Need advice on requesting recommendations

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Hi. I've been reading this forum for a while now and have found it extremely helpful. Hopefully you might have some advice for me. I received an M.M.S. in Pharmacology in 2000 and have since worked in managed care pharmacy until recently. I'm now a stay-at-home-mom to a 19 month old and 3 week old. I will be applying to pharmacy schools in about 2 years and will be taking all this time to prepare (with 2 little ones, I'll need all the time I can get!). Since graduating, I have not set foot back on campus nor have I remained in contact with any of my old profs. For those of you who have applied after graduating a while back, how did you approach your old profs for a letter of recommendation? I would first like to see if they are willing and able to write a letter to place in my student file now and then follow it up with a meeting where I could provide them with any additional information they might need (e.g., resume, personal statement, etc). Would it seem odd or non-professional to send an email that would update them on what I've done since graduating and what I plan on doing? Or a formal snail mail letter? A friend suggested I stop by to "just say hi" and approach them informally about my plans and go from there. However, babysitters for 2 little ones are too hard to come by to just drop by and hope they're not too busy to meet with me. Any suggestions on how I should go about this?? I appreciate any advice you may have for me.

Hi JemsGrl

I graduated 3 years ago and had to contact former profs for letters of rec. I dropped them an email stating what I had been up to these past few years and explained my future goals. Nothing too extensive. Pretty informal. To give them an opportunity to decline, I had asked if they would feel comfortable writing a recommendation on my behalf.

I think unless you had a major falling out with a professor, they're very willing to help a [former] student pursue higher education. They're in the business of education and I'm sure they'd be happy to hear of your aspirations and help you out in any way they could. Aside from teaching and doing research, I think writing rec letters falls on their list of duties.

Although some profs did not ask for it, I thought it was helpful to forward them a copy of my resume and statement of purpose, since we had been out of touch for some time.

Good luck to you.

-nocsag56

None of my letters of rec came from a professor. I had one come from a PI in a lab that I had worked in during my time in school, and two from my current place of employment. I even think that some schools state that they will allow such "non-academic" letters in the event that you have been out of school for a while. So, why not get a letter from your current/former employer?

-jason

Originally posted by Nocsag56
Aside from teaching and doing research, I think writing rec letters falls on their list of duties.

yes, it's their duties to write letter of recs, but not everyone one of them cares to do a good job. so it's important to make sure whoever you ask for letter will write you a great letter. if they say they're not sure, then forget about it. go talk to someone else.
of course, if you have no choice, go ahead and let them write it. hope they'll write a decent one.
good luck.

I've been on both sides of that interview table, and I hate to say it, but most letters of rec seem like the same ol'...stuff . They all started to sound the same, and when I had only about 5 minutes before the next applicant got escorted into the room, I had to look at their files quickly. I quickly looked for the indications that made the applicant "stand out" from the rest by the recommender....what made the person "special". But unfortunately, what stood out the most is WHO the letters are from. Our school requires three letters, so I did like to see a letter from (in order of "impressiveness"): 1) a practicing pharmacist (it helps show commitment to the profession), 2) a science professor, and 3) an employer or PI if the candidate was involved in research. Of course, when the file gets passed onto the admissions committee, those letters get the proper scrutiny they deserve. This is just one example from one pharmacy school...everyone's different.

JemsGrl:
I did manage to get my OChem prof to get me a letter, and I did approach him more than a year after taking his course. I had known him informally through office hours during the course, so I wasn't a complete stranger to him. I approached him in a conversational, informal matter, just as your friend suggested to you. I mentioned that I was in the process of applying to pharm school and struck up a conversation on the pharmaceutical industry and the profession. He then (to my surprise) offered to help me in any way he can, and if I wanted to, have him write a letter of rec.

You might want to find out when your former professor(s) office hours are and drop by then. I know it's probably quite inconvenient for you, but if you sent an email, you might not get the "positive response" that would lead to a good letter being written.

Good luck!

If you're applying in two years, doesn't this mean you're going to be doing coureswork for pharmacy school in that time? If so, why not wait to get more current letters from the profs you will be having? I'm not a big fan of getting letters from people who knew you and assessed you back in the day. It tells a better story when the person they're talking about is you now. I understand this isn't always possible, but it's a good rule of thumb. I could've requested some pretty good letters from some of my bio profs from my undergrad at U-dub, but I opted for current letters in a. Of course as we've discussed before on this forum, you absolutely must demand a letter that sets you apart from the other apps, if that's only gonna come from so-and-so from five years ago, then go for it.

Tri's got a good point! Assuming you'll be working on prereqs in the mean time, just remember to make your presence known to your profs, butter them up .

I'm not familiar with Masters in Medical Science progs, but did you have a faculty advisor? I'm assuming that MMS progs require a thesis project (am I correct?); was there an advisor, mentor, or member of a committee who may remember you? A letter of rec that reflects well on your work in this program may be very good for you; especially because you've done graduate work in Pharmacology!

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. You all make excellent points. I had all my recommenders lined up who know me well now and none are academic. So imagine to my surprise when I called my first choice school (Nova) and the head of admissions tells me they require 3 recs which must be academic or 1 can be from a pharmacist and the other 2 can be replaced by 1 from a pre-professional advisor. No exceptions if you're a returning student with work experience. They do not give any weight to employer recs that aren't from a pharmacist, which isn't my case. She did mention that I could send in as many recs beyond 3 that I wanted to though. It also sounded as though she was hinting to the fact that since we're talking 2 years away, that I might want to consider taking another sci course to secure a rec if I needed one.

I did have an academic advisor for my M.M.S. before getting a research mentor for my thesis. I think I will send my old advisor an email and let him know that I'm thinking about visiting campus and that I would like to stop by and say hi. That way it will be an informal meeting and I can take the kids if I can't find a sitter.

I'm done with all my pre-reqs, except for Anatomy and Economics depending on the school. I was going to hold off on taking either course till I got an acceptance somwhere. But now I think I just might take one before applying to get used to being in class again and get that rec if I need it.

Thanks again for all your help.

-JemsGrl

i definitely think it's in your best interests to take both anatomy and econ, but at least econ and not only because it rocks, but i think it's more important to have going in to pharm school with the industry becoming what it is. Both of those courses are classes that ad coms would like to see you have done well in recently. Anatomy, being able to memorize that much complex detail is a fair indicator of how well you'll deal with memorizing the ten zillion drugs in their various incarnations.

I know you have to manage your time w/your chilrdren, but you should find a way to take a one-day a week econ course or better yet, do it like me and take it online at a jc. There are a lot of options these days for making your courses fit around your skej.