The Generic CV Dump: What Not to Send with Your LOR Request

The fastest way to ruin a strong letter of recommendation is to suffocate your writer with a generic CV dump and zero direction.

If you only remember one thing from this: a stack of undifferentiated documents is not “being helpful.” It is you outsourcing your thinking to a busy attending who already gave you a favor by agreeing to write. That’s how good letters become bland, vague, and forgettable—and bland letters hurt you more than you think.

Let’s walk through the mistakes almost everyone makes with residency LOR packets and how to not be that applicant.

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The Core Problem: You’re Making Your Writer Do All the Work

Here’s the scenario I’ve seen way too often:

• Student corners attending after rounds: “Dr. Smith, would you be able to write me a strong letter for residency?”
• Attending (who is decent and kind, but also drowning in notes and messages): “Sure, happy to.”
• A week later: attending gets an email with:
  • 4–5 attachments: CV, personal statement draft, ERAS PDF, maybe a transcript
  • No clear bullets
  • No guidance on what to emphasize
  • Subject line like: “LOR stuff”

You think you’re being organized. You’re not. You’ve handed them a filing cabinet and said, “Please search this and discover the narrative of my life.”

They won’t. They’ll skim. Then write something like:

“I had the pleasure of working with [Name] during their internal medicine rotation. They were punctual, hard working, and well liked by peers and staff. I recommend them for your residency program.”

That letter might as well say: “I barely remember this person, but they seemed okay.”

The generic CV dump leads directly to the generic letter.

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Why the Generic CV Dump Backfires

Let me be clear: your CV isn’t the problem. Sending only your CV, without intention or structure, is.

Here’s what goes wrong when you just dump documents:

1. You force your writer to guess your priorities

   They don’t know:

   • Which specialty is your top choice
   • Which programs you’re actually competitive for
   • Which stories you want highlighted
   • What’s already covered in other letters

   So they default to the safest, most generic content. Which programs have read a thousand times.

2. They cherry-pick the wrong things

   I’ve watched this happen:

   • Student wants to highlight their clinical growth and patient ownership.
   • Attending sees “published case report” on CV.
   • Letter becomes: “Student participated in research and contributed to a case report…”
     That may be the least important thing for that application.

3. You blend in with everyone else

   Every applicant:

   • Has a CV
   • Has some research
   • Has volunteer work
   • Has leadership sprinkled somewhere

   Your CV looks like everyone else’s CV, especially to someone reading it in between admissions or before clinic. Without guidance, that’s all they’ll write about: the same categories for every student.

4. You signal a lack of self-awareness

   A thoughtful packet says:
   “I know who I am as an applicant and how you saw me. Here’s how you can help me communicate that.”

   The generic dump says:
   “I collected all my documents. You figure out what matters.”

   Programs notice the difference. Attending physicians do too.

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What You Think Is Helpful (But Actually Isn’t)

There are a few specific “helpful” moves students swear by that almost always backfire.

1. The 6-Attachment Email

I’ve seen emails with:

• CV (okay)
• ERAS “My Experiences” PDF
• Draft personal statement
• Transcript
• Dean’s letter (MSPE draft)
• Step score reports

The attending opens it on their phone between patients. Sees six attachments. Closes it. Tells themselves, “I’ll get to that later.”

Sometimes “later” is 2 hours before the LoR deadline. That’s when your letter is written. In one pass. With minimal depth.

Avoid this by: Limiting attachments to what they’ll actually use:

• CV
• One-page targeted summary (more on this in a minute)
• Optional: personal statement if it’s polished and consistent with your story

Nothing else. They don’t need your entire ERAS life story. They certainly don’t need your MSPE.

2. The “My CV Speaks for Itself” Assumption

A raw CV doesn’t “speak.” It lists.

Programs and letter writers care about:

• Context
• Impact
• Specific behaviors
• Pattern of growth

Your CV says “Internal Medicine Sub-I, July 2025.”
It doesn’t say:

• You stayed late consistently for your sickest patients
• You took over discharge planning
• You were the only student staff would page directly with updates

If you assume your writer will infer all this from a list of bullets, you’re lying to yourself.

3. The Unfocused Personal Statement Draft

Sending a rambling, early-draft personal statement with your packet is a trap.

What actually happens:

• Writer scans it quickly
• Picks up whatever half-formed theme you floated (“I like the continuity of care in IM”)
• Repeats those same soft ideas in the letter

If the personal statement isn’t sharp, specific, and consistent with the strengths they saw in you, it actively weakens both documents.

Better to send:

• No personal statement
  than
• A messy one that confuses your story.

4. The Blind “Any Letter Is Good” Mentality

Some students think more is always better:
“If I have four letters instead of three, I’m safer.”

Not if the extra ones are weak, generic, or off-brand.

Letter Type	How Programs Read It
Strong, specific letter	Distinct positive signal
Solid, detailed letter	Normal, good applicant
Generic, vague letter	Mild negative signal
Short, obviously rushed	Red flag

Mediocre letters dilute the effect of your strong ones. And often, the mediocre ones come from attendings who got the “CV dump and nothing else.”

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What Your Writers Actually Need (But Rarely Ask For)

Attending physicians are used to students handing them a pile of documents. They’ve been trained to work around your disorganization. So they may never tell you this directly.

Here’s what almost every good letter writer wishes students would send:

1. A clear statement of what you’re applying to

   One sentence. Not a paragraph.

   • “I’m applying to categorical Internal Medicine programs.”
   • “I’m applying to Emergency Medicine and plan to stay in academic practice.”
   • “I’m applying to Pediatrics with a strong interest in community and underserved care.”

2. How you see your strengths (from their vantage point)

   Three to five bullets answering:

   • “What did I actually do with you that you could credibly write about?”

   Example:

   • Took ownership of complex patients on your service (especially the cirrhosis admissions in August)
   • Consistently followed through on discharge planning and family updates
   • Demonstrated steady improvement in oral case presentations from week 1 to week 4
   • Built strong rapport with nursing staff and was often the point person for updates

3. What you want programs to know that only they can say

   This is crucial. You’re not reciting your CV back to them. You’re highlighting their unique view.

   For a medicine attending:

   • Your clinical reasoning growth
   • The way you handle uncertainty
   • Your reliability when things got busy

   For a research PI:

   • Your intellectual independence
   • Your persistence with a failing experiment
   • Your role in shaping a project, not just executing it

4. Any landmines they should be aware of

   If there’s a red flag in your application, they shouldn’t accidentally contradict your framing of it.

   Examples:

   • A failed Step attempt that you later passed strongly
   • A leave of absence
   • A rough clinical rotation that might show up in your MSPE

   You don’t need to overshare, but a one-line heads up helps them avoid stepping on a narrative mine.

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What to Send Instead of a Generic CV Dump

Let me give you a structure that actually works. Call it the “Smart Packet.”

It has three components:

1. A short, targeted email
2. A CV
3. A one-page “LOR guide” tailored to that writer

That’s it.

Smart LOR Packet Workflow

Step	Description
Step 1	Decide Which Attending To Ask
Step 2	Ask In Person For Strong Letter
Step 3	Create Targeted LOR Guide
Step 4	Email With Clear Subject + 2 Attachments
Step 5	Send Reminder 2 Weeks Before Deadline
Step 6	Thank You + Update After Match

1. The Email (Stop Writing Novels)

Your email should do four things quickly:

• Remind them who you are and when you worked together.
• State what you’re applying to.
• Confirm they can write a strong, supportive letter.
• Explain what you’ve attached and how it helps them.

Example (condensed):

Subject: LOR request for Internal Medicine residency – [Your Name]

Dear Dr. Smith,

I greatly appreciated working with you on the inpatient service in July 2025. I’m applying to categorical Internal Medicine programs this cycle and would be very grateful if you felt comfortable writing a strong, supportive letter on my behalf.

I’ve attached my CV and a one-page summary highlighting the work I did on your service and a few areas I’m hoping my letters can speak to. I know your time is limited, so I tried to keep everything concise and focused on what you saw directly.

ERAS will send you a direct link for uploading the letter. My earliest program deadlines are [date], so any time before then would be helpful.

Thank you again for considering this and for everything I learned on your team.

Best,
[Name]

Notice what’s not there: five attachments, a pasted personal statement, your entire life story.

2. The CV (Clean and Honest)

Your CV should be:

• Up to date
• Cleanly formatted
• Without fluff or invented titles

Avoid classic CV mistakes:

• Exaggerating roles (“Director of community health initiative” when you handed out flyers twice)
• Cramming everything to 8pt font
• Burying clinical experiences three pages down

This is a reference document, not the main act. Don’t obsess over it and then ignore the more important piece.

3. The One-Page LOR Guide (The Secret Weapon)

This is where you stop being generic.

One page. Max.

Sections that work well:

1. Header

   • Name
   • Specialty you’re applying for
   • ERAS ID (optional but helpful)
   • When you worked with them

2. Context of our work together

   • “Sub-I on inpatient medicine, July 2025”
   • “Acting intern on night float team, 2 weeks”
   • “Research student in your lab from 2023–2025”

3. 3–5 specific things you did with them Short bullets, focused on observable behaviors.

   Example for inpatient IM:

   • Managed 4–6 patients independently by end of rotation, including daily notes and plans you reviewed with me on rounds
   • Took ownership of cirrhotic patient with recurrent admissions—led family meetings and coordinated hepatology follow-up
   • Stayed past shift multiple times to update families and finalize discharge paperwork

4. Suggested focus areas for the letter You are not scripting their letter. You’re giving them options they can lean into.

   Example:

   • Clinical reasoning and ability to synthesize complex histories
   • Reliability and follow-through with tasks
   • Communication with patients and families, especially in high-stress settings
   • Growth over the course of the rotation

5. Big-picture goals (1–2 lines)

   • “I’m hoping my letters collectively highlight my ownership of patient care and readiness for the responsibilities of internship.”
   • “Given that my Step scores are average, I’m relying on letters to show my clinical strengths and work ethic.”

This is the opposite of a CV dump. It’s curated, specific, and framed around what they directly saw.

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Specialty-Specific Trap: Sending the Same Packet to Everyone

Another mistake: you send the exact same materials to your Surgery attending, your Psych attending, and your Research PI.

Guess what happens?

• Your Surgery letter talks about how you’d be great at “any residency you choose.”
• Your Psych letter highlights your “thoughtful approach to patient care” with zero mention of procedural aptitude or teamwork in acute settings.
• Your Research PI writes a brilliant research-focused letter that makes you sound like a PhD applicant.

Disjointed, unfocused narrative. Programs feel that.

You need subtle tailoring:

• For categorical IM: emphasize longitudinal care, clinical reasoning, reliability, teaching potential.
• For EM: emphasize crisis management, efficiency, team dynamics, working under pressure.
• For Surgery: emphasize grit, technical learning curve, response to feedback, ownership in the OR and post-op care.
• For Psych: emphasize interviewing skills, patience, insight, professionalism.

Your LOR guide for each writer should reflect what they uniquely saw in those domains.

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Timing Mistakes That Turn Good Letters Into Rushed Messes

I’d be failing you if I didn’t talk about timing. Because even a perfect packet can’t save you if you send it too late.

Here are the common timing errors:

• Asking in late September for a letter you need by October 1.
• Sending the packet weeks after they agreed, instead of within 24–48 hours.
• Never sending a reminder when the deadline approaches, then being surprised it’s missing.

Be direct and respectful:

• Ask 4–6 weeks before you need it.
• Send your packet within 1–2 days of the “yes.”
• One polite reminder 7–10 days before your true deadline.

Not more. Not 10 reminder emails. One.

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How Programs Actually Read These Letters

One final reality check.

PDs and selection committees read thousands of letters. They skim fast. They’re looking for:

• Specific comparative language
  “Among the top 10% of students I’ve worked with in the past five years.”

• Concrete examples
  “She took the lead in organizing care for a complex heart failure patient, coordinating between cardiology, nursing, and social work.”

• Consistency across letters
  Multiple writers commenting on your ownership of patient care? That sticks.

Generic CV-based fluff gets mentally filed as “no new information.” It doesn’t hurt only because it’s boring. It hurts because it wastes one of your limited chances to show you’re more than a Step score.

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The Bottom Line: Stop Making Your Writers Guess

Do not assume:

• Your CV will “tell your story”
• Your writers remember specific patients from 8 months ago
• Any letter is better than no letter

Instead:

• Give each writer a clean CV and a one-page, rotation-specific guide.
• Be clear about your specialty, your goals, and what they uniquely saw.
• Keep attachments minimal and your email direct.

If you avoid the generic CV dump and actually think about what your writers need, you’ll get letters that sound like this:

“In my 15 years of teaching residents and students, [Name] stands out as one of the few who functioned at an intern level by the end of the rotation.”

Not:

“[Name] was punctual, hardworking, and pleasant to work with.”

You know which applicant you’d rank higher.

Key points:

• A generic CV dump produces generic letters. Generic letters hurt you.
• Replace the dump with a focused packet: short email, CV, and a one-page, writer-specific guide.
• Tailor what you send so each letter reinforces a coherent story about who you are as a future resident.