Re-assigning and De-assigning LORs on MyERAS

While it may make sense to use the 'save the best for the last' concept while interviewing at good residency programs that do not offer prematches, remember to NOT use the same principle when it comes to mailing your application documents to ERAS ;-)

Of course, at times, the circumstances are inevitable and you just might get a much better letter of recommendation later than you had hoped for - after applying.

Here is what the ERAS manual says about re-assigning (or replacing) and de-assigning (deleting) assigned Letters on MyERAS:


"You cannot edit or delete LoR requests that have already been sent to at least one program. You may, however, de-assign and delete a LoR request if it was never sent to a program; and you may reassign a new one in its place at any time."

Huh...

From what I make of it,

1. If you already applied to programs with previous LORs, and the letters were sent to those programs, they cannot be deleted or replaced. However, if you apply to new programs, you can use the LOR for those applications

2. If, initially, you sent less than the maximum of four allowed per program, then you may still additional assign a new LOR or LORs upto a total of four letters for that program. So it probably makes a good take-home point to remember to use only 3 LOR spaces initially, if you expect a new very good LOR to be available sometime before the Interview season.

3. Which implies, if you get a new Letter of Recommendation after it's too late to send it via
MyERAS, we are left with the option of contacting all the applied programs via email / call to inform them about the new LOR, provide contact details of the recommender and offer to email or fax the scanned copy of the letter.




Search keywords to this article: -

- "can I replace existing LOR on myERAS"
- "How to change letter of recommendation on ERAS"