How important are LOR?

[Heller123]

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How important is it to get high quality LOR? I think I have 2 solid LOR from professors who know me well, however I'm kind of worried about the other two. I'm kind of out of options when it comes to science LOR because the majority of my professors have either retired or left to teach elsewhere. I just don't want LOR to be the reason why I don't get into school...

 

[qkchen]

I think it is fairly important to get a quality LOR. If you don't know the recommender as well, it could help to give the letter writer your personal statement or resume. I think it is still acceptable to have letters from retired professors or if they teach somewhere else, as long as you can get a hold of them and convince them to write you a LOR. Unless if they write something terrible about you, then I doubt the LOR will negatively impact you. Just ask the writer to see if they can write you a positive recommendation. The combination of letters, consisting of two science, one dentist and one of your choice (non-science, volunteer, work, etc) letter will work for most dental schools.

 

[KittySquared]

It is important. A lot of people with similar GPAs, DATs and such, but it's your LORs, ECs, and personal statement that will REALLY set you apart from the rest of the bunch. More than likely, your professor wrote you the letter as a professor of the school you went to. I'm sure it's fine.

 

[ushaseos]

It is important. A lot of people with similar GPAs, DATs and such, but it's your LORs, ECs, and personal statement that will REALLY set you apart from the rest of the bunch. More than likely, your professor wrote you the letter as a professor of the school you went to. I'm sure it's fine.

This 👍

Things like ECs and LORs are like trump cards; not exactly the things that will get you past the initial screening (that is all numers and stats), but more of a second level of selection when its neck in neck competition.

Try your best to get back in touch with the profs. If they liked you when you were in their class, you'll be surprised how willing they'll be to write you a letter. One of my favorite profs retired before I asked him for a letter, a different one put me in touch with him and he was thrilled when I asked him to write me one...this is at Berkeley where most classes have more than a 100 students. Bottom line is if you did well in the class, and the prof is a nice guy, you don't have to worry.

 

[Heller123]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

[wcombs]

Of my three letters, one was written by a dentist with awful grammar skills (and it was submitted confidentially, talk about absolutely terrifying). The other two were written by professors, neither of which has higher than a masters degree. One is well written but excruciatingly generic; she was happy to write a letter but she clearly has a template. The other one is heartfelt and sincere but riddled with incomplete sentences and misplaced punctuation.

I've kind of just thrown my hands up in the air and given up all care about my letters.

 

[toyotasupra]

Personally, I don't think it matters all that much. They just want to see that you CAN get letters of recommendations that meet their Science and/or Dentist criteria.

 

[KittySquared]

Personally, I don't think it matters all that much. They just want to see that you CAN get letters of recommendations that meet their Science and/or Dentist criteria.

You should believe the power of bad letters. I worked in a prehealth committee and I've seen some career-ruining letters that can prevent a summa cum laude student with 38+MCAT from getting into any med school.

 

[vinnie83]

First off, try asking some of the schools you're applying to what they think about letters. Everyone else here is just guessing.

Since you asked, my opinion: a bad rec probably won't hurt you, but a good one may be a tiebreaker. Despite your professor's, supervisor's, dentist's expertise in their particular area not everyone is all that great at writing or more importantly embellishing/BSing. In my past career I spent a good amount of time writing performance reports for those I supervised and reviewing performance reports that supervisors under me wrote. There were times when I knew that my writing was not doing justice to people that worked for me and conversely I saw reports that while not false, presented individuals in a much better light than anyone who had worked with them would imagine.

Getting LORs are likely in large part checking a box. If you can't get them you are either very lazy or just made that bad of an impression with your professors.