So I have finished asking for all of my letters of recommendation. I attend a large and reputable public university where all of my classes so far have 300+ students. I am a Chemistry major, and all of my 3 academic LORs are from Chemistry professors. Here they go:
- Professor A: I got straight A from both the lecture and the lab of his upper-level Chemistry course. I went to his office hours a couple times during the semester, and when I asked for a letter he said that he would be happy to write me one. He is a very amiable guy, but I doubt that he knows me well.
- Professor B: I took a lab class with her, got an A. Went to her office hour one time. I asked, she said yes but she also has to consult the TA for the content of the letter since the TA was the one who directly taught me.
- Professor C: I took Ochem 2 with him a year ago and got an A-. I literally went to his office hours every week and I even had lunch with him once. So of course the guy remembered me when I asked for a LOR today. However, he also pointed out that he doesn't know me outside of the classroom; thus he will only be able to write about how good of a student I am in a rather dry letter. I asked him if the letter will be strong, and he assures me that it will be indeed. But again, he said that almost all LORs received by adcoms will be strong. Honestly, I am disappointed. This guy is among the professors who I had a lot of interaction with, and yet even he can't say much about me as a person. What else can I do besides of going to office hours. And if this prof's letter is "dry", I can't imagine how the LORs from the other 2 profs will be since they know me even less. It would be unfair if I can't get strong enough LORs just because I go to big schools. Well, I guess I'm lucky enough that no one turned me down, so at least I have enough LORs to submit to schools. I did not do much research since I know dental schools don't require them, thus I can't get a LOR from a research faculty.
About my other letters:
- Dentist: I have been shadowing this dentist for 30 hours so far. He is a very amiable guy, and I think he likes me. He is very willing to write me a LOR.
- Job supervisor: This person is my best hope for a personal LOR since she knows me well. However, only a few schools that I'm applying to want to look at a supervisor's LOR.
So my 4 LORs that will be included in AADSAS would be the 3 from my profs and from 1 from my dentist. How do you define a "strong" LOR? Given that all my LORs will be strong in a sense that they will only say good things about me, how bad are they if they don't go in depth about me as a person?
- Professor A: I got straight A from both the lecture and the lab of his upper-level Chemistry course. I went to his office hours a couple times during the semester, and when I asked for a letter he said that he would be happy to write me one. He is a very amiable guy, but I doubt that he knows me well.
- Professor B: I took a lab class with her, got an A. Went to her office hour one time. I asked, she said yes but she also has to consult the TA for the content of the letter since the TA was the one who directly taught me.
- Professor C: I took Ochem 2 with him a year ago and got an A-. I literally went to his office hours every week and I even had lunch with him once. So of course the guy remembered me when I asked for a LOR today. However, he also pointed out that he doesn't know me outside of the classroom; thus he will only be able to write about how good of a student I am in a rather dry letter. I asked him if the letter will be strong, and he assures me that it will be indeed. But again, he said that almost all LORs received by adcoms will be strong. Honestly, I am disappointed. This guy is among the professors who I had a lot of interaction with, and yet even he can't say much about me as a person. What else can I do besides of going to office hours. And if this prof's letter is "dry", I can't imagine how the LORs from the other 2 profs will be since they know me even less. It would be unfair if I can't get strong enough LORs just because I go to big schools. Well, I guess I'm lucky enough that no one turned me down, so at least I have enough LORs to submit to schools. I did not do much research since I know dental schools don't require them, thus I can't get a LOR from a research faculty.
About my other letters:
- Dentist: I have been shadowing this dentist for 30 hours so far. He is a very amiable guy, and I think he likes me. He is very willing to write me a LOR.
- Job supervisor: This person is my best hope for a personal LOR since she knows me well. However, only a few schools that I'm applying to want to look at a supervisor's LOR.
So my 4 LORs that will be included in AADSAS would be the 3 from my profs and from 1 from my dentist. How do you define a "strong" LOR? Given that all my LORs will be strong in a sense that they will only say good things about me, how bad are they if they don't go in depth about me as a person?
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