Granted, my first thought remains with the trusted “Sloe Gin Fizz”, but I am becoming equally fond of the SLOE (Standardized Letter of Evaluation) as a supplement (or dare I say alternative) to the LoR (Letter of Recommendation).
Hear me out. Many of us see the “Letter of Recommendation” from both sides. We often help faculty draft letters for students we know, but we also see the ones attached to incoming applications. I bet every one of us can recall a case of the student described in the LoR we help attendings craft barely resembling the person we know. As we review applications, might we wonder if that could be the case with this applicant? So, where does that leave us with regard to relevance? In addition, as our applicant pool has become more diverse recently, so have the LoRs, adding further variables. Instead of having to “read into it” and guess, how nice would it be to have a discipline-agreed-upon set of criteria that answer the relevant, concise questions we really have?
Luckily for us, that is exactly what Emergency Medicine and OB/Gyn have already done. Rather well, I believe. Take a look, and maybe we can be the ones to start the conversation.
https://www.liquor.com/recipes/sloe-gin-fizz/ (the appropriate drink for that particular contemplation!)
Angelika K. Royal, MPH
Residency Administrator
SUNY Upstate Cancer Center