About Letters of Recommendations...

[vornskr1030]

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So I've gone in to shadow an OD at his private practice twice, and he's a really cool guy. I was wondering if it was okay to ask him to write a LOR for me even though I've only gone in a few times (will be asking to shadow his clinical work as well). Also, is it okay to get a LOR a year before you apply and save it? I only just finished my second year at UCB, but I don't want to go back and ask next year when he doesn't remember me as well.

 

[Ning]

Hey,

I'm not sure if you can "save" the letter, seeing as the letter must be sent directly from the OD to the school. Not too sure what to do in this situation. Perhaps you can ask one of the optometry schools?

Ning-Ju

 

[daggerjet]

I know at UCB, there is a letter service where you can "save" these letters for later use. I believe all the UCs have this system where you can have any letters of recommendation sent to the career center of the school and they will keep them on file until you need them. When it comes time to apply for schools, most schools will accept letters from the Career Center Letter Service (at least the ones I applied to).

You might want to make sure the optometry schools that you are applying to will accept letters forwarded by the Career Center.

Since you have plenty of time before you actually apply to optometry school, you might want to ask if you can work/intern for your OD for free. This will not only give you a feel of how a private practice is run, it will also give you an idea of the "big picture." This will also reward you a much more sincere letter of recommendation and the experience most optometry schools will want.

 

[Ning]

At the University of Michigan, the career center can "save" letters and then send them out when you want them to. However, I'm not sure if they can take letters not written by members (professors, GSI) of the school, such as an OD. It was kinda expensive though, $5/letter they send!

Ning-Ju

 

[hoosier1]

You can just submit it to the Career Center and have them save it for ya. I thought this process was required in order to determine the LOR is legit.

 

[Ning]

None of my letters were sent through the career center, thus it's not necessary. As long as the letters do not go through you and go directly from the recommendor to the school, it should be considered valid.

Ning-Ju

 

[vornskr1030]

Hmm yea, I've heard about a letter service at UCB. But it seems to require a fee so I'm not sure if it's worth it (although in this circumstance...). I'll try to ask the people in charge of student affairs at UCBSO and see what they say. Thanks for the input!

 

[t-bone007]

I'm in the process of applying for Fall 2006. Some of the schools start their application period on 8/1. What happens if my letter of rec was sent in prior to 8/1? Do they keep it on file somewhere and wait for the application to come in? Or should I have the letter of rec sent in after 8/1?

UC Davis has a service to collect your letter of recs but according to 2 schools I spoke with (forgot which ones) they want the letter of recs sent from the writer directly to them.

 

[icu]

Anybody know if you'd be at a disadvantage if you don't currently have an undergrad school? I graduated last year and took a year off to take some more reqs. Never really took advantage of the system since i figured it didn't matter since i'll be out of school when i apply. anyone know? Thanks!

 

[hoosier1]

You can email your professors from a year ago. Maybe you can send them a pic of yourself and let the prof. know about your situation. Good luck.

 

[aimeeee]

i was wondering how long you guys shadowed/observed an OD before asking if they would write you guys a letter of recommendation? and how did u guys let them know that you guys wanted to shadow more than once? thanks~!

 

[FutureIrishOD]

Anybody know if you'd be at a disadvantage if you don't currently have an undergrad school? I graduated last year and took a year off to take some more reqs. Never really took advantage of the system since i figured it didn't matter since i'll be out of school when i apply. anyone know? Thanks!

You should be able to take advantage of the letter of rec system at the undergrad school you attended. At least that is how it is at Texas Tech, its open to current and former students with no fee. However, make you sure you give the letter service time to send out the letters, I would suggest you tell the letter service to send out the letters a couple of weeks before you want them to actually be in (unless your goal is to have them in the first few days that the applications become available, then check with the schools you are applying to, to make sure they will receive them if they come in early). Also, another advantage of using the system is that the letter service usually has only one form for the recommender to fill out, instead of having to fill out different form for each school that you are applying to.