extra letters of rec?

[hoodle]

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I have two vets who have offered to write me extra letters of recommendation. One of them is probably pretty important (I have over 600 hours of equine work with him). The other is a longstanding horse vet of my family's who has known me and worked with me forever - but I never actually formally shadowed or assisted her.

The vet who I have writing my VMCAS letter of recommendation is a great guy at a small animal emergency room, where I currently work. When I met with him for coffee to talk about my application we had a great time, he was incredibly supportive, and so I asked him to be my main letter writer. He sent me his letter before he submitted it (of his own accord, I didn't ask him to!) and while it was very friendly, it was basically just a rehashing of my CV, saying nothing about me personally. I was somewhat disappointed. I don't think he's ever written a letter of rec before, as he's very young, and I just don't think he knew what to say!

When the opportunity came up for these other two letters, I was thrilled and immediately thanked them and was excited to have another letter or two to balance out the slightly lukewarm VMCAS letter. Now, however, I'm nervous - is sending TOO many letters bad?

Clearly I should call all the admissions offices and ask them directly. However, have any of you asked similar things? What do you think? My other two letters are from academic sources, which are really the strength of my application, I think.

 

[alonepear]

From my personal experience with admissions counselors, they are usually looking for letters of rec that describe you as a person, how you are to work with, your work ethic, and the qualities you possess that will make you a good vet student and a great vet, along with examples that portray you possessing said qualities.

If you do not feel strongly about that first one (assuming that you had him submit it himself online via VMCAS), you definitely want your next two to have more substance to them.

As for submitting more than the required letters, you can certainly do that, although only three can be submitted online via VMCAS. The others have to be submitted on a form that can be printed from the VMCAS website. Some schools will NOT read more than the three letters submitted online, while others will read all of them. Look online or contact the schools individually to see what their policies are.

That being said, I had an absolutely wonderful letter of rec written for me months after my first three were sent in online, and I submitted it on the written form. Of the four schools I applied to, two of them read more than your first 3 letters. Those happened to be the two that interviewed and accepted me....

 

[ShelterGirl]

If you have a chance to get veterinary LORs with more substance (as it sounds like the case is), then by all means DO IT! Like alonepear said, you would need to submit the extras as hard copy. Colorado State doesn't accept more than 3 LORs, but many other schools do.

 

[kate_g]

Isn't there any way to remove the lukewarm letter from the VMCAS letter site and have one of these other vets submit one instead? Maybe if you call VMCAS they'd be able to delete the recommendation that was already submitted - hopefully without some kind of "your account has been deleted" message getting sent to the vet!

Sending five recommendations (the three you've already got on VMCAS plus these two new ones on paper forms) seems a little excessive. But I had a situation where I worked closely with two vets, both of whom offered to write letters and both of whom had worked with people on the Davis admissions committee. What we ultimately settled on was the vet I'd known longer submitting the official recommendation through VMCAS, and the second vet sending a letter (not using the paper form with all their questions, just a written letter on letterhead) to the Davis admissions committee. Dunno if they read it, or if it did any good, but I figured it probably wouldn't hurt and he felt like he was helping out.

 

[hoodle]

I had never even really considered having the rec deleted from VMCAS... in my mind, it just went into a huge abyss of "already submitted". Somehow I doubt, though, that they'll allow that to happen. Might be worth checking on, thanks!

Also, thanks for the reminders, everyone, about the paper VMCAS forms. I had just assumed that they'd put their letters on letterhead, but maybe forms would seem more official and helpful. I'm glad I asked here!

Even if the school doesn't read the extra letters, it seems unlikely that they'd be so ANGRY that you sent one for it to be a black mark, right? That's my big fear. My expectation is that it's their choice whether or not to read a letter, but sending a reasonable number of extras (not more than 1-3 extra) can't be held against you...?

 

[pressmom]

I sent an extra one and it didn't seem to hurt me.

 

[mistifical]

Kind of along the same lines... as in LOR...

I can't decide who to get a third rec from. The two I have are from a professor who knows me very well and from a vet who I've worked with for several years.

My options for the third:
1) I've been working full time for a couple of months as a vet tech working with rodents at a major research university. Obviously I've racked up my hours there quite quickly, but I hardly EVER see my boss. Everything has gone really well there, and I've gotten a number of complements from her and other vets, though most of what I do is on my own.

2) This summer I've been shadowing a large animal vet. I only have about 20 hours of this, and it will be around 25 when I apply. The vet speaks very highly of me and how I've helped him out, etc. He definitely would write a great recommendation.

I guess the dilemma is that with the first option, I have a large number of hours, but I don't feel like any of the vets know me very well since its not in an environment where I get a lot of one-on-one time with the vets. With the second option, I'd be getting a recommendation from someone who I feel actually knows me pretty well, despite the fact that my experience is pretty limited. I can just picture evaluators going through my file, and wondering why I chose to get a recommendation from an experience with 25 hours vs an experience with hundreds of hours... Also, if I remember correctly, most, if not all, of the schools I'm applying to will not consider additional recommendations.

Anyways, I haven't talked to my boss about writing one yet, and I was planning on asking her opinion on the matter as well, to see if she even felt that she knows enough about me to make it a good one.

Just thought it might be worthwhile to see what others thought...

Also, incase you were wondering, when I applied last year (waitlisted at 2 schools), I used the same professor, and 2 vets from the small animal practice I have been working at for years. However, these two vets left the practice shortly before I applied last year, and I felt that since a lot of time has passed since I've worked with them, and that my duties at the clinic have changed too, that it wouldn't be worthwhile to use these evaluators again.

 

[hoodle]

See, this is where I'd just ask for both letters and send them. Who knows, maybe they WOULD look at it? If it wouldn't hurt, it could really help. The question is whether or not it would hurt - what about calling the admissions office and getting a feel for how vehement they are about no more than 3 letters? Maybe they just say that to discourage it, but don't care all that much.

At the small animal place I work at, they said that senior nurses often write letters for students. They can then be signed off by the vet in charge. Maybe you could have your senior, whoever's in charge of the techs like yourself, write you a letter and then get it notarized by the actual vets? I think this is called a "committee" letter.

 

[BobDog]

I guess the worst part about letters of reference is that no matter how good you are and how good of a relationship you have with a vet, you can never guarantee that they know how to write a good letter. I am a bit worried about how my vet wrote his letter. He said it is an excellent ref but who knows if he gave specific examples of personality traits etc... Unfortunately, it is considered bad form to ask for a rough draft before accepting it as one of your official letters 😀.

 

[ShelterGirl]

Mistifical, I'd go with whoever can write you a LOR that shows:

- you have the qualities and characteristics to make a successful veterinarian, and
- you have seen/experienced a variety of veterinary situations

... but that's just me. What a great problem to have, though!