LOR Guideline help

Wow good question, im very interested to see how this turns out... But i would say start with the basics... Probably best thing to do is make a bullet list of points to cover in the LOR. For example
1) Students academic performance.
2) Notable attributes student posses.
3) Reasons why the professor beleives you would make a good dental school candidate.

ETC... I hope this gets the list going i wonder what others have to say.

Go to the schools web site and see if you can find any specific info on what they want out of a letter... or even what the school is looking for in their "ideal" candidate.

I have never heard of a school sending you, someone who is not currently applying via AADSAS, a letter of things they would like for your LOR to write about before they even know you exist as an applicant.

SSD1 said:

Hi guys,

I went to one of my prof's who agreed to write me a reference letter.
I gave him my transcript, PS and CV.

He now claims that dental school should give me specific guidelines on what he needs to write in the letter. I told him that schools don't have anything like that but he still claims that there should be something like that I am probably missing it.

He has been a prof for almost 50yrs now!! He says that for all the other LOR's, like med schools etc. they provide him with guidelines on what to write on.

Our very own and helpful dentalworks recommended that I should just make up one for him.

I was wondering if someone has recommendations on what I should put on such a list??

Thanks!

Click to expand...

You should be able to get this from your pre-health committee at your undergrad. Not from the dental schools. I am attaching the one from Colorado Denver, it should give you a good idea.

This is from my blog:

Some of the professors or dentists may have never written a letter of recommendation or have written very few. In some cases the professors may be writing letters of recommendation but not really know what they should write about. That is why you should hand them a list of things that can or should be included in a letter of recommendation. This list should not even be much more than ten items long. I will list some ideas but feel free to come up with some of your own. You do not have to include all of them.

• Maturity
• Academic potential
• Problem solving skills
• Ability to handle stress
• Adaptability
• Communication skills
• Ability to exercise good judgment
• Self-confidence
• Resourcefulness
• Compassion
• Work ethic
• Critical thinking skills
• Capacity for empathy
• Motivation for learning
• Understanding of the profession
• Motivation for the profession
• Interpersonal skills
• Integrity

I would always suggest handing a short list of ideas to your professors. Some of them already have a template and know what they will write (but you never know). Look at a list like this and put a good 10 things on your list. Qualities that you would like him/her to write about.

I have other suggestions for "Obtaining Quality Letters of Recommendation" on my blog at http://dentaldat.blogspot.com/2011/04/obtaining-quality-letters-of.html

Hope this was useful

Fifty years later and he/she still doesn't know how the game is played?