CV for rec letters

[junkct]

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Hey everyone, so I'm gonna start asking my profs for rec letters very soon. I wanted to provide them with my personal statement, CV, and maybe a cover letter. For the CV, how long is acceptable? I know a resume is supposed to be < 1 page, but a CV includes descriptions of your activities and whatnot. I don't expect my profs to fully read the CV, but I wanted to provide them with comprehensive information. Currently my Cv is like 6 pages long (I described my research and everything.... I've been in 4 labs, so that takes up a good amount of space on paper). Would it be inappropriate to give this to them? Should I make it shorter? I don't really know how I would make it shorter without losing important info

 

[Ponger]

It's okay to keep a copy of a detailed CV for yourself, I do it myself to remind myself of exactly what I did in my labs, but for a distributable CV it's got to be easily digestable for the reader.

I'd go two pages, max, but one page is ideal. I would pick your most important activities (research or other extracurriculars) and focus on them. Possibly a two to three sentence blurb about your most important research experiences and then just list the others with a brief description or none at all.

You should definitely cut the fat and take off anything superfluous like a club you joined and did nothing in (if in fact you listed all of those).

A CV is just supposed to give them an idea about what you've done, not describe the whole enchilada. If you really feel that one or two things are so important that you absolutely need to convey to them, you might as well tell them in person rather than have them read it. It'll stick in their mind better that way too.

 

[Lola2010]

Although, I totally understand what the above poster is getting at, I think for this its better to submit the long CV and highlight in an email or cover letter what you think is most important. As in "as you can see from my attached resume...." I also sent some personal essays I needed to write for my prehealth committee. I think my letter writers were very thankful for the additional info.

 

[tiedyeddog]

I keep a resume and a CV. A CV is as long enough to cover everything you've done, I always thought. I've seen 12-15 page CV's but that is the point. My resume is 2 pages max. I would look online for examples of both and maybe even ask your prospective boss which one they want, CV or resume. I find most people want the resume as the CV is useless to them.

 

[bellakk]

To me, a resume is tailored to specific jobs while a CV includes everything.
I think a long CV is fine as long as it is organized efficiently with bullets. I do think its OK to cut down long explanations of research. Unless you're applying to a joint phd program, just a sentence or two about each research experience is fine.
I think its easier for a LoR reader to scan thru a long CV instead of trying to make a detailed letter without details to go off of. Dont be afraid to highlight details that you feel are super important on your CV.

The biggest tip I've recieved so far from the schools I've talked to is dont think that just because your prof has written A LOT of letters in their lifetime doesnt mean they necessarily know what needs to be included in the letter. See if any of the schools to which you're applying have a evaluation form you can give your letter writers so they know what to write about. For example, I'm from Oklahoma and OSU-COM is my top choice. They have two dif forms, a pre-professional evaluation and a D.O. evaluation.

http://www.healthsciences.okstate.edu/student/forms/supp_eval.pdf

They suggest these not be used in place of a LoR (a LoR is much better and contains much more detail), but in addition or as simply a guideline for the letter writer. The admissions coordinator told me how suprised I'd be to find out how many LoR writers forget to mention an important trait such as character, judgement, reliability, or simply interest in medicine in general.

Best of luck requesting your letters! Dont forget it's OK to give your writers a specific deadline and email them occasionally to make sure they havent forgotten! (sometimes the writers procrastinate just like us!)