How good do these recommendations need to be?

[funshine]

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I think all hte threads i've started on here have to do with letters of recommendation 😛 but anyway,

I need to get 2 more recommendations from profs. The problem is that I don't know either prof that well, and one is my thesis advisor too! He's just really busy, and not the most approachable person. I barely talk to him. But anyway, I'm certain that they'll write "nice" recs along the lines of "she's a caring, motivated person who works well with others" but nothing really outstanding.

Should I ask to chat with them about my reasons for going to med school? They never asked to "interview" me or anything, but I guess I'm supposed to be the one to take the initiative here?

I just hate bothering professors, esp. since I know they're relaly busy, and honestly, I want to avoid having interviewy type conversations as much as possible.

I'm willing to risk having lukewarm letters...do you guys think this is a bad idea?

 

[funshine]

-_- surely someone in here can answer my question.

Did any of you guys send emails to your professor asking them to meet with you so you could explain your reasons for going to med school?

I want to get other people's opinions because I don't have the best judgment myself on what is "appropriate" and what is not.

thanks 🙂

 

[stoic]

it's really better if you can get rec's from professors you've had a chance to meet a little bit before just coming to them for letters. otherwise it's hard for them to say much other than "this person did well in my class"

 

[dhoonlee]

.

 

[UCLAstudent]

I think it's a wonderful idea to meet with your professors/explain your motivations for going into medicine. Anything that you can do to help them know you a little better is a good thing. 🙂 There is no problem with e-mailing your professors to schedule an appointment. I contacted most of the professors that I requested a letter from by e-mail (but of course I met up with them before they began writing the letter).

And don't feel bad about "bothering" your professors. Writing letters for students is part of their job. Trust me, a million other people have asked your professors for a letter. Be sure to remind them every few weeks or so (a friendly e-mail will suffice).

Good luck! 🙂

 

[bbaek]

lukewarm is not good. especially if you are applying to a top 20 school. you are going to be like everyone else in a sea of mediocrity. if you truly care about going to a top school, and can honestly say you are a competitive candidate, then you would surely approach the letter of recs with much more persistence and vigor in order to get a great recommendation. and something great would be a letter that would truly explain you behind the "oh she/he is a wonderful person and is interested in going to med school...."

if this is not you, then obviously you wouldn't have worked so hard. but still try to get good or great recommendations. there is always time, and even for those buy ppl, like my lead researcher who is the associate dean at the college of medicine has almost no time. but go make an appt and make sure that you know what to talk about to that person and see how you can get a great recommendation.

hope that helps. work hard at it and it will pay off! 🙂

 

[UCLAstudent]

lukewarm is not good. especially if you are applying to a top 20 school. you are going to be like everyone else in a sea of mediocrity. if you truly care about going to a top school, and can honestly say you are a competitive candidate, then you would surely approach the letter of recs with much more persistence and vigor in order to get a great recommendation. and something great would be a letter that would truly explain you behind the "oh she/he is a wonderful person and is interested in going to med school....")

I agree with this, to an extent. It's true that letters can (and will) be used to differentiate applicants. However, I also think that a bad letter will hurt you much more than a good letter will help you. Your letters can only help you so much. I believe that more weight is put on your personal statement, your GPA/MCAT, and your extracurricular activities.

 

[funshine]

there is always time, and even for those buy ppl, like my lead researcher who is the associate dean at the college of medicine has almost no time. but go make an appt and make sure that you know what to talk about to that person and see how you can get a great recommendation.

hope that helps. work hard at it and it will pay off! 🙂

i have worked hard. i'm just getting tired/cynical when it's starting to matter most. I know profs should always make the time for students, but for some rason the relationship between me and my thesis advisor has turned sour. Or maybe it's non-existent. Not sure which would be worse, but I dread the thought of talking to him. He is also head of my department and Director of the Genomics Institute at my school and blah blah blah. I think he is majorly stressed out himself.

This is why I hesitate asking for an interview: I went into his office to ask for a recommednation in person. He seemed irritated and distracted the whole time I was there (which was all of 1/2 a minute). At one point, he looked irritated and stared at his computer screen (probably reading an email)--it lasted less than a sec--but i noticed and it really upset me.

Anyway, I have heard complaints from previous students that as an advisor, he just doesn't care about his students, but he IS the PI of my lab after all, so I hafta ask... 👎 GRRRRR. i hate the situation i got myself into.

 

[bbaek]

i have worked hard. i'm just getting tired/cynical when it's starting to matter most. I know profs should always make the time for students, but for some rason the relationship between me and my thesis advisor has turned sour. Or maybe it's non-existent. Not sure which would be worse, but I dread the thought of talking to him. He is also head of my department and Director of the Genomics Institute at my school and blah blah blah. I think he is majorly stressed out himself.

This is why I hesitate asking for an interview: I went into his office to ask for a recommednation in person. He seemed irritated and distracted the whole time I was there (which was all of 1/2 a minute). At one point, he looked irritated and stared at his computer screen (probably reading an email)--it lasted less than a sec--but i noticed and it really upset me.

Anyway, I have heard complaints from previous students that as an advisor, he just doesn't care about his students, but he IS the PI of my lab after all, so I hafta ask... 👎 GRRRRR. i hate the situation i got myself into.

hmmm... that sounds like a hard place and a rock. well, at least you can keep on my trying and hopefully be able to set up an appointment with him. usually does who are real busy hate being interrupted and so setting up an appt. will be the least damage you can possibly do. and try talking nice to him, even if it may be very difficult to do so, because you sure don't want to ruin everything after all the work that you did.

sorry to say one of those "i told you so" type of deals, but next time, try to be able to find any additional information before getting into it. because for me, i am kinda in a sticky situation myself, but at least i can buy some time to make further choices later down the line to minimize any future damage.

hmmmm..... i really don't know what to say. you can always pray to God, he holds the answer.

 

[KiwiFruit]

I think all hte threads i've started on here have to do with letters of recommendation 😛 but anyway,

I need to get 2 more recommendations from profs. The problem is that I don't know either prof that well, and one is my thesis advisor too! He's just really busy, and not the most approachable person. I barely talk to him. But anyway, I'm certain that they'll write "nice" recs along the lines of "she's a caring, motivated person who works well with others" but nothing really outstanding.

Should I ask to chat with them about my reasons for going to med school? They never asked to "interview" me or anything, but I guess I'm supposed to be the one to take the initiative here?

I just hate bothering professors, esp. since I know they're relaly busy, and honestly, I want to avoid having interviewy type conversations as much as possible.

I'm willing to risk having lukewarm letters...do you guys think this is a bad idea?

That was exactly the same frustrating situation I found myself in last year. I went to a state school and had huge lecture courses in all the sciences. I had an exclusive major but I was too afraid to approach any of those professors for letters of recommendation because I was so afraid of them because of their reputations...and I truly regret not sucking it up back then to get stronger letters from the teacher that hand-picked me for entrance into my major. And I do know for a fact one of my STRONGEST letters came from a professor I was afraid of but emailed him and requested a "interview"/meeting...so I it was definitely worth it because he agreed to interview me. Also, when I asked my professors for a letter, the ones who were unable to meet with me, I offered to prepare a file including my MCAT (including percentile rankings), research/plublications, transcript, personal statement...basically my AMCAS and asked them to read it before writing my letter and they all agreed and told me it helped them write a better letter for me than they otherwise would've. Hope this helps and best of luck!!

 

[Mr PluM]

I think all hte threads i've started on here have to do with letters of recommendation 😛 but anyway,

I need to get 2 more recommendations from profs. The problem is that I don't know either prof that well, and one is my thesis advisor too! He's just really busy, and not the most approachable person. I barely talk to him. But anyway, I'm certain that they'll write "nice" recs along the lines of "she's a caring, motivated person who works well with others" but nothing really outstanding.

Should I ask to chat with them about my reasons for going to med school? They never asked to "interview" me or anything, but I guess I'm supposed to be the one to take the initiative here?

I just hate bothering professors, esp. since I know they're relaly busy, and honestly, I want to avoid having interviewy type conversations as much as possible.

I'm willing to risk having lukewarm letters...do you guys think this is a bad idea?

your letters should be scattered, varied, and get them from people who know you

be strategic about letters many people fail in this and wallla dont get in

strategic uh wat does that mean well aim to have six letters ready to ship ou whenever you need them try to have some for sure two in science does not have be a professor any md or phd that knows you and your talent not personally but from research or any other stuff if your advisor at school is scientist with a phd and knows you really well that will do

get a letter from any community service or social activity you do also get one from a non science these are key most of the time we tend to get more personal with professors in these classes because you have to discuss a paper or something these letters are key they many premeds frown upon them but you should not

in the end remember varied

2 science
2 non science
2 community or extracuricular stuff

you ll be fine

 

[chatterbox]

honestly, my letters were mediocre at best. One letter from my PI had great content but so many grammatical mistakes it was embarrassing and I just didnt have the nerve to ask him to rewrite it (info I got from another person in the lab who I was close to who had read it). One was from a professor who I think mistook me for somebody else. The best one was from the doctor I shadowed in a clinical setting. But really, in general, nothing special AT ALL and I got into 3 good schools already. If everything else is in place- GPA, MCAT and ECs- then generic LORs wont hurt you much. good luck!

 

[funshine]

That was exactly the same frustrating situation I found myself in last year. I went to a state school and had huge lecture courses in all the sciences. I had an exclusive major but I was too afraid to approach any of those professors for letters of recommendation because I was so afraid of them because of their reputations...and I truly regret not sucking it up back then to get stronger letters from the teacher that hand-picked me for entrance into my major. And I do know for a fact one of my STRONGEST letters came from a professor I was afraid of but emailed him and requested a "interview"/meeting...so I it was definitely worth it because he agreed to interview me. Also, when I asked my professors for a letter, the ones who were unable to meet with me, I offered to prepare a file including my MCAT (including percentile rankings), research/plublications, transcript, personal statement...basically my AMCAS and asked them to read it before writing my letter and they all agreed and told me it helped them write a better letter for me than they otherwise would've. Hope this helps and best of luck!!

thanks kiwifruit and everyone else.

I'll definitely send an email to my two profs and ask to set up interviews...

You know, now that I think about the last email I sent to them (asking for rec letters), I DO believe I asked to "chat" with them about med school.
However, they didn't seem to read my whole email through. Sigh. 🙄
I totally cannot wait to get out of this school.

 

[Bap2qwrq7]

I think all hte threads i've started on here have to do with letters of recommendation 😛 but anyway,

I need to get 2 more recommendations from profs. The problem is that I don't know either prof that well, and one is my thesis advisor too! He's just really busy, and not the most approachable person. I barely talk to him. But anyway, I'm certain that they'll write "nice" recs along the lines of "she's a caring, motivated person who works well with others" but nothing really outstanding.

Should I ask to chat with them about my reasons for going to med school? They never asked to "interview" me or anything, but I guess I'm supposed to be the one to take the initiative here?

I just hate bothering professors, esp. since I know they're relaly busy, and honestly, I want to avoid having interviewy type conversations as much as possible.

I'm willing to risk having lukewarm letters...do you guys think this is a bad idea?

I can relate to your problems. During my undraguate core courses, basically all my science classes, I have had to endure lecture halls with 400 students and professors who basically cannot possibly remember students in such an environment.

The key to getting decent letters of rec, is to be aggressive and go seek out your professors and actively engage them. If they have office hours, go to them and ask questions about your course and anything else in general. If the office hours are packed with people and you cannot get to know your professor, set up an appointment to meet them so you can basically have a 1 on 1.

Discussing your motivations for medicine is also a great idea. Don't feel bad "bothering" professors. Part of their job description is writing letters of rec. It comes with the territory. But you just have to make yourself known. All of the professors I have asked for letters have sat down with me and talked to me about my motivations for medicine and things like that. It's not that bad, except for one professor who went on and on about how he's had so many students who applied and got into medical school only to drop out because they didn't know what they were getting into. It felt like he was trying to convince me out of my decision. I just rolled my eyes and nodded my head until he got through his little speech.

I am applying this year, and one of my letters, a letter from my PI at the lab I did work at wrote me an average letter that made some knocks on me. I know this because when I asked him, he told me some of the faults he would include. I got pretty paranoid because of this but luckily have gotten accepted into a school, so I an average letter will not be the death of you. But I would suggest not having to agonize about something like that and try to get the best letters possible.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

I think all hte threads i've started on here have to do with letters of recommendation 😛 but anyway,

I need to get 2 more recommendations from profs. The problem is that I don't know either prof that well, and one is my thesis advisor too! He's just really busy, and not the most approachable person. I barely talk to him. But anyway, I'm certain that they'll write "nice" recs along the lines of "she's a caring, motivated person who works well with others" but nothing really outstanding.

Should I ask to chat with them about my reasons for going to med school? They never asked to "interview" me or anything, but I guess I'm supposed to be the one to take the initiative here?

I just hate bothering professors, esp. since I know they're relaly busy, and honestly, I want to avoid having interviewy type conversations as much as possible.

I'm willing to risk having lukewarm letters...do you guys think this is a bad idea?

they haveto be AS good as a chocolate cake with hot cocoa on a cold winter's eve
but not AS good as procreation