Letter of recommendation question

[afib123]

Is it OK to get a letter of recommendation from a 3rd year IM resident that will be a hospitalist at a top academic institution? I have had a great relationship with that person and I think it would be a very strong letter. But few attendings in my program have told me not to use that letter.
Will there be anyway for PD's to know that the letter is from a first year attending/are there any downsides to that even if they know that?

To clarify, by the time the letters are due in September, they will already be an attending.

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[rokshana]

Is it OK to get a letter of recommendation from a 3rd year IM resident that will be a hospitalist at a top academic institution? I have had a great relationship with that person and I think it would be a very strong letter. But few attendings in my program have told me not to use that letter.
Will there be anyway for PD's to know that the letter is from a first year attending/are there any downsides to that even if they know that?

To clarify, by the time the letters are due in September, they will already be an attending.

No unless they are able to evaluate you as an attending...the top academic institution does not trump the resident part.

 

[afib123]

No unless they are able to evaluate you as an attending...the top academic institution does not trump the resident part.

That sucks. It would have been a great letter. Maybe I will try to do rotation or research with them once they are an attending.

 

[tacowithgreensauce]

u can ask the resident if there is an attending theyd reccomend/put in a good word for u

 

[GastriqueGraffin]

u can ask the resident if there is an attending theyd reccomend/put in a good word for u

Agree with this. Ask the resident to ask the attending to either write the letter or co-sign the letter (or ghost write the letter and have the attending sign). Otherwise don’t do it because it will seem that you just happened to make friends with a good resident rather than your actual performance

 

[seeinghowitgoes]

Also want to point out a brand new attending, one who has had only a handful of students when they were a resident, let alone a resident may not be able to write as strong of a letter given they have less practice writing letters for residency and fewer students to compare you to. They can’t say things like “in my 20 years, this student is in the top x percent of performers,” etc. They may write glowing comments, but without the context provided by years of experience their comments could be a bit hollow (ie “best Med student I’ve worked with” means a lot less when the denominator is so small).

Not saying it wouldn’t be a good letter, just other food for thought and why I’d also ask the resident to contribute their perspective to an attending you worked with and have that attending actually write it.