eLOR question: picking between vets at a practice

[bluesails]

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I work at a practice with a lot of different vets, three of which are intern vets who are finishing up their internship here this year. The vet I work with the most and hit it off with the best is an intern vet. Would there be any disadvantage to asking her for an eLOR instead of one of the older board-certified vets who are also at this practice? I'm sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure.

 

[Peperoncini]

I work at a practice with a lot of different vets, three of which are intern vets who are finishing up their internship here this year. The vet I work with the most and hit it off with the best is an intern vet. Would there be any disadvantage to asking her for an eLOR instead of one of the older board-certified vets who are also at this practice? I'm sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I just wanted to make sure.

If you could only have one eLOR from this practice, I'd get it from the vet that knows you best, works with you most and would give you the best letter - period, end of story. An excellent letter beats a mediocre one (which, if you can only trust the older vets to provide mediocre letters, should make your choice an easy one). Furthermore, a mediocre to bad letter from a well-respected vet looks that much worse.

Any reason you wouldn't get more than one letter from this practice (i.e. do you think you have another really good potential letter writer there)? I think we would need to know more of your story to figure out a good recommendation to make. I'm not sure what the upcoming VMCAS rules are, but most schools want 2 LORs from Veterinarians.

 

[Frozenshades]

If you could only have one eLOR from this practice, I'd get it from the vet that knows you best, works with you most and would give you the best letter - period, end of story. An excellent letter beats a mediocre one (which, if you can only trust the older vets to provide mediocre letters, should make your choice an easy one). Furthermore, a mediocre to bad letter from a well-respected vet looks that much worse.

Any reason you wouldn't get more than one letter from this practice (i.e. do you think you have another really good potential letter writer there)? I think we would need to know more of your story to figure out a good recommendation to make. I'm not sure what the upcoming VMCAS rules are, but most schools want 2 LORs from Veterinarians.

You not only want someone you know well to write a good letter, but keep in mind that schools might contact your LOR writers. I know a couple of mine received phone calls; it wouldn't look good if they don't know you well enough to talk about you.

As for the requirements, my LORs were from 1 DVM, and 2 PhDs, and none of the 5 schools I applied to had an issue with it. Some schools do have more specific requirements though so make sure you check on that, but I think a lot of them just specify that at least one needs to be from a vet.

 

[bluesails]

Any reason you wouldn't get more than one letter from this practice (i.e. do you think you have another really good potential letter writer there)? I think we would need to know more of your story to figure out a good recommendation to make. I'm not sure what the upcoming VMCAS rules are, but most schools want 2 LORs from Veterinarians.

I was going to get one LOR from this vet and then another from a vet from an entirely different practice, who's actually known me the longest / was the first vet I worked for.

Thanks for the advice - was pretty much what I was hoping to hear, and I just wanted to make sure!