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- Thread starter aodnejoch
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The question is what do you want the rec to say about you? No professor has time to read a description about every activity you've done, or any huge batch of information. What they want to know is what is expected of them, and how they can help you.
What you actually need to write depends on who this person is, what your relationship is to them, and why a medical school would care about what they have to say. If they've seen you in a clinical setting, they should discuss the traits that make you a good clinician, and you can bring up some examples that you think would exemplify those traits that they may not remember. If you did research with them, what exactly was your role and how did you improve the project, plus what personal characteristics like creativity, dedication, dependability, good collaboration etc did you demonstrate and how? As a professor, if you've been to office hours and shown good qualities, they should talk about that. If your classwork was extraordinary in some way, or you participate more than average or something, that's great to talk about. You can also discuss your motivation for medicine so they can say they've heard it from you and they think you're personally a great match for the profession for X Y Z reason.
Basically, how does this person know I'll be a good clinician, and how can they show it? That's all a LOR needs to be, and the easier you make their job to find the answer to that question the stronger it'll be.
What you actually need to write depends on who this person is, what your relationship is to them, and why a medical school would care about what they have to say. If they've seen you in a clinical setting, they should discuss the traits that make you a good clinician, and you can bring up some examples that you think would exemplify those traits that they may not remember. If you did research with them, what exactly was your role and how did you improve the project, plus what personal characteristics like creativity, dedication, dependability, good collaboration etc did you demonstrate and how? As a professor, if you've been to office hours and shown good qualities, they should talk about that. If your classwork was extraordinary in some way, or you participate more than average or something, that's great to talk about. You can also discuss your motivation for medicine so they can say they've heard it from you and they think you're personally a great match for the profession for X Y Z reason.
Basically, how does this person know I'll be a good clinician, and how can they show it? That's all a LOR needs to be, and the easier you make their job to find the answer to that question the stronger it'll be.
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It varies. Some of my writers asked, some of my writers didnt ask.
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Good ones do.
A lot of students write personal statements that are...quite personal. In such a case, is it acceptable to politely refuse or to simply give a summary?
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Do not write a personal statement that you could not share with a mentor.