NCSUEMT Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Hey everyone So I'm getting ready to apply to a handful of programs this upcoming CASPA round and I'm trying to get my letters of recommendation rounded up and I'm trying to decide who to ask and what would make most competitive. I was hoping someone on this forum would be kind enough to weigh in with any thoughts or opinions. To start with here are my stats... cGPA: 3.2 sGPA: 3.4 *I still have two semesters of undergraduate to go, all my pre-reqs are done except one and I don't expect there to be much change in my GPA, hopefully only up. GRE: pending HCE: 20,000 hours as a paramedic. So now here's my letter of recommendation situation, I have one I will be getting from my old captain, he's a paramedic supervisor and is the director of a very respected EMS education program but more importantly he was both my EMT instructor, my boss, FTO and generally a great mentor, he can truly speak to my abilities. Additionally I have several RN friends who have worked closely with me, know my attitude and abilities very well and I'm sure would write glowing letters of rec, next I have a close friend and colleague, he and I came up together on the ambulance and he's currently in the middle of his clinical year of PA school, same as the others, he has actually worked closely with me in the back of an ambulance, seen my patient care abilities directly. I know most programs say they want a letter from an "MD or PA" but most of my interactions with the MDs at work are extremely limited. We mostly transfer to a large teaching hospital with a lot of residents that I just don't get much face time with, 9 out of 10 patient hand offs are to the aforementioned RNs. My Medical Director seems like a nice guy, but he oversees close to 200 paramedics and EMTs and does not do any direct education, the only time you can get one on one time with him is if you screw up and need a "evaluation of clinical skills" which thankfully I have never had. Basically, I'm sure I can get a letter of rec from an MD (we don't really use a lot of PAs in the ED) but I don't think it will be very substantive. Mostly, "he seems fine, not a total screw up." So here's my dilemma, I can get 3 letters from people of "lesser" (I hate to use the term, but I don't know how else to put it) title who can truly speak to my abilities or 2 letters from them and one "meh" from an MD. Which is better? None of my schools have a hard requirement from a PA or MD, only a strong recommendation. Any thoughts or advice from this community would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prepa612 Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 I was in the same boat as you when I applied for PA Schools. I had worked with some physicians, but not to the extent that I felt they would be able to really evaluate my patient care skills. I ended up not using a PA or MD for a reference, and I still got interviews at every school I applied to. At one of the information sessions I attended they made it very clear that it is more important to have "excellent" references from people who know you well than it is to have a mediocre reference from a PA or MD. That being said, every school is different, so I'm not sure that the schools you are applying to will feel the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator rev ronin Posted March 6, 2016 Administrator Share Posted March 6, 2016 One of the things you can do is get a director to write a letter with input from your peers and supervisors. Some of them will do that well, others may not; some programs may like that, others may not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious_Ignoramus Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Get letters from all who are willing to write them, you never know who might flake out and leave you one short. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidccs Posted March 7, 2016 Share Posted March 7, 2016 Schools have different requirements for the source of their required letters. I'd say contact those schools that you are interested in and see what they say. I think I only applied to one school that was very particular about where my LORs came from, and they didn't even interview me :S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.