Standard Letter of Recommendation (SLOR)
Instructions
New this year!
The SLOR was developed by CORD to provide a global perspective on an applicant’s candidacy for resident training. ONLY Emergency Medicine Faculty may complete a SLOR.
As you complete this SLOR please keep in mind that the SLOR was developed with the intention of being 1
- Standardized
- Concise
- Discriminating
Consequently, it is very important that you refrain from changing the template, strive to keep your comments short/to the point and make every effort to avoid grade inflation. To do otherwise is to detract from the effectiveness of the SLOR.
A well written SLOR provides an overall perspective of what the individual candidate offers to a training program. As such, a candidate may score “Very good (middle 1/3)” or “Good (lower 1/3) in any given category and still be very competitive for training. Strive to place their overall potential in perspective in the written comments section including an explanation of any low scores you provide.
Several other issues to keep in mind include: (1) Please answer every question asked in this template, each is important in providing an appreciation of the candidate, (2) Avoid reiterating information that can be found elsewhere in the application and (3) If you feel it is important to describe your program’s clinical rotation to better understand the applicant’s performance, please do so on a separate page attached to the SLOR.
Important changes are anticipated in the SLOR over the next few years. Please make it a priority to review these instructions/guidelines annually to keep up to date with the changes being made. For authors who are new to the process, we encourage you to seek mentorship from faculty with experience within your program or the Chair of the SLOR Task Force before completing this form!
Also available is the document Bibliographic Citation Guidelines for EM Residency Applicants. Please copy and share these guidelines with anyone interested in applying to emergency medicine residencies. Applicants are requested to provide a signed copy of this form with their completed application.
A few other housekeeping notes for each program as their faculty prepare for the upcoming season…….
- We would like to encourage the use of “Group” SLORs that include program leadership as authors such as Program Directors and Student Clerkship Directors. When well done, these letters provide a “balanced” perspective.
- Ideally, the written comments section should be kept to 200-300 words as originally suggested by the original SLOR Task Force.
- Start now by having the Clerkship Secretary pull the grades from LAST YEAR’S clerkship. This information is needed to complete item #5 of Section A on the first page.
- Please make every effort to complete the question regarding how many EM rotations this student has taken, including the one the grade reflect (Section A, question 4)
- You should also review the SLORs you authored last year for both the TOTAL # AUTHORED and the # RECOMMENDED in each of the Global Assessment rankings.
- In the section asking you to estimate the candidate's probable ranking, the suggested scheme is: (with X = number of positions your program has in the match)
- Very Competitive ~ 2X
- Competitive ~ 4X
- Possible match ~ 6X
- Unlikely to match with our program
Additional resources can be found at the ERAS/AAMC web site.
Reference
1. Keim SM, Rein JA, Chisholm C et al. A Standardized Letter of Recommendation for Residency Application. Academic Emergency Medicine 1999;6:1141-1146.
SLOR Form in Template Format (Can view only in Internet Explorer)
If you experience problems when downloading and would prefer to receive the document via email please contact the CORD office by phone at 888-444-2090 or 972-550-0912 or email at cord@cordem.org. If you have questions about the content of the form please contact Dr. Jeff Love at jnlove1@verison.net. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions for revision of the Standard Letter of Recommendation, please send an e-mail to Dr. Love.