Letter of recommendation - virgo32

[ArchivalUser]

Is it okay to have a letter from a non-medical people but they are associated with the hospital? E.g If someone work in a big community hospital as a volunteer in the healthcare setting and they are willing to write a LORs for them. is it okay or all 3 letters need to be from a physician?

[ArchivalUser]

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[ArchivalUser]

LORs should ideally be from a physician, supervising attendings mostly, but there may be other roles for staff such as research directors without an MD/DO degree generating LORs provided that they support / highlight your qualities as a physician.

Letters from volunteers or anyone non-medical will not help you get a residency position. (unless it's a known really, really exceptional situation - eg: a letter from the president of Sweden after you saved his/her life)

Just put this in perspective. Your LORs from random people will be compared to LORs form department chiefs, prominent specialists and other reputable physicians, If in the end the decision to give you a residency position comes down to comparing the weight of a LOR, you will not be considered with letters from non-medical people.

[ArchivalUser]

LORs should be provided from the attending itself, you need to get them from the physician itself and get from the deans from the programs will be helpful for the application

[ArchivalUser]

Thank you for your answers. I'm confused I have read another post that we need USA Lors to make our application stronger but what if one don't have US physician Lors? Then, which one to choose?
1. Lors from home country physicians?
2. Lors from the USA non-medical people who work in healthcare?
which one is more considered?

[ArchivalUser]

If you don't have LORs from US physicians you will not get an IV as IMG with the current state of the system.
The right way to go about the process is, get USCE, get LORs, then apply.
Thousands do it, every year.

Don't get letters from non medical people. They won't even look at your application and if they do, it will be a clue that you are not paying attention and may even hurt your chances of getting an IV.

[ArchivalUser]

virgo32 LORs from non-medical people are not important, then you can use home country physicians. But try to get LORs from physicians.

[ArchivalUser]

Hello,

I have a strong LOR from Canada. does it count? at least as equal as US LOR?

[ArchivalUser]

@nanaki @thinkbig thank you for your help.
Do LoRS from research considered? If they belong to the University program?

[ArchivalUser]

Yes you can use them in the application, but they will not be having the same value as LORs from hands-on clinical experience.