How long should a good LOR be?

[rubisco88]

Should it be one to two pages SINGLE spaced?

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[flatearth22]

Length is overrated. It's more about the girth (ie - quality). An extremely long LOR can actually leave the reader in severe pain.

 

[EBTrailRunner]

Uh, are you the one writing it?

 

[TheMightySmiter]

One page single space is plenty. Maybe 4-6 paragraphs. Any more than that won't really be read any more carefully.

 

[Lysinee]

One page or less. If it's too long, you might lose the reader's interest at the end.

 

[rubisco88]

Uh, are you the one writing it?

No, I am not writing it. I just wanted to give my writers some guidelines.

 

[JoshuaGuit]

Uh, are you the one writing it?

Plenty of professors have their students write it if they are too busy

 

[Gigantron]

Length is overrated. It's more about the girth (ie - quality). An extremely long LOR can actually leave the reader in severe pain.

 

[eccentric jet]

Plenty of professors have their students write it if they are too busy

I had more than one physician tell me to write the letter and then they would sign it and turn it in to ERAS.

I would be very skeptical about submitting such a letter. Admissions committees read a ton of letters, and I bet it is easier than you think for them to spot one written by the student (especially since they have a lot of writing samples to compare it to from the rest of your application).

When faced with this option, I politely said "thanks but no thanks." Unless you are really strapped for letter writers, find someone who cares enough to take the time to actually write what they think of you.

 

[JoshuaGuit]

I had more than one physician tell me to write the letter and then they would sign it and turn it in to ERAS.

I would be very skeptical about submitting such a letter. Admissions committees read a ton of letters, and I bet it is easier than you think for them to spot one written by the student (especially since they have a lot of writing samples to compare it to from the rest of your application).

When faced with this option, I politely said "thanks but no thanks." Unless you are really strapped for letter writers, find someone who cares enough to take the time to actually write what they think of you.

I would agree with you that it comes down to a factor of "caring", but is most cases if you are from a large research university, the professor truly just doesn't have enough time. If the person you are getting a letter from is your PI, you don't exactly have the option of leaving that letter out.

 

[nadaba]

No, I am not writing it. I just wanted to give my writers some guidelines.

This might be helpful:
http://www.hhmi.org/resources/labmanagement/downloads/letter.pdf

 

[mmmcdowe]

I had more than one physician tell me to write the letter and then they would sign it and turn it in to ERAS.

I would be very skeptical about submitting such a letter. Admissions committees read a ton of letters, and I bet it is easier than you think for them to spot one written by the student (especially since they have a lot of writing samples to compare it to from the rest of your application).

When faced with this option, I politely said "thanks but no thanks." Unless you are really strapped for letter writers, find someone who cares enough to take the time to actually write what they think of you.

For medical school applications and for things like research etc, I don't see much of a problem writing your own letters. For residency, I agree that I wouldn't want to write my own because I don't know "the code".

 

[Big N Tasty]

Length is overrated. It's more about the girth (ie - quality). An extremely long LOR can actually leave the reader in severe pain.

I see what you did there, lol.

OP, I believe the accepted formula is length times diameter plus weight over girth divided by angle of the tip squared.