Need some advice regarding LOR

[songofdovely]

Hey everyone,

 

Was wondering if some of you could weigh in on a situation I'm in. I recently completed a 2 week elective in an internal medicine subspecialty about a month ago. Unfortunately, the schedule was set up in a way that I had 2 attendings, one for each week.

 

I felt I had performed very strongly, especially in my second week. Towards the end of my last day, I spoke to the attending and asked for feedback. He told me that I was easily one of the strongest medical students he had ever had on the rotation and he said he had no concerns with my performance. He also mentioned that I was performing at the level of a junior resident.

 

Naturally, I asked him if he would be comfortable writing me a reference letter for internal medicine. His response caught me very off guard.

 

He said because he had only worked with me for 1 week my letter wouldn't appear very strong due to the limited time spent together. In all honesty, our entire team only had one resident, so I actually had probably just as much exposure to my attending as I would have in a larger centre for 2 weeks. He asked if I had any more suitable letters of reference and I mentioned that being in third year I was still trying to secure letters. I honestly felt like I was pulling teeth.

 

I'm not sure if you guys have had similar experiences. For those who have matched to IM, have you used LOR's with 1 week exposure? Do you think this letter is still worth pursing? He obviously had some very strong things to say about my performance but his somewhat unwillingness to write me a letter doesn't sit too well with me.

[Lactic Folly]

Unfortunately for you, some people are more comfortable giving glowing feedback verbally than actually putting it down in writing. If you feel like you're pulling teeth now, save yourself headaches later on - just take his feedback as a sign you're on the right track, and work hard on cultivating additional letters.