Letter of Rec from a sibling in med school?

[spiralgalaxy]

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Hello all,

I am preparing for post-bacc applications that open in February, and most programs only require 1 or 2 letters. Berkeley Extended Ed, however, requires three. I already have my strong letter coming from a professor I do psychological research under, and another from a social worker at a psychiatric hospital I volunteer at, but am having trouble with a third. I have been searching for a doctor to shadow (with little luck) and there isn't enough time to begin volunteering at a clinic to get a rec in time.

For this, I was wondering how credible having a sibling/family member write one of your letters may be. My brother is a 2nd year med student at Penn, and he knows me, my dedication, and my accomplishments pretty well. He has the experience as a med student to make an evaluation about my chances of succeeding in the medical field. I, of course, wouldn't resort to this unless I absolutely didn't find a 3rd candidate, because I imagine a family's perspective may appear biased to the panel.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[zebalong]

Hello all,

I am preparing for post-bacc applications that open in February, and most programs only require 1 or 2 letters. Berkeley Extended Ed, however, requires three. I already have my strong letter coming from a professor I do psychological research under, and another from a social worker at a psychiatric hospital I volunteer at, but am having trouble with a third. I have been searching for a doctor to shadow (with little luck) and there isn't enough time to begin volunteering at a clinic to get a rec in time.

For this, I was wondering how credible having a sibling/family member write one of your letters may be. My brother is a 2nd year med student at Penn, and he knows me, my dedication, and my accomplishments pretty well. He has the experience as a med student to make an evaluation about my chances of succeeding in the medical field. I, of course, wouldn't resort to this unless I absolutely didn't find a 3rd candidate, because I imagine a family's perspective may appear biased to the panel.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

It's a set rule never get letters of recs from family members/direct relatives/someone with family ties - unless your going to blatantly lie that you're not related (and lieing opens a whole new can of worms- like if you're found out you will most likely get automatically expelled- lieing is a big no no in this profession). And on top of that don't get a letter of rec from ANY 2nd year/ 3rd year/4th year med student, it carries absolutely no weight. If they are an independent practitioner in their own field then it is ok to get a letter of rec. other then that I would definitely stay away from students or people in "training".

Go out, make more connections.

 

[theWUbear]

It's a set rule never get letters of recs from family members/direct relatives/someone with family ties

+1. ethics dictates that you Just. Don't. Do this

 

[spiralgalaxy]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up for me! And for the record, I had no intention of lying whatsoever.

 

[jl lin]

Please, I don't mean to be insulting in any way, but I honestly found the original question of using a sibling as a reference, well, ridiculously silly. No matter what, no one would ever take that seriously. And I say that fully realizing that family members can many times be the hardest and most critical on their own. Nevertheless, it would be seen as too subjective. It's also a sad fact that most people know that most people lie to one degree or another. I won't go so far to say that everyone lies, like Dr. House or others seem to believe. I think the biggest distinction is that in order to be a serious liar in has to be something a person practices regularly. Of course, in order to be a liar, technically all you would have had to do would have been to lie once.

In terms of lying a tiny bit or a lot, well, I say if it makes you feel totally sick to your stomach then you're probably in good shape. On the other hand, brutal or frank honesty isn't something a lot of people want or can handle. So it ends up biting you in the butt if you are a transparent, honest, forthright person. Taking the silent Fifth is a survival technique if it isn't about something that is truly important.

At any rate, for one reason or another, family members may be more apt to lie--for favors, for family loyalty (though that seems to be disappearing more and more everyday), or whatever reasons.