I wrote my own Letter of Recommendation?

SDN Members don't see this ad. (About Ads)

My professor asked me to write my own letter of recommendation because she was busy. She said she would revise it before submitting it.

I have written it and was wondering if anyone would like to check it before I email it to my professor (I can PM it to you). It's a LOR, so it's not super long like a personal statement or anything.

Also, I've been a member on here for a while but have never gotten anything checked - how can I tell the difference between someone who genuinely wants to help and someone who is just trolling?

Originally Posted by fas376

My professor asked me to write my own letter of recommendation because she was busy. She said she would revise it before submitting it.

I have written it and was wondering if anyone would like to check it before I email it to my professor (I can PM it to you). It's a LOR, so it's not super long like a personal statement or anything.

Also, I've been a member on here for a while but have never gotten anything checked - how can I tell the difference between someone who genuinely wants to help and someone who is just trolling?

Why don't you just submit it to your professor? It sounds like she'll offer the revisions you'll need.

Originally Posted by DOCBERT

Why don't you just submit it to your professor? It sounds like she'll offer the revisions you'll need.

It's not everyday a student writes his own rec letter. I'm not sure if I'm missing something - ie, is my rec letter too generic? Am I supposed to be more specific? Maybe even less specific? etc.

check their post history, grammar, and current stage on the pathway to becoming a doc

Originally Posted by fas376

It's not everyday a student writes his own rec letter. I'm not sure if I'm missing something - ie, is my rec letter too generic? Am I supposed to be more specific? Maybe even less specific? etc.

I think it may be more common than you realize. Here's my advice: now is not the time to be humble. This is your chance to address EVERYTHING you'd ideally like in your LOR. Go big or go home. However, keep it based solidly on fact. Don't just list your good attributes. Back them up with examples. Merely writing that you are compassionate/intelligent/etc isn't enough. Prove it.

In most cases, your professor will remove any parts she doesn't agree with or like. If you make wild claims, she will likely tone it down. Your job is to provide her with a framework with work with. If you don't bring it up, chances are that she will not either.

Originally Posted by Ebola4Breakfast

I think it may be more common than you realize. Here's my advice: now is not the time to be humble. This is your chance to address EVERYTHING you'd ideally like in your LOR. Go big or go home. However, keep it based solidly on fact. Don't just list your good attributes. Back them up with examples. Merely writing that you are compassionate/intelligent/etc isn't enough. Prove it.

In most cases, your professor will remove any parts she doesn't agree with or like. If you make wild claims, she will likely tone it down. Your job is to provide her with a framework with work with. If you don't bring it up, chances are that she will not either.

Sounds good, thank you. I have 400 words thus far. I know it's "quality over quantity," but generally, how long are they?

Originally Posted by fas376

Sounds good, thank you. I have 400 words thus far. I know it's "quality over quantity," but generally, how long are they?

Mine ranged from ~350 words to nearly 1000 words. I think the length completely depends on how well the person knows you and where this LOR stacks up in the grand scheme (its purpose). The nearly 1000 word LOR was written by my grad school mentor who worked with me daily for over five years. He was a good judge of my integrity, academic abilities, and personality. The ~350 word LOR was a personal reference from a friend/faculty member. This focused mostly on my personality and non-research related achievements. Each letter conveyed and evaluated different aspects of me and my abilities.

Originally Posted by Ebola4Breakfast

Mine ranged from ~350 words to nearly 1000 words. I think the length completely depends on how well the person knows you and where this LOR stacks up in the grand scheme (its purpose). The nearly 1000 word LOR was written by my grad school mentor who worked with me daily for over five years. He was a good judge of my integrity, academic abilities, and personality. The ~350 word LOR was a personal reference from a friend/faculty member. This focused mostly on my personality and non-research related achievements. Each letter conveyed and evaluated different aspects of me and my abilities.

Thanks. Mine has about 400 words and I really can't think of any ways to make it longer. I feel like anything more than that would be too much :/

its the best. I ran mine past a humanities major buddy of mine who made it sound like a walk on water. Person said it sufficed.... = I look much better than I am

Originally Posted by Holy FranZ

its the best. I ran mine past a humanities major buddy of mine who made it sound like a walk on water. Person said it sufficed.... = I look much better than I am

Any advice?

Texas schools only require 2 letters, so if this one is perfect it'll really help me out.

Originally Posted by fas376

Any advice?

Texas schools only require 2 letters, so if this one is perfect it'll really help me out.

google; pull out 10 or so templates and meld the strongest parts into a superb letter that includes A LOT of personal information about specifics. You can make a claim... or you can make a claim and back it up by specifics. One if obviously far superior.

Just keep working at it. It took me 3-4 weeks and a couple "ghost-writers" as someone may call them to craft the perfect lor.

Just like a personal statement... it requires a lot of revisions and different points of view. If a letter is beautifully crafted -- your letter writer will not likely make many changes because the writing style reflects very positively on him/her.

IMO... the hardest part by far... is using correct adjectives. This is why having humanity major friends is very beneficial. In the sciences.... we sort of strayed from adjective and writing beautifully. This was my personal weakness (you forget them with time) and the area the my helpers had the biggest impact.

My advice when writing LORs for yourself is to first think: If this professor were REALLY to write the LOR by themselves, what good qualities could they reveal to the adcoms?

Once I figure out that out, I emphasize on it. Go into incredible detail (there are limits, since your professor won't know all your secrets and everything; that is for your personal statement). Just give a lot of examples. When unsure, go overboard. The professor will likely edit out anything that may seem too personal for them to actually know.

400 words isn't bad. If you can, try making it at least 500. Is there anything else that you would like the adcoms to know about you that you can't put into your personal statement. Remember to reflect back on what kind of good qualities this professor would know about you and try to really go into depth on it.

Originally Posted by Holy FranZ

google; pull out 10 or so templates and meld the strongest parts into a superb letter that includes A LOT of personal information about specifics. You can make a claim... or you can make a claim and back it up by specifics. One if obviously far superior.

Just keep working at it. It took me 3-4 weeks and a couple "ghost-writers" as someone may call them to craft the perfect lor.

Just like a personal statement... it requires a lot of revisions and different points of view. If a letter is beautifully crafted -- your letter writer will not likely make many changes because the writing style reflects very positively on him/her.

IMO... the hardest part by far... is using correct adjectives. This is why having humanity major friends is very beneficial. In the sciences.... we sort of strayed from adjective and writing beautifully. This was my personal weakness (you forget them with time) and the area the my helpers had the biggest impact.

Wouldn't "a lot of specifics" be bad? For example, I address 3 topics:

1) Academics - one supporting example
2) Research - one supporting example
3) Non-academics - one supporting example (volunteer work)

That's my body paragraph.

Should I include even more than that?

I once heard from a consultant (who sat on adcom) that even though getting to write your own letter sounds like the greatest gift, it can be really dangerous. Adcoms have been reviewing thousands and thousands of letters and she said it was usually immediately apparent when a student wrote a letter instead of a professor.

If at ALL possible, get samples of real recommendation letters, not just templates. I'm sure you can find this if you Google hard enough. Or if you have any friends (say, graduate students who have written LORs), ask them.

Also, yes, pull out all the stops and brag about yourself, but after that, go through the letter and tone it down a bit. Good luck!

Like someone else suggested, you may want to google some letters of rec to get a feel out there - believe or not, there are some prof's who have posted their letters to possibly motivate their students to do well who knows. Off the top of my head, there is an Ochem prof at Claremont (sp?) in Cali who posts examples of what students who receive an A, B, C in the class have gotten for their letters - you can see the difference between the generic vs. wholehearted letters too. just look around I'm sure there are a handful of other profs that do the same.

Edit, found him: http://ochem.jsd.claremont.edu/tp_letters.htm

scroll to the bottom of the page for his examples.

My professor wanted me to give him 6 sentences. He said he'll turn it into a letter, somehow.

So, consider yourself lucky that you don't have to fit everything into only 6 sentences ;p

Originally Posted by cinamin

Like someone else suggested, you may want to google some letters of rec to get a feel out there - believe or not, there are some prof's who have posted their letters to possibly motivate their students to do well who knows. Off the top of my head, there is an Ochem prof at Claremont (sp?) in Cali who posts examples of what students who receive an A, B, C in the class have gotten for their letters - you can see the difference between the generic vs. wholehearted letters too. just look around I'm sure there are a handful of other profs that do the same.

Edit, found him: http://ochem.jsd.claremont.edu/tp_letters.htm

scroll to the bottom of the page for his examples.

So helpful.

Am I the only one who chuckled because his last name is Poon? Probably.

Originally Posted by realmeaning

Adcoms have been reviewing thousands and thousands of letters and she said it was usually immediately apparent when a student wrote a letter instead of a professor.

Admissions committees aren't as smart as they think they are.

I have to write my own LOR as well, I'm trying to do it, but I feel so uncomfortable writing about myself this way...

Originally Posted by YouNeverKnow22

I have to write my own LOR as well, I'm trying to do it, but I feel so uncomfortable writing about myself this way...

It took me forever to write it. Pain in the ass dude

Originally Posted by YouNeverKnow22

I have to write my own LOR as well, I'm trying to do it, but I feel so uncomfortable writing about myself this way...

I told the professor that I felt like I embellished certain things, but he didn't care. Speak from a broad point of view and don't be afraid to s your own d.

Originally Posted by circulus vitios

I told the professor that I felt like I embellished certain things, but he didn't care. Speak from a broad point of view and don't be afraid to s your own d.

I feel like a tool just thinking about writing some of this stuff, might just do it any way, it sucks

Originally Posted by YouNeverKnow22

I feel like a tool just thinking about writing some of this stuff, might just do it any way, it sucks

You get over it pretty quick. At least, I did (was submitting a LOR for something else besides med school though).