Research is the strongest portion of my application: I have >2000 hours, a first author publication, national conference presentations, etc, and according to my PI am the most productive undergrad my lab has ever had. In addition, or perhaps naturally as a result of this, my PI and I are quite close.
She allows those she writes rec letters for to view them before she submits them. However, I have seen several of her letters in the past and am concerned with the format. She essentially just lists things unrelated to research from the person's resume ("ie he worked hard and attained a 3.8 GPA in undergrad, was a member of x organization, etc"), and then has ~1 paragraph related to lab work (with a number of generic platitudes that just randomly list adjectives like "he is intelligent, motivated, and driven" without much context). From what I've heard, she does this for essentially every letter and sees any other way of writing unprofessional.
I feel the above style might turn what should be my strongest letter into something mediocre, however. I more envisioned it to be something much more telling like "I've mentored 80 students and he is the single most productive. Published a first author before my average graduate student does, etc etc."
1) Am I right in thinking the way she writes letters will make them of little use to medical schools?
2) If so, how best should I go about convincing her to write it in a way that only talks about what I did in lab with lots of context? Again, I will be at least somewhat involved in the writing of the letter, but she is apparently set in her ways on this. Because we are close, should I just firmly ask that she write it the way I want? (I know for a fact that she will never write a single negative thing in the letter, so it would be safe for me to try to push hard). Should I try to have my pre-med advisor or a doctor I know who is an adcom tell her that schools want it written a different way to be meaningful?
Perhaps I am just ignorant to how normal rec letters work and completely off the mark here, but input is appreciated either way. Thanks!
She allows those she writes rec letters for to view them before she submits them. However, I have seen several of her letters in the past and am concerned with the format. She essentially just lists things unrelated to research from the person's resume ("ie he worked hard and attained a 3.8 GPA in undergrad, was a member of x organization, etc"), and then has ~1 paragraph related to lab work (with a number of generic platitudes that just randomly list adjectives like "he is intelligent, motivated, and driven" without much context). From what I've heard, she does this for essentially every letter and sees any other way of writing unprofessional.
I feel the above style might turn what should be my strongest letter into something mediocre, however. I more envisioned it to be something much more telling like "I've mentored 80 students and he is the single most productive. Published a first author before my average graduate student does, etc etc."
1) Am I right in thinking the way she writes letters will make them of little use to medical schools?
2) If so, how best should I go about convincing her to write it in a way that only talks about what I did in lab with lots of context? Again, I will be at least somewhat involved in the writing of the letter, but she is apparently set in her ways on this. Because we are close, should I just firmly ask that she write it the way I want? (I know for a fact that she will never write a single negative thing in the letter, so it would be safe for me to try to push hard). Should I try to have my pre-med advisor or a doctor I know who is an adcom tell her that schools want it written a different way to be meaningful?
Perhaps I am just ignorant to how normal rec letters work and completely off the mark here, but input is appreciated either way. Thanks!
Classic SDN.
