Which letters should I use?

[nm825]

I have the following letters:

Anesthesiology Chair at my school- generic

Anesthesiology Attending from my third-year rotation- I didn't work with her in the OR during the rotation, but me and the other third-year student would meet with her daily, discuss topics in anesthesia, and give presentations to her twice weekly. I also worked with her one day in the OR during my fourth-year rotation. She is the head of a one of the fellowships at my institution. She said I did well on the rotation, and I also provided her with very positive resident reviews of my OR acumen prior to writing the letter.

Anesthesiology attending from my fourth-year rotation- I worked with her just 2 or 3 times but she had positive things to say about me.

Internal Medicine Attending- strong

NICU attending- probably decently strong

Family Medicine attending- probably strong but the dude is pretty quirky, didn't have the best grammar, and doesn't have faculty at my school.


My anesthesiology advisor strongly recommended using the generic chair's letter because "anesthesiology is a small-world," so I was planning on using anesthesiology chair letter, anesthesiology letter from my third-year rotation (even though I didn't really work with her in the OR besides once), IM attending, and NICU attending. Are those the right letters to pick?

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[DM27]

Does anyone screen your letters? My med school adviser screened the letter of recs and basically advised which ones were "good". You would be surprised how many great attendings apparently write letters that are full of typos. One guy was known for telling a really weird story in his letters so people were told not to ask him for one.

If you can't have them screened, then the advice you were given is what I was given too. I was told the chair letter is borderline expected and definitely it goes a long way when people see a familiar name even if the letter is nothing special. I used my Anesthesia chair letter, anesthesiologist letter (away rotation), and an IM attending letter. For the few programs that accepted 4 letters I also used a peds one simply bc I had a good rapport on that rotation.

I applied awhile back so this advice may be outdated, some programs accepted 4 letters and some accepted 3, it was often not well described on their website or on ERAS and if you sent 4 LoRs to programs that only accepted 3 you sometimes got less than pleasant emails from the program coordinator. I don't know if this has changed.

 

[Twiggidy]

Chair Letter
3rd Year Rotation (based on the description)
Internal Medicine Letter

 

[hfzballer11]

I was hoping to get some help on this as well. I am a PGY-2 in another specialty switching to anesthesia. I have the following:

Transitional year PD - very strong

Intern year IM attending - very strong

Intern year ICU Attending - not sure how strong

Anesthesia Attending - very Strong

Anesthesia chairman - not sure how strong

Current PD - have to use this no matter what

I have to pick 4 of these. Any advice?

 

[Urzuz]

IMO (if you only have four and you have to use your PDs.)

Full disclosure is that I have absolutely nothing to do with admissions, residency, or even an academic center.

I was hoping to get some help on this as well. I am a PGY-2 in another specialty switching to anesthesia. I have the following:

Transitional year PD - very strong (assuming it is equally as strong as intern year IM attending. If intern year IM attending is stronger use that in place of this one)

Intern year IM attending - very strong

Intern year ICU Attending - not sure how strong

Anesthesia Attending - very Strong

Anesthesia chairman - not sure how strong

Current PD - have to use this no matter what

I have to pick 4 of these. Any advice?

 

[hfzballer11]

IMO (if you only have four and you have to use your PDs.)

Full disclosure is that I have absolutely nothing to do with admissions, residency, or even an academic center.

Thank you! All input helps

 

[DM27]

Anyone who has been your PD should, in theory at least, have the most comprehensive assessment of you and be in the best position to make it.