how important are LORs?

[UofT9919]

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The professors i know out of school (did a project with ) I never took a course with them. I take some courses with less than 30 kids in them but how good can the reference be if they dont know me more than that? I guess my question is basically: What are the schools expecting out of the LORs, how much does it factor into their decision. I have a 3.7 cgpa with a 3.9 sgpa. Is a pretty generic LOR going to affect my application.

 

[John Durian]

What are the schools expecting out of the LORs, how much does it factor into their decision. I have a 3.7 cgpa with a 3.9 sgpa. Is a pretty generic LOR going to affect my application.

I'd say not as important as GPA/DAT for getting an interview, but it gives you that extra bump. I mean, admissions are so competitive these days. Imagine someone with a 3.7o/3.9s like you with mediocre/alright LORs vs someone with say a 3.6o/3.8s with superb LORs. I think I might lean toward the one with great LORs. Assuming we control other factors such as extracurriculars, shadowing hours, DAT, etc.

For any class (small or large), you'll have to go to office hours even if you don't need help. This will give you one-on-one time with your professor, so they can get to know you better. No questions? Make them up. Or just ask questions about stuff you know the answers to, so when he talks about it and asks if you understand, you can go "Oh yeah, you mean this does that and that? Thanks doc! You're such a great teacher. I totally get it now."

Anecdotal, but an interviewer at my top choice also mentioned how I had such great LORs. Ended up getting in, so I might be biased when I say it's purrrty important...

 

[UofT9919]

I'd say not as important as GPA/DAT for getting an interview, but it gives you that extra bump. I mean, admissions are so competitive these days. Imagine someone with a 3.7o/3.9s like you with mediocre/alright LORs vs someone with say a 3.6o/3.8s with superb LORs. I think I might lean toward the one with great LORs. Assuming we control other factors such as extracurriculars, shadowing hours, DAT, etc.

For any class (small or large), you'll have to go to office hours even if you don't need help. This will give you one-on-one time with your professor, so they can get to know you better. No questions? Make them up. Or just ask questions about stuff you know the answers to, so when he talks about it and asks if you understand, you can go "Oh yeah, you mean this does that and that? Thanks doc! You're such a great teacher. I totally get it now."

Anecdotal, but an interviewer at my top choice also mentioned how I had such great LORs. Ended up getting in, so I might be biased when I say it's purrrty important...

thank you. Will the LOR contain any statements saying" He/ she will be a good dentist, he she has the skills....etc. How good can a reference letter get if you never did a project with them? Is the consensus then, that you do not need to do a project with them for it to be a good lor? How long was your lor, because i got a prof to write one for me to do a project and he showed me it, and it was 3/4 a page single spaced. It said some good things, but i wouldn't think it was a great lor for dental school

 

[dentalWorks]

The professors i know out of school (did a project with ) I never took a course with them. I take some courses with less than 30 kids in them but how good can the reference be if they dont know me more than that? I guess my question is basically: What are the schools expecting out of the LORs, how much does it factor into their decision. I have a 3.7 cgpa with a 3.9 sgpa. Is a pretty generic LOR going to affect my application.

Who knows how important they are. Some schools will highly regard them others not so much. At the end of the day, adcoms are looking for hard-working and persistent students, predictable qualities only seen through GPA & DAT performance.

 

[John Durian]

I think you can tell who's gonna write you a good letter and who isn't when you talk to them. The ones that request your P.S., resume, transcript, and you can talk to on a personal level will be the letters you want.

You know, the professor that you can ask "how was that vacation?" or "dude, did you hear about that crazy guy on campus?" You just gotta make that extra effort. Of course you can't just show up in office hours one day for the first time ever and start talking to him like he's your bff, but the relationship does tend to grow and become more personal if you attend every OH, be attentive, ask questions, get to know him, and let him get to know you.

I don't think a "project" is necessary. Of the 4 letters I submitted to AADSAS, I think the best one was from the dentist I shadowed, 2 good ones from professors I had ONE class with, and an alright one from a PI I did a year of research with.

Most important is just getting started. Honestly, all those letters... I really did go in with the intent of just bull $hitting and wasting time to get a LOR. Then I ended up really connecting with them and ended up with great letters. Good luck.

 

[xtractor]

One of my LOR was from a professor that I worked for three years as an undergrad and he knew me very well. He would tell me about students barely knows and ask him for a LOR. He said he has a generic letter where he puts the student's name and how he/she scored in his class with the class rank. He told me he he doesn't understand why they would ask him for a letter because he felt that it would contribute nothing to his application.
My only advice is to at lease make an effort to know the professor. There are many ways to do this. This way he can put more things about our personality in the letter.
But to answer your question, I don't know how it will affect your application, it certainly won't help.

 

[UofT9919]

What important comments did your LORs from these profs contain? Were you able to read them?

 

[thesituationPhD]

I was at a lecture that one of the assitant deans at NYU gave recently. he said LOR's don't do much to an application. His reasoning was that they all pretty much the same. They know you're only going to ask professors to write you letters if you did well in their class. he said very rarely does he see LOR's that are a deal breaker in the admisions process. he also stressed the importance of the Personal statement.. Don't be too concerned with letters as everyone's pretty much says the same thing.