LOR to.

bpkurtz

 

[Rads Resident]

My advice for LOR:

Have the guts to specifically ask them for a strong letter; don't just hope they'll do it for you.

You can say something like, "Hey, I'm really hoping for a strong letter. Would you feel comfortable doing that for me? Because if you have any hesitations, I understand, but in that case I'd really like to ask someone else and no hard feelings."

Good luck.

 

[chicamedica]

Don't people usually get LORs from their AI/sub-I attendings?

 

[djalimd]

So if I were going to ask someone who I just finished rotating with, do you think one should definitely track him down face to face to ask? Or would sending an email or a phone call or something be just as appropriate? (In case it wil be difficult to find a time to meet him)

 

[missMD]

Is it wrong to ask for a letter of rec from a Pre-Clinical course professor that you have worked with outside of that course? For example if it is someone you have done research or TAing for

 

[Renovar]

Originally posted by missMD
Is it wrong to ask for a letter of rec from a Pre-Clinical course professor that you have worked with outside of that course? For example if it is someone you have done research or TAing for

Depends. If you have worked more than a summer worth or research with the faculty, and/or have a publication or two in the lab, you can use the letter as a 4th letter if you are interested in a research-oriented academic program. Dont think it is wise to get a letter from a course you have TA'ed.

 

[Samir Desai]

Whenever possible, it's best to ask for a letter of recommendation in person rather than by email. As some of the responses have indicated, you always want to ask the attending if he or she can write you a strong letter of recommendation.

Even if the writer says that he or she will support your application with a letter, be sure to gauge their level of commitment. For example, if the letter writer seems hesitant or ambivalent (or gives you any nonverbal cues that say "I'm not crazy about writing you this letter"), then the recommendation letter may not be as positive as it could or should be. That's not the type of letter you want supporting your application.

It's hard to gauge an attending's level of commitment if you ask for a letter of rec by email. Some attendings also believe it is more courteous for students to ask in person. For these reasons, I recommend making an appointment with the attending when asking for a letter.

Samir Desai, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine

 

[Scrubbs]

Originally posted by chicamedica
Don't people usually get LORs from their AI/sub-I attendings?

Yes, most people end up using 4th year recs for ERAS, however, it never hurts to start early. You can ask for as many letters as you want, you DON'T have to use them all. People also change their minds about what specialty they're interested in during the 3rd year. Having a variety of good letters, and the practice of asking for them, can only help you.

Just my $0.02 😎

 

[Minimalist M]

It's highly recommended to get a core rotation letter. But make sure it's a core with a strong association with your desired field (eg. get a neurosurgeon to write your "core" rotation surgery letter if you're applying to neurosurgery).

I would ask for letters at the end of the rotation (or end of that block).

 

[tubbs]

once you do ask for a reference letter, and the preceptor has agreed...how long does it usually take for a letter to be written?

what do we do, if it takes longer than expected? do we just keep waiting? or do we just kindly remind them. how much time do we give them after that?

thanks,

tubbs