Do interviewers ever ask about content in letters of recommendation (LOE)?
Started by p0gono
Get help with your application
Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.
LORs by their definition are supposed to be confidential. The option of you seeing the content of your letter is entirely within the power of the person writing it; no medical school would ever hold it against you if the professor writing the letter didn't show you what they wrote.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Hmm, yeah I know they are confidential. I was thinking more along the lines of a letter that contains a story of some kind, and having an interviewer ask for your perspective on it (similar to how they might for events you bring up in your essays). It seems unlikely but possible, unless there is an unwritten rule against it.
Edit: a story involving you
Edit: a story involving you
My interviewer read a couple of segments from my LoR and asked me to explain why it said I had "poor interpersonal skills".
In retrospect I'm really grateful because the person who wrote that spontaneously offered to write me one for this cycle too.
In retrospect I'm really grateful because the person who wrote that spontaneously offered to write me one for this cycle too.
Why use their letter if they have negative things to say about you?
These are letters of evaluation.
We all have weak areas.
Since the right to see them is waived, the applicant doesn't know the content.
Last edited:
I hope you understand that this is somewhat of a fatal flaw in your mission to become a physician and that besides hiding it from admissions committees, you're taking steps to understand why you came across this way and how to fix it. Poor interpersonal skills make poor physicians. Fact.
Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
They were brought up in some of my interviews (usually making generic positive comments about the letters), but I did have one interview where I had a lengthy discussion about the contents of one of the letters.
My primary interest is forensic pathology.
Advertisement - Members don't see this ad
Interesting. Was it fact-based or more about your perspective?
I ask mostly because a letter writer shared her letter with me after she submitted it and she told a story that I remember somewhat differently. I don't think it will matter for that case, but it has me curious what could come up elsewhere.
Haha ok good luck then with the reapp. But interviewers won't care about that if you're a social weirdo at interviews. Plenty of functional people to pick from, so be careful
Because the writers have the subjects sign off on seeing the contents, they have the right to expect med schools not to reveal the contents to the subjects of the LORs. if we blebbed out their contents, then the writers would no longer write, or no longer write for candidates to particular schools.
So, at my school, our wily old Admissions dean tells us specifically do NOT directly discuss LOR contest with an interviewee, or disclose the name of a writer.
If we see something in a LOR that concerns us, like, say, A candidate is not a good team player, then we have questions prepared on this subject. It's never, ever, Dr Jones says that you're not a good team player....."
So, at my school, our wily old Admissions dean tells us specifically do NOT directly discuss LOR contest with an interviewee, or disclose the name of a writer.
If we see something in a LOR that concerns us, like, say, A candidate is not a good team player, then we have questions prepared on this subject. It's never, ever, Dr Jones says that you're not a good team player....."
The whole thing basically revolved around comments about my social skills.
Well that certainly sounds awkward for anyone, with or without good social skills.
You'd think the interviewer could have thought of a more graceful way to evaluate that aspect of you. (I wouldn't be surprised if they were lacking in that area, too.)
Well, idk about anyone else, but I personally hate when someone is smarter than me. Therefore, I usually have to think of some way to peg them as inferior. Social skills -- weapon of choice.
I also never consider that they just sincerely don't want to talk to me.
Anyone who doesn't talk to me like I like has Aspergers. Fact.
