what's up felton, i've heard that most programs like one letter from your dept's chair, and then all the others from only orthopaedists. To me, a letter from a different dept shows that you have the ability to adapt to different situations and are able to work with different types of people, a skill needed no matter what field you choose. I am going to have a letter from the chair, 2 other ortho LOR's, and one non-ortho, for a total of 4. Hope that helps.

most just want ortho. unless specifically asked, or if you have a glowing letter from someone you know well or is Dr. DeBakey, just do ortho.

Cali schools request 1 non-surgical letter, typically.

-Grizzle-

I agree that most programs prefer only Ortho letters. If you honored your non-ortho rotations, it proved that you were a good all-around student and all that interaction stuff previously mentioned. Programs put more stock into letters from orthopods because in a lot of cases, they're from people that they might know or have trained with....who they may trust more. I also think that a LOR from an orthopod saying how great you are and how hard working you are is better than a letter from say a FPdoc , who is in a specialty that isn't as competitive or works as many hours as we do.