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LOR Conundrum


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The upcoming cycle will be my first time applying to a program and I'd be interested in hearing some of your advice in terms of LORs. At present, I have three LORs lined up; one from a PA that I shadow, one from an MD that I shadow, and another from my PhD committee chair (and mentor). The problem that I have is that my committee chair has a record of not writing the best of LORs. They are not negative in any way, however, the letters are usually very "dry" and do not show a lot of enthusiasm on my behalf. This is just a part of his character and not a lack of support. On one hand he is someone who has watched my every step of graduate school and can attest to my accomplishments and ability to handle a rigorous curriculum. On the other hand, I know his letter will not be an "attention getter". I am considering using one of my committee members who is a well known MD in the region and is accustom to writing really great LORs. The problem here is that he is only familiar with my work from a collaborator standpoint and is not very familiar with my everyday research or academics. My gut says that I should stick with the mentor, but I'd be curious to hear your opinions.

 

I am also curious if anyone has submitted more than the required number of LORs for a particular program with positive results?

Either have your mentor guy write you one or find a second PA. I don't think it'll really be that big of a deal if 1/3 is "dry". And someone correct me if I'm wrong but CASPA asks you for three LORs. Most programs want three letters. You should not supply more letters unless specifically asked to do so for whatever reason.

Thanks for the reply, Josheppe. A second PA LOR is possible, so I'll give that some thought. With that scenerio, there would not be anyone really familiar with my academic background. Do you think another letter from a PA toting some of my HCE would be more useful than someone in academia backing up my academic ability? I guess my problem is that I'm not sure how much academics weigh against HCE.

You could also have your academic letter written by multiple people. I had one of my letters authored by two professors, simply by saying that I could only submit three letters to CASPA, and letting them know that I wanted them to both be in on a single letter since I already had two others lined up.

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