For anyone on here who previously matched, is it better to submit 4 derm letters or 3 derm and 1 IM/peds?
I had 1 derm and 2 Medicine letters and they were great
3 derm (rural, dermpath, and academic) IM I matched last year
4 strong derm letters is the best case, mostly because connections help (I did residency with your letter writer, oh your letter writer was my attending when i was a resident, etc). I personally had 3 derm and 1 IM. My IM letter was really strong but no one ever mentioned it. In short, 4 really strong derm letters are the best, but a really strong non-IM letter is better than a lukewarm derm letter
Prolly a silly question but if a program asks for at least 3 letters- is it better to give 3 or 4 letters?
So I sent 4 LORs to all derm programs. It wasn't a big deal at all. It wasn't some type of trick to see if you were following directions if you'd only send 3, if they were to ask for 3 on the website. I think they all know you're sending apps electronically en masse so you're just clicking. Essentially on the other end, a residency program coordinator prints all this stuff out from the ERAS portal (App, MSPE, Personal Statement, LORs, etc.) for individual derm faculty to review. It's a lot of paper so they don't have time for nitpicking.
*For cosigned letters (a derm attending wrote it and it was cosigned by the chair) how do you fill these out for ERAS?
As long as they're strong letters, it doesn't matter. They don't have to be all 4 derm letters. I had 3 Derm letters and 1 from Peds and matched.