Is this bad in a LOR?

[dotdotdot]

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Hi SDN. One of my letter writers gracefully offered to let me read his LOR. He is a very well known physician and is also my boss. The letter is overall positive. However, there's one line in there that made me a little uncomfortable: "dotdotdot is well-spoken, but quiet..." and then he continued to describe other positive attributes I had such as professionalism and proficiency in interacting with patients, and that compared to other students he had interacted for the past 10 years, I am in the top 10%.

Is the quiet part too much of a negative at all? Even if he started off by saying that I am well-spoken? He is very busy and I personally think asking him to rephrase it would be out of line. I really want to use this letter since the rest of it is pretty decent, and he is very famous and affiliated with many schools I am applying to. What do you guys think?

 

[AH3]

I think you're just worrying too much about that little comment. If it's an overall very positive letter (which I would assume if he said you were in the top 10%) then there is nothing to worry about. Even so, that comment isn't even really bad- he said you were well spoken after all. I think it's better when a letter writer includes a small weakness/negative just to show that they are being fair in evaluating you and understand that you are not perfect.

 

[BerlinDude]

Hi SDN. One of my letter writers gracefully offered to let me read his LOR. He is a very well known physician and is also my boss. The letter is overall positive. However, there's one line in there that made me a little uncomfortable: "dotdotdot is well-spoken, but quiet..." and then he continued to describe other positive attributes I had such as professionalism and proficiency in interacting with patients, and that compared to other students he had interacted for the past 10 years, I am in the top 10%.

Is the quiet part too much of a negative at all? Even if he started off by saying that I am well-spoken? He is very busy and I personally think asking him to rephrase it would be out of line. I really want to use this letter since the rest of it is pretty decent, and he is very famous and affiliated with many schools I am applying to. What do you guys think?

Is he implying that 'quiet' is a strength or weakness?

I would be more concerned that he ranked you only in the top 10%, since usually every applicant is supposedly in the top 1%.

 

[BerlinDude]

Unless top 10% is the max your school's rating system goes, in which case, never mind.

 

[cfx]

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=723514

 

[dotdotdot]

Thanks for the replies. Wow. I always thought being in the top 10% is a pretty good thing. It's not a formulaic ranking sheet that LOR writers check off or anything; it's simply a statement he made in the letter. Is being in the top 10% really not impressive and mediocre at best?

 

[schlieren]

Don't listen to BerlinDude ... if you check his/her other posts you know he/she hates American physicians.
I think your LoR is great. Just think how impossible it is that everyone matriculated gets a 1% rating. The overall acceptance rate being 50%, 10% in a physician's eye is really excellent.
Of course, I'm also just a pre-med so take my words with a grain of salt.

 

[AlexB]

"Whatever you do, do NOT allow this student entry into medical school"

-Dr. XXXX
Harvard medical school

 

[InterMilan]

Hi SDN. One of my letter writers gracefully offered to let me read his LOR. He is a very well known physician and is also my boss. The letter is overall positive. However, there's one line in there that made me a little uncomfortable: "dotdotdot is well-spoken, but quiet..." and then he continued to describe other positive attributes I had such as professionalism and proficiency in interacting with patients, and that compared to other students he had interacted for the past 10 years, I am in the top 10%.

Is the quiet part too much of a negative at all? Even if he started off by saying that I am well-spoken? He is very busy and I personally think asking him to rephrase it would be out of line. I really want to use this letter since the rest of it is pretty decent, and he is very famous and affiliated with many schools I am applying to. What do you guys think?

It's a good LOR in my opinion.