Alright I am an applicant with a weird situation and if anyone has some input please let me know. I applied this year and have a lot of interviews (ranking 32 places) and have super high stats/research etc, but the problem is that at almost every interview it was brought up that my chair letter was borderline negative. It is my fault and I did not know the answers to many questions he asked me on my clinic day with him, but basically I am here now and don’t have any “love letters” from any programs and the PD of my #1 didn’t even respond to my LOI which scares the shit out of me haha. I feel like I really need to prep for not matching and really don’t think I can ask my home PD/chair for help so I want to know if anyone thinks it would be a good idea to try again through a surg prelim, or if having a negative LOR is not something that can be overcome in a re-app as it will be remembered. I have a wife and kid and as much as I love neurosurgery, not about to gamble all our lives for a hopeless task and will try my best in SOAP for neuro/IM/FM if reapplying isn’t realistic.
Dude, statistically you should match. Always have a back up plan.
why did u ask him for a rec?
You are completely fucked
Yeah this reminds me of a few applicants I’ve heard of not matching a few cycles ago because of negative or even lukewarm letters.
If you have to reapply, would recommend a research year at another program and get a letter from your neurosurgery PI. Get a home letter from your home PD or someone who’s not the chair next time.
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Trying to give you some good news. It's very clear that many of the posters above don't know what they are talking about. For example, my program does not care much if one of your letters is ok even if from the chair. If your stats are good and you performed well in the interviews granted no red flags in the letters then you should be fine. Unless each program you interviewed at received a phone call/e-mail from your program saying you are not good, then you should not worry. Many programs understand that not every applicant is liked by their programs. We had many home students we didn't like and they still matched.
The question is how well you performed in your interviews. Also, don't worry about program director is not responding to your LOI.
----My final advice: If you really like this field and willing to re-apply again- which I recommend if you are into this field because one extra year or even two is nothing for a longterm career- but try to postpone your graduation rather than graduating because as a student, your chances are higher when you apply as a repeat applicant compared to a graduate. Also, go to another institution during that year and volunteer at someone's lab. If you want further advice, shoot me a message.
Look I can't imagine you would get 32 interviews if your letter was bad enough to keep you out of consideration. At the end of the day programs were willing to give you an interview which means they haven't written you off. With that many programs you should match somewhere, keeping fingers crossed for you!