Special requirements

Dogbone,

Your post raises a question I have about LORs. Most schools ask for 3 letters and recommend that one of them come from the ortho chair. Is it an unwritten 'rule' that your other letters should come from prescribed sources; ie one medicine/non-surgery letter, and another ortho letter, etc.
I have (perhaps mistakenly) assumed that it would be best, unless otherwise specified by the program, to send all ortho attending letters including one from the chairman, and have them be of of as good a quality as possible, and from someone 'known' if possible. Everyone in the know, please feel free to respond. Thanks

Blue: you can make as many personal statements as you want; it's just a pain in the butt checking all of them for mistakes (first hand knowledge).
As for specific letters, I would not gamble with shorting a program a medicine letter. You got honors anyway, so you should be able to get a decent letter. I sent my ortho chairman's letter (who knew me), my advisor's letter (ortho faculty) and a medicine attending letter to nearly every program as long there wasn't a special request. Even programs that asked for a CV, when asked said they were ok with the eras CV. However, be sure to follow the program's instructions to the T (clarify any ambiguity yourself) as they are more than happy to throw out screwed up apps.
I know a lot of you guys are not getting a lot of direction from your school's ortho chairman, so take advantage of the attendings from WVU. The offer to go over your CV and personal statement is gold for those of you going through this alone.
Confident, not cocky and never desperate--that's how you want to be.

Actually, I convinced my school to scan my CV onto the end of my official transcript. At every interview, people had my nice looking polished CV to look at, and I didn't have to waste a letter of rec space sending it. Also, to answer your questions, you have the ability to create many versions of you PS. I believe that I had three different versions to meet the "special requirements".

Thanks, but that's ok,
If everybody else has that problem then I really don't care. I've actually gotten everything to line up correctly with the exception of the "Additional Activities/Awards" section. It's not that big a deal, I just made it all one paragraph instead of seperate bullets.
Thanks to all those who helped though.

SLUPodHopeful,
There a few programs with web pages that invite you to send a CV of your own formatting either in the mail or scanned as your 4th LOR. I didn't record which because it seemed optional and I'm not up for the additional pain.

don't sweat it man. Everyone's CV looks the same on ERAS. That forces the programs to judge you on what you have done, rather than what font you use.

Regarding programs like HJD that require program-specific information in the personal statement - does ERAS permit you to send different versions of your personal statement to different programs? Obviously the folks at HSS or wherever aren't gonna be to pleased to read about why I want to go to HJD and such
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Thanks in advance for the help.

Sorry, shouldn't have used "pimp lookin' ", when allI really meant was "straight and alligned with the margins"
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I wanted to send the CV as I have it formatted, INSTEAD of (or in the place of) the ERAS one. I dont' care, but my CV in ERAS, no matter what I do, ends up looking like this:

Activities:
1.) Playboy photoshoot powder and body make up "applicator"2.) Official beer taster for local drinking establishments (weekends only)3.)blah blabh blah...
and so on, no matter how I line it up, hit return/tab/space bar, whatever on the input screen, it's all run together when I view it.

I don't want to send any more than I have to, but I dont' think programs want headings followed by 5-6 line run on sentences either. Just wondering if there were any other ways to do it so you get around having to use ERAS formatting. Then again I guess if everybody's looks like that, it doesn't matter.

dude, the average program gets over 400 applications with the eras information and 3-4 letters of rec. The last thing they want is a "pimp looking CV" to read through on top of all that. Just fill out ERAS and submit.

Anybody know the best way to send them your CV via ERAS ??
I have a really pimp lookin' CV, but when I type all that info into ERAS it spits it out all jumbled and disorganized, and I can't seem to get the text to line up or be spaced properly no matter what. Sucks to spend an hour or two coming up with a really nice CV, and then to send that sh_tty looking thing that ERAS spits out. Anybody heard if you can just scan your CV in and send it seperately, leaving the CV info on the CAF out ??
Just a thought..

Just as a comment.. How about all these special requirements ?? I can just envision the chaos and pain of checking this box, not checking that box for every frickin' program I apply too. Ugh
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I thought I would bring this back to the top now that the students of the class of 2004 are beginning to apply. If anyone has any other information to add to this post, please do so. Thanks. Good luck.

bbmf03, OldSouthernBones -- thanks for the info!

I apologize for the misinformation on Hopkins.

I was trying to give examples, not specific information. You might double check the Mayo two letters as well.

Both of these were rules last year when I applied. The IM letter was not a rumor, it was just not current information.

In some profound way, I am very pleased that I do not have to keep track of so many useless pieces of information anymore. . .

Only four months and all this is over for all of you as well.

Again, sorry for the mistake.

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New info on the Univ. of Colorado program.
I spoke with Katherine Robbins, the res. contact person....They have extended the application deadline from Oct 1 to Nov 1, and do NOT need a CV other than what is included in the CAF. Good luck with the applications.
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As far as the CCF application, right after they list programs affiliated with ERAS they say:
"For any programs that do not have a special application process, applicants will submit a Cleveland Clinic application."
Presumably, "special application process refers to ERAS. So, for ortho you don't need to fill out the CCF application.

Well,
Found out that the info about the IM letter for Hopkins is wrong, none needed. The reply I got was "just another one of those rumors" )

The way I'm going to play it is not send it unless they ask for it. I've already emailed them w/o a response so I'm not even going to try again. Besides, having not rotated there, my chances are already pretty slim.

Hmmm... yeah, I was trying to figure that one out, too. What I posted is just *my* interpretation of the various webpages (and pages like Mayo and CCF can be rather ambiguous). Unless I get a chance to contact the program and ask, I figure I'll just fill out the form and send it, and if they don't want to read it, they can just toss it!

btw, i'm also curious about the Hopkins IM LoR. where'd that info come from?

From looking at the CCF website, my understanding is that the Cleveland Clinic Application form is only if you are applying to a program not participating in ERAS or the SFMatch. Can anyone confirm or deny???

Where did you get that info about the IM letter for Johns Hopkins? I looked all over their website, saw the four CLINICAL letters thing, but nothing about IM. Not that it would be that hard, but I just don't have one of those.
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