identical lors

[Wardles888]

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Some letter writters have a template that they fill students' names into, and thats just what they do even if you are a great student. If two students from the same school apply to the same programs with an identical letter and just a different name in it, will that kill their application?

 

[ChrisMack390]

"Kill" no

"Indicate that you did not actually form a quality relationship" yes

 

[typhoonegator]

More importantly, why would you ask for a letter from such a person?

And as someone who reads a lot of those letters, why would I form any opinion other than that the letter-writer is a schmuck?

 

[Doctor Bob]

More importantly, why would you ask for a letter from such a person?

Unfortunately from the medstudent/undergradstudent side of things, you often don't know which attendings do this and which ones don't. I've read some letters that had zero degree of familiarity. I felt kind of bad for the medstudents who had requested them.

It's helpful if you find this information out ahead of time (as in the OPs case), but more often the attending says "sure I'll write it", plugs a name into a template, emails it along, and calls it a day.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

Some letter writters have a template that they fill students' names into, and thats just what they do even if you are a great student. If two students from the same school apply to the same programs with an identical letter and just a different name in it, will that kill their application?

I respectfully disagree with the prior comments from others. If you go a large university, and your physics/Orgo/Bio classes are 200-300 people, you need these folks to fulfill the "science" professor. Now, I had a good relationship with the PhD I did research with, but never took a class from him (he doesn't teach classes). These professors who teach large classes get 60-70 requests each year for MD and PhD programs letters. To give them sanity, they have to template this. LizzyM wrote about "teaching her new Adcoms" to be more forgiving of us folks who attend large state schools. I don't see this as a killer, but need other letters from writers who know you better (research, upper level class - - but how close can you get to someone who probably team teaches the upper level biochem/genetics class for only the 1 semester??). My brother is an M1 at U of Michigan who came from U of Michigan undergrad, and it didn't "kill" his app, especially since he was a computer science major, and took all the pre-reqs as a Freshman/Sophomore.

 

[Wardles888]

.

 

[Rainbow Zebra]

This thread is about letters of recommendation for residency. It is a completely different ballgame.

Oops how did I get on this forum. My bad.

 

[Kaustikos]

Maybe someone can shed some light into this, but two of my letter writers were comfortable with me meeting with them to discuss what should be put in the letter. One of them even showed me the draft before he sent it.
If anything, I'd recommend writing down some things you feel would be good to put in the letter and explaining that to them. They're busy, but if you can give them the ammo needed, some are okay.
If you just show up asking for a letter, that's fine. But if you want them to talk about something, them bring it up.