lor from a politician

[AwaPremed]

hey

i heard about someone who got a letter of recommendation from a senator and they got accepted to their top school. anybody heard of people getting lor's from politicians?

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[sunUCB]

i'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this person who got accepted to their top school probably had good grades, a good MCAT score, and good clinical/research activities. maybe knowing a politician helps, but i don't believe that alone will get you in to the school of your dreams. anyone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.

hey

i heard about someone who got a letter of recommendation from a senator and they got accepted to their top school. anybody heard of people getting lor's from politicians?

 

[KiKat37]

I have always heard that those letters don't make any difference and even tend to piss adcoms off, since they can clearly see what the applicant is trying to do by sending in such a letter... Don't know if it's true.

 

[theduke]

hey

i heard about someone who got a letter of recommendation from a senator and they got accepted to their top school. anybody heard of people getting lor's from politicians?

Well of course they help. Its best if the pol knows you and are influential in the medical community. This doesn't piss off adcoms

 

[USCTex]

I have always heard that those letters don't make any difference and even tend to piss adcoms off, since they can clearly see what the applicant is trying to do by sending in such a letter... Don't know if it's true.

I'm going to disagree in certain situations: when applying to a state school. Since as much as 25 - 40% of a budget of a state school is tied to state funding if you can get a powerful state politician (such as a senator) to endorse you when you apply to the state he represents, it is bound to help you.

Even though the Senator has no direct authority over the state's budget his influence is ENORMOUS. It is a definite plus...but only if you acutally know him as a person and he can actually comment on you as such and not just as another "favor" he's doing.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Think of this in pragmatic terms. You would not use such a letter in a state the senator doesn't represent, because it COULD piss the adcoms off (it would piss me off). On the other hand, you might want to send it to schools in the state the senator represents. It could still piss them off, but there are, of course, financial implications to be considered as well.

Generally, I think it would be better to look for a medically-relevant politican, if that's what you're after. In my school, we had a student who had a 3.5, comp sci major, founded an undergraduate journal of science, didn't have much research, but did have a shining recommendation from a former surgeon general. He got into HMS.

 

[Jack_Adam]

I'm going to say it only matters if the politician has something substantive to say about you as the applicant - regarding your personal experiences with the politician, how well he/she knows you and your accomplishments, etc. For example, it's not going to matter that Bill Frist writes you a letter of recommendation just because he's a doctor, unless he really knows you well. Maybe he's a family friend, or you've interned for him in Congress... Then again, who really knows? I could be talking out of my @$$ - this is, in fact, my opinion on the matter, though.

 

[dopaminophile]

What about connections... you hear people talking about how they have letters from former deans and the like. Would it be worth the trouble to try to find connections to big names to individual schools?

-dope-

 

[Rendar5]

The best LoR's are from people who can talk a lot about you and have lots of positive things to say from real personal experience, or can tell a story about you. If the president of the US can do it or just some TA, then go for it. You just need to pay attention to what aspect of you it speaks to. you will want academic LoR's and non-academic LoR's.

If you can get an LoR from Donald Trump, and it only says "he's a good kid with a bright future", that's worthless. but if you were on the apprentice and he has really positive things to say and stories about how you handle yourself, that's shining gold.

(ok, maybe an LoR from Bush isn't the best of ideas... and I doubt Donald would write anyone an LoR)

 

[Haybrant]

how do you go about getting an lor like this; just email em, sit down and talk to them?

 

[skoaner]

I know someone (not me, I swear) who worked for the governor's re-election campaign. Said governer went on to become a former Sec. HHS. When he was Sec. HHS I got a recommendation, it's like a letter from god but in english.

 

[Rendar5]

how do you go about getting an lor like this; just email em, sit down and talk to them?

no, you work directly for them for a period of time.

 

[indo]

A politician's word is only as good as corporate media tells you it is.

 

[medic170]

I interned at a Congressman's office. He wrote me aletter and I think it helped a lot. I got a lot of interview questions about the experience.