I am fully aware of the previous post on letters which was very helpful but just had some additional questions.
So ERAS let’s you have 4 letters and if you have more how do those get submitted?
Currently getting a letter from my home chairman and 2 other neurosurg attendings from home institution.....my neurology attending absolutely loved me and has told me he would write me a letter ever since my rotation (and even when I run into him on campus) should I get that letter even though it’s from a neurologist (he is fully aware I’m going into neurosurg)?  Besides letters from PIs did anyone ever get non-neurosurg LORs?

I plan on getting some more from my away rotations but I already have 4 LORs (chairmen, 2 neurosurg faculty, my PI)?  Did people send certain letters to certain programs or just somehow sent out more than 4?

Merci Beaucoup

I was told no one cares what a non-nsg has to say.  However, if the guy is well connected or well-known it might be worth while.

Unless you can get a letter from a Fortune 500 CEO, or a nobel-prize winner, or Hillary Clinton, a letter from a non-neurosurgeon will do nothing for your application.

Unless you can get them to say that you are the best medical student they have ever worked with in their 30 year career.  That kind of statement comes in a letter once a year or so, and raises eyebrows, no matter who its from.

Unless you have an unusually close relationship with a Department of Surgery chairman, I wouldn’t waste my time.  The surgery dept. chairman is probably more concerned with writing glowing letters for the 10+ students interested in general surgery than you.  IMHO, in neurosurgery circles, a division chief = chairman anyways.  You’d be better off getting letters from the chairmen/section chiefs at your sub-I schools and then supplementing with a well known NSurg faculty at your school or two.

The keys to matching are having a glowing letter from your home school chair, glowing letters from the chairmen at your away rotations, and other strong letters from neurosurgeons who are well known and preferably know you well--whether you worked with them at your home school or on your aways.

The other aspect of neurosurgery letters.  Chairmen will look fondly upon their own graduate’s letters of recommendations, and take their words very highly.  So if you want to go to UVA, find a UVA grad to write a letter for you.

So, for ERAS, the max number of letters is 4. My chairman told me I need 3.

I have one from my home chairman and one from the chairman of my away subI which will both go out with my app on Sept 1.
I am doing another subI in Sept and will get another letter from the chair there but it won’t make it out until probably mid-Oct.

Will programs look at my app and offer me interviews with only two chairman letters?
Because I can get a third letter from another home attending neurosurgeon and that way my app will go out with 3 letters, and I will attach the fourth from my Sept subI as soon as its available.

Any thoughts?

Best to submit your app ASAP after applications open. There are some programs that look at them right away and start scheduling interviews - so if you want to be fully in control of your schedule, it is best to get in before spots fill up. Different programs have different thresholds for when they consider the application complete enough to evaluate or send offers, but I received interview offers shortly after submitting with only 2 letters. Programs will look at any extra info / documents you upload on an ongoing basis throughout the season, including letters. If you have a letter or two that go in late, it is a good idea to have copies with you, as they may have made copies of your file to send to the faculty you interview with, before your letter arrived. Be careful not to give away your last copy, however (request the coordinator make more copies if needed). I did this (never got the letter back from a coordinator) and was thus empty handed when faculty asked to see the letter at my final interview.

I think that earning a letter is the most important advice I can give to answer your question. 
You should never have to ask for compliments to achieve a good letter.  It is usually offered so screw the template and title shit.  A title is meaningless so don’t abuse the privilege please.

I’m in a rather bizarre situation (at least I think so). I’m doing NS rotation right now and the way the chairman typically does LOR’s is that he basically has the chief resident write the majority of it since they know the students best (and of course have the chairman review it and sign it). I still have two weeks left of the rotation, and the chief resident seems to be quite happy with my performance, and she said she’d basically let me write my own letter and she and other residents would tweak it before handing it to the chairman. Is this even legal??? I honestly would feel quite awkward doing this and in addition, I was planning on having my right to read the letter waived, as this is apparently more credible.

Any thoughts? I’m a bit stumped as to where to go from here even though it sounds like a no-brainer to write myself a kick ass letter and hand it to the chief.

I am doing 3 NS sub-I’s, but because of scheduling issues, I do not finish my last one until the beginning of November. By the time applications start going out, I will have only one letter in and the second and third should follow in early october, and then early november. Will it be a huge knock to have one letter in prior to interview season?

Stem Cell - 31 July 2009 05:58 PM

Best to submit your app ASAP after applications open. There are some programs that look at them right away and start scheduling interviews - so if you want to be fully in control of your schedule, it is best to get in before spots fill up. Different programs have different thresholds for when they consider the application complete enough to evaluate or send offers, but I received interview offers shortly after submitting with only 2 letters. Programs will look at any extra info / documents you upload on an ongoing basis throughout the season, including letters. If you have a letter or two that go in late, it is a good idea to have copies with you, as they may have made copies of your file to send to the faculty you interview with, before your letter arrived. Be careful not to give away your last copy, however (request the coordinator make more copies if needed). I did this (never got the letter back from a coordinator) and was thus empty handed when faculty asked to see the letter at my final interview.

My question is in reference to the “late letters” - if you are bringing extra copies shouldn’t they be sealed?  Is it normal or acceptable to ask a program to give you a bunch of written sealed extra copies to take with you on interviews?  I have a September Sub-I that I am hoping to get a letter from - if that gets uploaded early October will I need to have some in print form for interviews?  Also I am assuming that if I get a letter from my August sub-i that will be uploaded in time for October/November interviews.

You can ask your school to print off copies of a letter that came in late and put them in envelopes with a signature or stamp across the seal. If you start to run out, you may be obliged to keep at least one copy per program and give that to the coordinator when you arrive for additional copies to be made. In reality though, the coordinator already has your letter through the online system, so an email sent before you arrive asking the coordinator to make sure your late letter was included in the packet for each faculty would probably be the best proactive step. I did try to keep some with me anyway, so as not to be dependent upon others. If I told faculty it was my last copy, they were invariably willing to let me keep it after they had read it.

Hey guys
in terms of letters...I asked someone high up/in charge at my home site and was told it is ok to get a non NS letter from my neuroscience class. My prof loved me (I got a 98% overall in that class and i did extra brain dissections not in the curric for the course but bc i wanted to) so i asked if it was at all appropriate to get a letter from him, and was told it was just fine. So i am not sure about the only NS letter thing (of course you guys/gals who have gone before me would know wayyy better though), but I was told it was a go. I’m a little confused since I was told it was fine, but everyone on here says it is a no no.

I look for the following features in a LOR:

1) Short and to the point

2) The applicant has waived his/her right to see the letter

3) The author knows what it takes to become a neurosurgeon

4) The author has worked with the applicant and says something interesting about him/her

5) The author is known for honesty, and is someone I know and/or respect

The two page letter from your dean, your neuroscience professor who has a crush on you, your neurology attending who thinks you are nifty and your Aunt Harriet who says you are “the bees’ knees” really don’t help much.  The three sentence letter from Dr. Jane reporting that you rotated with him and that he wants to match you?- That is valuable.