Letter of Recommendations

[PharmEm]

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what's the best way to handle a need for largte amounts of letter of recs? I want to apply to 9 schools but each school pretty much requires 3 letters of recs, so how have some of you guys handled this. I mean, I know the solution is not to ask 27 prof's, but at the same time, do you think it's polite to ask the prof if they can do 2 or 3, or dare I say 9? Thanks.

 

[jammocah]

what's the best way to handle a need for largte amounts of letter of recs? I want to apply to 9 schools but each school pretty much requires 3 letters of recs, so how have some of you guys handled this. I mean, I know the solution is not to ask 27 prof's, but at the same time, do you think it's polite to ask the prof if they can do 2 or 3, or dare I say 9? Thanks.

Use of letter of recommendation service. I used it at UCLA. Your school may have a similar service. Ask your pre-professional advising office or the career center.

Here's how it works: Your professors will mail their letters to the service directly so you will only need to ask a total of 3 or 4 professors. And the 3 or 4 professors will only need to write 1 letter each. Then you ask the service to mail the letters out to the pharmacy schools for you (for a fee of course). All letters were kept confidential so I didnt know what the professors had written. Usually the professors give you a copy though.. in addition to the one they mailed to the service.

 

[kellia]

wow!! what a great service!!! i don't think the school i went to had that!! most of my schools req. 2 letters of rec, with a few requiring 3. i had my best friend (pharmacist) write 10 (hahahehe! i owe her!) and split the rest up among my fav. profs. i think the most i asked the profs to write was 6. remember, this is not something that profs are unfamiliar with. they have done this a LOT!! my letters were done the day after i asked for them. i don't think asking someone to write 9 is ridiculous, but if your school has a service like jammocah's, problem solved!

 

[nikkai]

I applied to about 10 schools.

I asked 2 professors and my ex-PI to write 15 just in case.

It's not that big of an effort considering that all they have to do is change "Number of Copies" from 1 to 15 in the Print Menu in MS Word...

That and they all have assistants take care of the addresses, envelopes and letterheads.

It does help to be pretty chummy with your profs though. I picked the ones that I enjoyed the most in class and had opportunities to go out for lunch and coffee multiple times with. =)

G'luck