Letter of Reccomendations

[airrun21]

I was wondering if someone could give me some advice regarding letters of reccomendation. Here are a couple of questions:
-What did you provide your letter writers with?
-How do schools look upon cosigned letters? (professor and grad student)
-Should I ask my letter writers to fill out a ranking grid provided by my career center? (Is it ok if I only ask one or two of them to fill out the ranking grid?)
-How personal of a relationship do most people have with their letter writers?
-Should I make all my letters confidential?
Thanks

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[Cheerfulgrrl]

I was wondering if someone could give me some advice regarding letters of reccomendation. Here are a couple of questions:
-What did you provide your letter writers with?
-How do schools look upon cosigned letters? (professor and grad student)
-Should I ask my letter writers to fill out a ranking grid provided by my career center? (Is it ok if I only ask one or two of them to fill out the ranking grid?)
-How personal of a relationship do most people have with their letter writers?
-Should I make all my letters confidential?
Thanks

I gave my letter writers a copy of my draft application and my PS, and a list of my top five schools and why they were my top choices. In a few cases - where I had built a strong working relationship with the writers, I also talked to them about areas in my application that I though might be weaker - an example is that since I am an older applicant, I didn't want adcoms to think that I was just suddenly applying medical school on a lark, and not fully committed.

I don't really know about co-signed letters or the ranking grid you mention. The only comment I'll make about the grid is that you should find out if most applicants from your school complete one - if that is the case and you don't, adcoms might wonder why not.

It is definitely better to ask the people who know you best - in a professional, academic, or volunteer capacity - to write letters.

Definitely waive your right to see the letters - keep them confidential. Some writers may show you what they wrote anyway, which is a nice thing. When asking for a letter, ask if they would write you a very positive letter of recommendation.

Make sure to thank them - when they agree and later,after your advising office receives the letters.

Best wishes!

 

[jammin06]

I was wondering if someone could give me some advice regarding letters of reccomendation. Here are a couple of questions:
-What did you provide your letter writers with?
-How do schools look upon cosigned letters? (professor and grad student)
-Should I ask my letter writers to fill out a ranking grid provided by my career center? (Is it ok if I only ask one or two of them to fill out the ranking grid?)
-How personal of a relationship do most people have with their letter writers?
-Should I make all my letters confidential?
Thanks

1) I put together a packet for all my professors. It included a type of cover sheet that had basic information (thanks for writing it, please have it completed soon, etc.). I also had a copy of my resume, transcript, personal statement and an waiver form (waive right to see LOR)

2) not sure about cosigned letters, so long as they represent you

3) Ranking grids are tricky, because you may think you are in the top 5% of people when in fact everyone was as good as you, or vice versa. I don't know if the grids get sent out to med schools. We have a pre-med committee that puts together our recommendation packet and writes a cover letter for us, basically saying "this is what WE think of this student"

4) Better you know the recommender, more personal the letter will be, more they can write about. Two of my profs i got to know really well and will get very strong recs from. My third prof is kinda iffy, but i've heard he writes recs about people like he's known them for 20 years.

5) Confidential? Yes. If there's any doubt taht they may not write the best rec for you, then I'd seriously consider finding another person. Just my $.02 though.

 

[drslc134]

I've got a related, but different question. Say, you're applying to ~25-30 schools. When you ask your writer to write the LOR, should they be addressing each to each individual school? Our school doesn't have a committee, but it does have a file for recommendations at the Career Development Center.
Thanks

 

[Cheerfulgrrl]

I've got a related, but different question. Say, you're applying to ~25-30 schools. When you ask your writer to write the LOR, should they be addressing each to each individual school? Our school doesn't have a committee, but it does have a file for recommendations at the Career Development Center.
Thanks

The Career Center should tell you - and I suspect the answer is that they should address it "To Whom it May Concern..." And really, it should be, b/c I think it would be a bad idea to ask a prof to re-address a letter all those times. Find out exactly what you center does for you LOR wise - do you need to have all the letters to them by a certain date? do you have to provide labels or just a list of the school you are applying to? do they keep a record of when your packet of letters was sent out to each school?

 

[Crete]

The Career Center should tell you - and I suspect the answer is that they should address it "To Whom it May Concern..." And really, it should be, b/c I think it would be a bad idea to ask a prof to re-address a letter all those times. Find out exactly what you center does for you LOR wise - do you need to have all the letters to them by a certain date? do you have to provide labels or just a list of the school you are applying to? do they keep a record of when your packet of letters was sent out to each school?

It will annoy the hell out of a busy prof to address something 30 times. If your school does not have a LOR service, there is one that everyone here uses, I think it's called Info-something. Also, a letter without a waiver is ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS. I would try to use a co-signed letter only as a backup. Adcoms want to see relationships with professors. If 100 applicants minus you have one, how will that look? That said, if your TA can write an incredible letter and have it co-signed, that would probably look better (I would take it in a heartbeat) than a mediocre one straight from the prof. Provide your prof with a resume, ps, ecs, the whole 9. Sit down with them and make sure they know why you want to be a doctor and maybe in your letter thanking them (included when handing them your material), you can casually mention what you stress or would want them to stress. PM me with any qs. Good luck and APPLY EARLY!