LOR Questions

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The pharmacist at the pharmacy I am currently volunteering at offered to write me a reference letter. However, she said that although she has written many LORs is there anything specific the shools wants to see in the letter? If you guys could help me out and let me know what kind of specific information (stuff that'll help me out) she should include. Your help is greatly appreciated.:thumbup:

Thanks and Good Luck to all...........GO LIVERPOOL!!!!!!:D
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LORs tend to have a generic feel to them sometimes. "so and so is great... hardworking... asset to pharmacy ..." blah blah blah - try to have you pharmacist include that stuff, but also speak about specific reasons you would be good. My pharmacist wrote about my ability to react to any situation along with citing examples. I had my bio professor write about my leadership in his class, including my role as student organizer for a New York trip we conducted. Specific examples will set your LOR apart from those people who get references from people who dont actually know them.

~above~
 
bumpity-bump.........:D
 
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Does anyone know how long it usually takes for schools to receive LOR once Pharmcas shipped them out? I called pharmcas and they told me they shipped my last LOR out on monday. Thanks
 
Curious...does anyone know if it is BETTER to have alumni pharmacists of your designated schools write recommendation letters?
 
I dont really think it would be "BETTER". Sometimes school's say to have at least 3 LOR's and some want specific ones. If you go to the PharmCAS website they have a list of schools that require specific LOR's. Hope this helps.
 
Wormtail said:
I dont really think it would be "BETTER". Sometimes school's say to have at least 3 LOR's and some want specific ones. If you go to the PharmCAS website they have a list of schools that require specific LOR's. Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the reply. I actually meant when it comes to having a pharmacist write your recommendation. I had 2 pharmacists write my recommendations and now I wish that I chose those pharmacists that actually went to my school of choice. ( I have a selection of pharmacists who know me and are willing to write recommendations) Anything to make me a stronger applicant!:oops:
 
Ohhhh, I'm sorry!

I'm sure you're a strong applicant. What are your stats?
 
LOL, you're okay with me
Well I don't want to embarrass myself, let's just say I'm an average applicant and I'm still waiting for a reply. It's been awhile now, I guess this is why I'm thinking back and looking at what I could have or should have done. (aargh)
 
I would definitely make sure that your LORs are the ones your school wants. A good majority of the schools I applied to wanted recs from my professors (wanted 2 of 3 recs to be profs) than from pharmacists.

Good luck :)
 
TechRx said:
Thanks for the reply. I actually meant when it comes to having a pharmacist write your recommendation. I had 2 pharmacists write my recommendations and now I wish that I chose those pharmacists that actually went to my school of choice. ( I have a selection of pharmacists who know me and are willing to write recommendations) Anything to make me a stronger applicant!:oops:
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Unless the pharmacist is known by the adcom's, is an active alum, or intentionally mentions this in his LOR (not a good thing for a general LOR through PharmCAS unless you're only applying to one school) I doubt it makes a difference one way or the other.
 
Hey guys. Here's my problem. I am applying to pharmacy school this year, but I don't think I will be able to get in because my GPA is too low. However, my math professor just agreed to write me one. If I don't get in this year, do you think it might be unprofessional to ask him next year again?

Thanks for you help!
 
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mystical_03 said:
Hey guys. Here's my problem. I am applying to pharmacy school this year, but I don't think I will be able to get in because my GPA is too low. However, my math professor just agreed to write me one. If I don't get in this year, do you think it might be unprofessional to ask him next year again?

Thanks for you help!
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Not at all. I started applying last year and decided to put off applying until this year. I had one prof write me a really nice LOR (he gave me a copy) and didn't even finish the application. Now, I wasn't dumb enough to tell him that. As far as he knows I just didn't get accepted and was trying again. He wrote me another one this year.

Point is that there are enough people here that had to apply multiple times to get in and professors are very understanding. Most of them had to apply to their grad programs to get a PhD and are willing to help you no matter how many times you ask for an LOR. (Just don't ask the week before finals.)
 
well ive already started organizing my applications and pharmcas business and i wanted to know what the usual practice was for acquiring letters of recommendation...i have several pharmacists and one professor lined up but im not sure how i should ask them to save it incase i dont get in this fall? is this asking too much? i just dont want to sound too demanding.....
 
Chances are they are going to use a word processing system that saves things anyway, and these people know how competitive the process is, so I think asking what you just did isn't unreasonable at all.
 
I like to use jokes to get my idea across. Something like:

"Yeah, I hope I get in this year. It'll be so much easier for everyone. Otherwise, I'd have to do my app's all over again, and also the fee's. Not to mention I'll be bugging you again for another letter. haaha!." :D
 
How long would I have to shadow a pharmacist before asking for a letter of recommendation?
 
Hypothetically, if you were to pass each other on a busy street, the shadower should recognize you, know your first and last name, and remember that you shadowed them!

If you only shadowed once, I doubt it would be appropriate, as they barely know you. Brainstorm some other ideas for LOR's.....
 
I'm saying how long as in after volunteering for weeks, months, years? Or as long as it takes to develop a personal relationship?
 
sleazye said:
How long would I have to shadow a pharmacist before asking for a letter of recommendation?
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If you're still looking for LORs for Fall '07, I'd say be bold and ask now. If you're not applying til the June cycle for Fall 08 I'd say give it 3 months or so from when you started. Unless you don't like where you are, but still want the LOR I'd say be patient if you can be.
 
So much depends on how often you're with this person & how much you interact.

First, you mentioned shadowing....which to me implies just watching. I couldn't really write you a letter if you just watched what I did - even if you spent years just watching.

Then, you mentioned volunteering...which to me is a totally different thing. That is more in the realm of "work" - I ask you to do something, you may or may not know how, I show you, you do it, then in my mind, I think - good - he/she did a good job or aaargh - I'll never ask that of him/her again or perhaps I need to reteach him/her.

Now....if you're actually doing tasks and if you are coming often enough - say at least once a week, then I'll get an insight into how you handle work which is given to you. I'll get an idea of how willing you are to do unfamiliar things, how pleasant you are, how well you take direction, how reliable you are.

The issue here is - if you volunteer for years, but only come once a month...you never learn anything well enough so I know I can rely on you to do it (or....I may have forgotten I even taught you how to do it - I'm old:( !) However, if you come weekly or more than once weekly, for just a few months....I'll get some idea of your personality, your work ethic, how distractable you are, how realiable you are, how interested you are.

Does that help you know what you'll need to give the pharmacist so you can get a good LOR???

Good luck!
 
Say I wanted to ask for Letters of Recommendations now for next years application cycle. Should I have them sent to PharmCas now even though I cannot do my application until June, or tell them to send them out after June? Thanks for the advice.
 
They have to wait until after June 1st to send in the letters, but you can certainly ask them now. Did you know that they can fill the form out online? It's more convenient and less chance for PharmCAS to lose the letters.
 
Ya, asking them now would give them plenty of time to write a letter out and then when the Pharmcas app is ready in June they can just copy and paste the letter into eLOR and you will be good to go.
 
would the adcom pay attention to your app more if they saw you had a LOR from an ochem professor? is it very significant?

reason i ask is because our professor has been REALLY cranky lately....he's very unapproachable. i also missed one or two labs because i had to study for other midterms so he's pissed about that.

i doubt i'll be able to get one out of him by june 1st. am i at a loss?

how many of you have gotten LOR's from your ochem professors?
 
nerv12345 said:
would the adcom pay attention to your app more if they saw you had a LOR from an ochem professor? is it very significant?

reason i ask is because our professor has been REALLY cranky lately....he's very unapproachable. i also missed one or two labs because i had to study for other midterms so he's pissed about that.

i doubt i'll be able to get one out of him by june 1st. am i at a loss?

how many of you have gotten LOR's from your ochem professors?
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i dont think so. i got a LOR from my ochem professor, and it didn't help, so it seems.
 
I think its more important what the prof says about you than what class you took from them. I'd go with a sure bet on a great rec.
 
If possible, get a LOR from a person in a powerful position. I personally, threw some weight around and got my boss, Chief Financial Officer (of a small biopharm company), to write me a LOR on company letterhead. Worked like a charm. :)
 
anh80 said:
i dont think so. i got a LOR from my ochem professor, and it didn't help, so it seems.
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Its true, Just to corroborate what anh80 said,I also got a letter form my O-chem professor and it didn't seem to help either even though i got A's in all my o-chem classes.

Like someone said, I think it matters a lot what he/she says about you. my advise is if you're feeling somehow about it,you better think of another professor that you at least have a good rapport with in the class you took with them.
 
you're right trackster. the thing is i can get one VERY strong letter of recommendation from one of my bio teachers, but i don't know the rest of my teachers personally because of large class sizes, etc (i'm sure you all know what i mean).

what do you recommend i do? also is there a class preference for a letter? i was thinking of getting one from my genetics or microbio professors. i don't know either of them at all unfortunately
 
I think it matters more how well the professor knows you and if you're certain they are going to write you a kickass letter of recommendation. I purposely asked my biology professor and chemistry professor from the junior college I attended to write my letters of reference as opposed to any of my professors at UC Berkeley. ALthough you would think that letters of reference would be more beneficial coming from UC Berkeley professors, those professors hardly knew me since you're basically just a number to them. My letters of reference from my junior college professors seemed to work out just fine since I was accepted to 2 schools and wailtlisted in the the top 50 of another school.
 
i'm getting a letter of rec from one of my bio teachers at the junior college i transfered from. i'm one of her favorites and i'm confident she will write me a very strong letter of rec.

i want to get a second one from either my genetics or microbio professor (from the university) but the class sizes were HUGE and i didn't get to know my professors. what do you guys recommend i do?
 
nerv12345 said:
you're right trackster. the thing is i can get one VERY strong letter of recommendation from one of my bio teachers, but i don't know the rest of my teachers personally because of large class sizes, etc (i'm sure you all know what i mean).

what do you recommend i do? also is there a class preference for a letter? i was thinking of getting one from my genetics or microbio professors. i don't know either of them at all unfortunately
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You have to approach them during their office hours and figure out if they're interested in getting to know you before writing a LOR. I found it best to start off by asking them if they had a policy with LORs. If they wanted to make an appointment to interview me personally, I knew they'd write a great letter. I also gave them a copy of my personal statement that they could read at their leisure and reference while they wrote the LOR.
 
the dean of admissions here reccomended science professors, but he said a good LOR, a personable one, is much more important than WHO wrote it. i got an honors advisor and 2 pharmacists.
 
nerv12345 said:
i'm getting a letter of rec from one of my bio teachers at the junior college i transfered from. i'm one of her favorites and i'm confident she will write me a very strong letter of rec.

i want to get a second one from either my genetics or microbio professor (from the university) but the class sizes were HUGE and i didn't get to know my professors. what do you guys recommend i do?
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What other classes do you have?

Western required 3 LORs and I had them written by different instructors than my PharmCAS ones. PharmCAS LORs were all from 4 yr:
Biochem professor, MedChem professor(also did Ochem Lab),Chem Seminar advisor

Extra LORs were all from CC:
Pharmacology (for technicians), Pharmacy Calcs (for technicians), and Gen Bio instructor.

Of course bear in mind I'm only on 2 waitlists and not accepted anywhere. I'm hoping it's my lack of experience and limited ECs, because those I can fix once I'm not in school full-time.
 
well i have other bio classes but they aren't part of the prerequisites and i don't know the professors very well, so i might as well have got them from the prerequisite classes. i guess i could use those classes for the extra western ones

the other 3 for western aren't limited to professors only are they?
 
nerv12345 said:
well i have other bio classes but they aren't part of the prerequisites and i don't know the professors very well, so i might as well have got them from the prerequisite classes. i guess i could use those classes for the extra western ones

the other 3 for western aren't limited to professors only are they?
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No they're not, Western includes employers. I forgot I had my supervisor write one as well. I think my bio prof I only used for LLU (non-pharmcas school). In an earlier thread a couple people said they had the same people who wrote the PharmCAS LORs write their supplemental LORs for Western as well. (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing)
 
nerv12345 said:
reason i ask is because our professor has been REALLY cranky lately....he's very unapproachable. i also missed one or two labs because i had to study for other midterms so he's pissed about that.
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I know all about the "moody" Organic professor. I am on the verge of being done with Organic II and unfortunately I had the same guy for both Organic I & II. I never missed lab/lecture and even though I killed his course, I would never ask him for a letter because I do not think he is capable of writing a quality letter and I have personal issues with professors with double standards.


nerv12345 said:
what do you recommend i do? also is there a class preference for a letter? i was thinking of getting one from my genetics or microbio professors. i don't know either of them at all unfortunately
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I did not have the problem of large classes, so the professors that care, actually know students by their name. I debated between my genetics or microbio professor as well. Ultimately, I decided on the genetics professor because I knew he was more reliable and prompt about submitting the LOR. I approached him about writing a LOR and he was more than willing to. He at one time was on the admissions committee for a medical school and obviously knows what professional schools are looking for in LOR. My other letter came from my Principle of Chem. I professor, but she was very affable and so helpful with the barrage of questions I had. She is the finest professor I know. I had a 3rd letter from a pharmacist. These letters got the job done for me.
 
My Ochem professor wrote mine...I don't know how much that helped me. I would go with the professor that knows you the best and can write the best letter.
 
I got one from a Pharmacy Manager of a retail pharmacy who is also a precursor for the school i am going to.

One from my OChem and from my Microbio

seem to have worked for me :)
 
I think the jc biology professor is good enough for your academic LORs. If you can't find a second professor that knows you well, don't force it. It's probably good to get LORs from not only academic sources because you want to show them what type of person you are in and out of the class. If you volunteer or work, I would go with your supervisor or boss who can talk about how you are as a worker, problem solver and team player. This way, you can show them you are a great student and worker/person.

I only got one academic LOR (from a biology professor), with the others from the PI of my lab (basically was my job) and a pharmacist I volunteered for for only one summer. It seemed to have worked for me, probably because they knew me pretty well and not because of what class they taught or their title.
 
that's interesting senzabee thanks for your input. i guess they don't have preference over who writes your letters (3 professors, vs 2 professors+1 pharmacist, vs etc)

i might get my 2nd letter from a place i've volunteered at. it's more of a community thing than anything in the science field. would that be non-benificial (even though i can get a LOR from a pharmacist)? btw this one would be a very strong one as well

these topics just confuse me because i have no clue how to work the system..
 
nerv12345 said:
that's interesting senzabee thanks for your input. i guess they don't have preference over who writes your letters (3 professors, vs 2 professors+1 pharmacist, vs etc)

i might get my 2nd letter from a place i've volunteered at. it's more of a community thing than anything in the science field. would that be non-benificial (even though i can get a LOR from a pharmacist)? btw this one would be a very strong one as well

these topics just confuse me because i have no clue how to work the system..
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Some schools require an LOR from a pharmacist, so you'll want to keep that in mind.
 
Seriously. I got one from my bio professor and one from a graduate pharm development seminar prof. Being a returning student, I thought that the adcom needed to hear from my wife. I have no idea if it helped me, hurt me. or made no difference.
 
opa said:
Seriously. I got one from my bio professor and one from a graduate pharm development seminar prof. Being a returning student, I thought that the adcom needed to hear from my wife. I have no idea if it helped me, hurt me. or made no difference.
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Most won't take one from a relative of any sort. I'm surprised.
 
You're right. It totally slipped my mind that I checked the PharmCAS directory page to confirm that it would be ok (since my mother-in-law thought I was crazy).
 
pmp85 said:
If possible, get a LOR from a person in a powerful position. I personally, threw some weight around and got my boss, Chief Financial Officer (of a small biopharm company), to write me a LOR on company letterhead. Worked like a charm. :)
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Sage advice. One of my LORs was from the VP of R&D for a medical device manufacturer.
 
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