non-ortho letters?

Scratch that question... I wasn't using the search function properly and now found the answer. However I couldn't find the answer to the following question - If I was planning on getting a LOR from a rotation I'm doing that goes into mid-September am I screwed or have other people been able to pull this off?

This is what I have been told by my PD about the letters:

All schools require you to have your ERAS app, personal statement, and 3-4 letter's by their respective deadlines. By their deadline, the schools just want to make sure that you have the correct NUMBER of LORs. Now there are some schools that automatically download everything you have uploaded on your ERAS account the day after their deadline has passed, but most schools probably don't do this. Most schools probably wait until the day before your actual interview to download your LORs and other aspects of your app that tends to come later like the Dean's letter. So with that being said, while there is a deadline by which you need to have a certain # of LORs submitted, once you have reached that deadline you have the ability to swap out your letters to respective schools anytime you want. So with the most likely assumption that most programs don't download your letters until closer to your interview and the fact that you can swap your letters out after the schools deadline, then as long as you have the letter uploaded and swapped pretty close to your interview time you should be fine.

My cousin who just matched into ortho told me that he did a super late away rotation that didn't end until early november and got a letter from there a week later. He thought it was too late, but he uploaded the letter from that away rotation anyway, and was really surprised that at his December interviews the interviewer brought up that very same letter, talking about how good it was. Of course this is anecdotal, but I think it is an example of how the process works. ERAS is essentially a database which we, the students, can upload our application components, and the programs can download what we upload. When the different programs log onto ERAS and view our account, they see whatever files we have put there.

So yeah, I'm in boat as you, except I am doing an even later away rotation, but I am not too concerned. I will send in enough LORs to make the deadline, and swap them out later. Of course its ideal to have them all in for good by their deadlines, but that isn't going to work out for me.

In my experience (having gone through this twice), the vast majority of programs download your completed file pretty soon after their deadline. Many even begin downloading before the deadline (i.e. as soon as you upload a new document, they download it to your application file). I seriously doubt that they’re going to be willing to swap letters after their deadline has passed…in fact, I’m guessing that most programs stop checking ERAS for new documents once their deadline has passed. Uploading dummy letters with the hopes of replacing them later seems like a bad strategy.

hrmm
Having done this twice *sigh*..I know first hand that most of them prepare well in advance. However, a lot of them continually download the application..

If you're worried about it, I would get a non-ortho letter as a backup, and strategize by keeping that letter handy, and if you don't have the ortho letter by the deadline, send in the letter.. but when your ortho letter comes in, add it to that program. If they stopped downloading, you can call in, and confirm they received all of your letters.. tell you have a new one...

When are most deadlines? November 1st?

I was checking the info on various websites and I noticed that like 15 programs I am applying to have deadlines in mid to late October. So while most are probably Nov. 1 you should probably look at the websites for all your prospective programs

Are we sure we can swap out letters once we submit an application?

If I have 4 letters ready to go, but plan to get one from my away rotation, what do I do?
-upload 4 now and hope to swap out once my away letter arrives
-upload 3 now and add a 4th later

Help?

One thing I noticed on the websites of a couple programs was that they would review applications "once they are complete," implying that once they had their required number of letters they would review your app. So while it is possible to swap out letters later (I know people who have done it in the past), you "risk" programs reviewing your application prior to those later letters showing up if you've already provided them with their required number of LORs.

Also, what if we submit an empty LoR slot, and it never gets filled. If I send out 4 LoR slots, and 3 get filled, will a school review the file(require 3), even though there technically may be a LoR not received.