writing a letter of recommendation for myself

Started by funktion
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funktion

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So, today I asked a dentist I had shadowed in the past to write a letter of recommendation for me. He told me to write it and he would sign which was surprising and initially I felt good about it but now I am getting a bit nervous as I try to think of what to write. I really do not have much experience reading or writing letters of recommendation so I was wondering if any of you SDNers had some input/advice. Thanks.
 
write the number of hours that you shadowed. that you were genuinely interested and asked many very good questions (assuming that is true as you do have to have him sign it). also that you showed great interest, passion, and drive for the field and that he definitley feels great about recommending you for dental school.

just my opinion, he is the one who has to sign it
 
funktion said:
So, today I asked a dentist I had shadowed in the past to write a letter of recommendation for me. He told me to write it and he would sign which was surprising and initially I felt good about it but now I am getting a bit nervous as I try to think of what to write. I really do not have much experience reading or writing letters of recommendation so I was wondering if any of you SDNers had some input/advice. Thanks.
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thats tricky.. im so glad my dentist didnt ask me to do that! because you sign a waver stating that you did not see your LORs.. it is considered unethical.. also during the interview, some schools ask what you think your recommenders wrote about you. And if you wrote it, it will be obvious in your answer.. be careful
 
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funktion said:
So, today I asked a dentist I had shadowed in the past to write a letter of recommendation for me. He told me to write it and he would sign which was surprising and initially I felt good about it but now I am getting a bit nervous as I try to think of what to write. I really do not have much experience reading or writing letters of recommendation so I was wondering if any of you SDNers had some input/advice. Thanks.
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Its totally not unethical because he would of wrote you a good one regardless.
Just know that its a lot more difficult than it seems to write your own PS, I did my own also.

Surely let him see it before submitting because it can make or break you. Adcoms can see right through these letters
 
Dentista08 said:
thats tricky.. im so glad my dentist didnt ask me to do that! because you sign a waver stating that you did not see your LORs.. it is considered unethical.. also during the interview, some schools ask what you think your recommenders wrote about you. And if you wrote it, it will be obvious in your answer.. be careful
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if i remember correctly, it asks if you like to waive your right to see the letter. you can say yes or now. (again, if i remember correctly)
 
If you feel uncomfortable writing one, which I would, why don't you go back to him and tell him that you feel uncomfortable writing your own recommendation and if he can take some time out of his day to write you one.
 
2 out of my 3 professor reference letters were written by me. The degree to which they were edited, the info deleted, the info added, I wasn't sure. I did waive my rights, my professors FORWARDED the e-mail with confirmation that the letters were successfully submitted ALONG with the attachment of the PDF letter. So I did read them. One of them made the mistake of forgetting to add the fact that they are a SCIENCE professor. If you don't do this, you'll get an incomplete application. I called AADSAS, had my letter removed, and REsubmitted. Trust me, if you can write it for yourself, all the better. The professor will never sign off on somtehing he didn't agree with. Do it, take advantage of this chance. Don't be afraid to write too much. It will be taken out by the dentist before he submits if he disagrees. People are gonna grill you with ethics, just do it.
 
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misstoothfairy said:
2 out of my 3 professor reference letters were written by me. The degree to which they were edited, the info deleted, the info added, I wasn't sure. I did waive my rights, my professors FORWARDED the e-mail with confirmation that the letters were successfully submitted ALONG with the attachment of the PDF letter. So I did read them. One of them made the mistake of forgetting to add the fact that they are a SCIENCE professor. If you don't do this, you'll get an incomplete application. I called AADSAS, had my letter removed, and REsubmitted. Trust me, if you can write it for yourself, all the better. The professor will never sign off on somtehing he didn't agree with. Do it, take advantage of this chance. Don't be afraid to write too much. It will be taken out by the dentist before he submits if he disagrees. People are gonna grill you with ethics, just do it.
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doesn't the aadsas give them directions of what to write when they get that email to submit the letters? Now im afraid that my professors didn't write that they were science professors also!! But my application status says "complete" meaning all the right letters are in?
Thanks
 
Dentista08 said:
doesn't the aadsas give them directions of what to write when they get that email to submit the letters? Now im afraid that my professors didn't write that they were science professors also!! But my application status says "complete" meaning all the right letters are in?
Thanks
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Hey there, if your professor is a science professor, he will put his title and your good. In my case, some of my professors are science professors under the dept. of PSYCHOLOGY. Psychology at my school is considered a SCIENCE MAJOR, but AADSAS doesn't. I didn't wanna get screwed, so I told them to omit their department and stay strictly to course codes. You should be good if its application complete.
 
one more option would be to have the office manager write it. That is what I did and then the Dentist signed it.

most dentists have done this before, so many have their office managers modify a generic letter that they have alredy writtin
 
needa20 said:
one more option would be to have the office manager write it. That is what I did and then the Dentist signed it.

most dentists have done this before, so many have their office managers modify a generic letter that they have alredy writtin
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Likewise with the PhD grad running my portion of my research and having your supervisor sign it. The PhD grad works under my supervisor, but I work by his side, NOT my supervisors.
 
why not take advantage of the situation, talk very highly of yourself and make yourself look fabulous???? you're smart enough to not let the fact that YOU wrote it slip out during an interview...i hope. I asked my dentist to write me one, he kept procrastinating for over 2 months, finally i'd had enough and said F it and wrote my own...he was happy he didn't have to do it, and quite frankly, so was i c'ause i know exactly what's in it. just my opinion, disregard if you don't like. stay cool like a fish.
 
Royaltee said:
why not take advantage of the situation, talk very highly of yourself and make yourself look fabulous???? you're smart enough to not let the fact that YOU wrote it slip out during an interview...i hope. I asked my dentist to write me one, he kept procrastinating for over 2 months, finally i'd had enough and said F it and wrote my own...he was happy he didn't have to do it, and quite frankly, so was i c'ause i know exactly what's in it. just my opinion, disregard if you don't like. stay cool like a fish.
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Come on now, i would not let them know that in an interview. If they questioned me about it, then I know that they have raised some suspicion, at which point I will give them acknowledgment that they let me see them after and make hard copies in the event I did not make it during this cycle. That is exactly what happened with me and the procrastination. I used the FIRST reference letter I made from prof 1, send that to procrastinating prof 2 to give him some idea of what to not copy, still procrastinated so I wrote it for him.
 
To the OP,

Talk about some good traits that your dentist could have noticed in you and back it up with some stories or examples. Don't simply state that you had good interpersonal skills, were motivated and driven, or had a thirst for knowledge in the dental profession. You gotta back it up with examples and make it personal, as if the dentist really got to know you. Thats what I did and I think it turned out pretty good.

Good luck, it was pretty hard for me to do too.
 
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This happens a lot, which is why LORs mean almost nothing in the Adminssion decision (you still need them tho). Your situation is a good one, write all great things that you can fit in. And waive the rights.
 
DocVT said:
If you feel uncomfortable writing one, which I would, why don't you go back to him and tell him that you feel uncomfortable writing your own recommendation and if he can take some time out of his day to write you one.
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No. Bad idea. He/She obviously did not want to write it in the first place, which is why they told the OP to write it. How well exactly do you think that would go across? I don't want to do this so badly that I want you to do itinstead. It's not fun writing your own LOR but if you do some research and think hard, you should be able to do it.

I knew beforehand that my dentist would have me write my own letter, so before I started shadowing I thought about what exactly I would like in my letter, and the entire time I was there I tried to display those characteristics. That way when I wrote my letter I was able to be very specific. When I sent him the letter he said that everything I wrote was spot-on, he couldn't have written it better himself, and that he wouldn't be changing a thing.

So even though it's a difficult task that seems as hard as writing your personal statement, it's actually a great opportunity that you need to approach with a cool and level mindset in order to take advantage of.
 
doc toothache said:
Writing your own letter defeats the intent and spirit of LOR.
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It definitely does. But if the person does not want to write it, you can't exactly force them into it. On the flip side, a lot of the times they just want you to write the first draft because it's easier to edit something than it is to write it from scratch.
 
Your dentist is probably really busy or maybe has never had to write a LOR. I've known countless applicants (that got in last cycle) that were asked to write their own by profs and dentists. Don't forget to mention how you interacted with the patients, your intellectual curiosity, your fervent desire to be a dentist, your future goals...assuming this has all been communicated to your dentist. Best of luck to you.

-student253
 
drpsuedonym said:
It definitely does. But if the person does not want to write it, you can't exactly force them into it. On the flip side, a lot of the times they just want you to write the first draft because it's easier to edit something than it is to write it from scratch.
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Maybe it is time to find another dentist that can write.

misstoothfairy said:
It does. But some people actually get turned down when asking for a letter of reference probably because the professors doesn't think they would make a good dentist.
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Profs may feel that the applicant could not make it through ds rather than passing judgement on whether or not they would make a "good dentist". At least those that do not wish to write a LOR are being honest. They could just write one that would not be very flattering.
 
honestly i dont even think many schools look at the letters from dentists.

case in point, i was at an interview and i brought up the name of the dentist that wrote my letter during the interview. the interviewer actually knew the dentist that wrote the letter...wouldnt they have known this had they read the letter. Sure maybe someone in the adcom read the letter, but still this demonstrates how unimportant the letters are overall (at this school, at least...)
 
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hoss19 said:
honestly i dont even think many schools look at the letters from dentists.
case in point, i was at an interview and i brought up the name of the dentist that wrote my letter during the interview. the interviewer actually knew the dentist that wrote the letter...wouldnt they have known this had they read the letter. Sure maybe someone in the adcom read the letter, but still this demonstrates how unimportant the letters are overall (at this school, at least...)
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LOR play a role before the interview, not during or after.
 
that's kind of dicey.... see to me, that kind of says that he is not that interested in writing you a letter... any other options?
 
trukini said:
This happens a lot, which is why LORs mean almost nothing in the Adminssion decision (you still need them tho).
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I think that is too broad a statement to be true. During one of the presentations at my interview, NJDS listed LORs as the third most important factor in deciding who to accept (behind sGPA/BCP and DAT score -- I guess fourth if they look at sGPA and BCP separately). Regardless of if the list they gave was in order of importance, the point is that at least some schools, NJDS included, must feel that LORs are an important part of the application process; why else would they bother asking for them?

Also, to the poster who said something about their interviewer not knowing who wrote their LORs, I think that the interviewers themselves may not necessarily go over every aspect of an interviewee's file beforehand - but the admissions committee, or whoever screens applicants for interview, probably does.
 
my dentist had me write my own and i didn't want it to be obvious that i wrote it so my mom wrote it and i just read it and made comments. it's not unethical because you aren't asking to write it or read it, the dentist is asking you to do it. thus, its not like the dentist is feeling pressured and isn't being honest. take advantage of the fact that you get to know what one of your letters says! we're lucky to have dentists like that!
 
Contach said:
not getting into dental school defeats the intent and spirit of applying to dental schools

what's your point?
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Mind your manners when you're talking to Toothache. He has done more for this forum than you or I ever will.
 
Contach said:
not getting into dental school defeats the intent and spirit of applying to dental schools

what's your point?
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The ps is where you toot your horn on how great you are; the lors are designed to see if someone will second the motion.
 
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