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- Sep 15, 2002
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Has anyone else had as much trouble as I getting my application complete? It seems as if I had everything that could go wrong with people writing my letters, go wrong. Let me ellaborate.
Each School requires a slightly different combination of letters. Some want faculty who have taught you, others want research professors, others want medical experience. And trying to figure out which combination will hopefully be the best is difficult enough. To keep track of where everyone is sending what for me, and other stuff like secondary fees and whatnot, I have this monster Excel Spreadsheet. Ok, now the fun stuff.
So, I tried making the pain of letters as easy as possible though it is part of their' jobs. I sent lots of information, my resume, transcript, personal statement, printed AMCAS application, even powerpoint presentations. Stamped and addressed envelopes, even checklist of where everything needed to be sent. And all of them with at least 9-10 weeks to write them. I feel I made the largest mistake by not making up a deadline and instead figured they'd be motivated enough to just get them done.
The first hurdle. My advisor took 11 weeks to write the letter. And this is after about 5 weeks straight of me progressively calling him more often, and him promising them on "this Monday." He finally sent them out.
The second hurdle, my professor I do research with. Well, I got a grad student I mostly work with to write most of this one, all she had to do was review it and sign it. It took her 4 weeks from the time he wrote it until she sent it. She changed nothing (according to the equally annoyed grad student who felt my pain) and then she calls me to tell me she was confused where everything needed to be sent and about my AMCAS ID number and then she told me I should make a checklist (I had done that 3 times, once for the grad student, twice for her).
Round three, a VP of a medical center was writing this one. He had already written one last year for me. He told me he planned to just modify that one. After about 10 weeks, and 4 of me progressively emailing him with several email that were like "I know you are busy, just send a reply back with either a Y or a N, have they been sent?" He finally sent them (or should I say the one). I found out later that he sent his secretary the address for where I had him send the letter for a summer program I did. I called her a couple weeks later. She felt pretty stupid about it and got them all sent out yet that day.
Round four. My preceptor from my Summer program was going to write one. After about 9 weeks, and 3 of my nagging, his secretary emails me back that he is too busy writing a grant proposal and he wants me to write it for him. After declining, I decided to be resourceful and made a form for people around the department to write it for me. 4 weeks later, after calling the secretary directly several time, it finally got sent out.
Round five, a podiatrist I have coached soccer with for 3 years. After 13 weeks he finally gets it dictated. His secretary takes 2 weeks to type it (all with the usual twice a week calls and promises. He sends me an email "got them out." I call the schools to find out that he didn't send any of the required forms (which I had both faxed to his work (twice) and mailed to his house), but only wrote the letter. He lost the forms, I sent them a fourth time.
So, that's it right now. I don't think I didn't anything wrong, but there has to be a better way then having to work so hard to get these in. I know, some people may say that maybe I didn't deserve the letters and am some type of jerk, but I know all of these people pretty well and they all said they'd gladly write them for me.
Each School requires a slightly different combination of letters. Some want faculty who have taught you, others want research professors, others want medical experience. And trying to figure out which combination will hopefully be the best is difficult enough. To keep track of where everyone is sending what for me, and other stuff like secondary fees and whatnot, I have this monster Excel Spreadsheet. Ok, now the fun stuff.
So, I tried making the pain of letters as easy as possible though it is part of their' jobs. I sent lots of information, my resume, transcript, personal statement, printed AMCAS application, even powerpoint presentations. Stamped and addressed envelopes, even checklist of where everything needed to be sent. And all of them with at least 9-10 weeks to write them. I feel I made the largest mistake by not making up a deadline and instead figured they'd be motivated enough to just get them done.
The first hurdle. My advisor took 11 weeks to write the letter. And this is after about 5 weeks straight of me progressively calling him more often, and him promising them on "this Monday." He finally sent them out.
The second hurdle, my professor I do research with. Well, I got a grad student I mostly work with to write most of this one, all she had to do was review it and sign it. It took her 4 weeks from the time he wrote it until she sent it. She changed nothing (according to the equally annoyed grad student who felt my pain) and then she calls me to tell me she was confused where everything needed to be sent and about my AMCAS ID number and then she told me I should make a checklist (I had done that 3 times, once for the grad student, twice for her).
Round three, a VP of a medical center was writing this one. He had already written one last year for me. He told me he planned to just modify that one. After about 10 weeks, and 4 of me progressively emailing him with several email that were like "I know you are busy, just send a reply back with either a Y or a N, have they been sent?" He finally sent them (or should I say the one). I found out later that he sent his secretary the address for where I had him send the letter for a summer program I did. I called her a couple weeks later. She felt pretty stupid about it and got them all sent out yet that day.
Round four. My preceptor from my Summer program was going to write one. After about 9 weeks, and 3 of my nagging, his secretary emails me back that he is too busy writing a grant proposal and he wants me to write it for him. After declining, I decided to be resourceful and made a form for people around the department to write it for me. 4 weeks later, after calling the secretary directly several time, it finally got sent out.
Round five, a podiatrist I have coached soccer with for 3 years. After 13 weeks he finally gets it dictated. His secretary takes 2 weeks to type it (all with the usual twice a week calls and promises. He sends me an email "got them out." I call the schools to find out that he didn't send any of the required forms (which I had both faxed to his work (twice) and mailed to his house), but only wrote the letter. He lost the forms, I sent them a fourth time.
So, that's it right now. I don't think I didn't anything wrong, but there has to be a better way then having to work so hard to get these in. I know, some people may say that maybe I didn't deserve the letters and am some type of jerk, but I know all of these people pretty well and they all said they'd gladly write them for me.
