Letters of Rec

[Premed315U]

How do you go about asking profs for letters? Do you give them your resume? any other supplemental materials? I'm a junior, applying for scholarships and needs recs. I'll be asking the same people for med school recs in a few months too.

one of my professors is now at a different school. we keep in touch but i don't see him in person. is it okay to e-mail him even though it's impersonal?

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[Kadyra]

Originally posted by Premed315U:
•How do you go about asking profs for letters? Do you give them your resume? any other supplemental materials? I'm a junior, applying for scholarships and needs recs. I'll be asking the same people for med school recs in a few months too.

one of my professors is now at a different school. we keep in touch but i don't see him in person. is it okay to e-mail him even though it's impersonal?•••

When I asked for letters of rec, I gave my resume, personal and vision statements, and a list of the classes I took with grades. I also made appointments with them to discuss my goals and things that they might not have known from our experiences together or from the materials I gave them. Unless the person knows you like your best friend does, they will probably need some extra info on you to write a really good letter.

The thing with the prof moving to another school happened to me, too. I sent him a letter (snail mail) with all my materials and set up a time to call him and chat via e-mail. I think this is a good way to go about things.

 

[none]

You should give professors everything about you that is relevant. That said, professors that you ask should not generally need to use this information as they will already know you intimately.

 

[alice]

It also helps sometimes to give them ideas of what you want them to say in written form, so that if they chose, they can basically plagarize your own thoughts on yourself. Let me be clear: I don't mean "Please tell them I am competent and enthusiastic." What I mean is something on the order of "I was hoping you might comment to them on my scientific ability and work ethic based on my work in your class" or "Because my other recommenders won't be covering this, perhaps you could say something about the role I play in community X." If you are tactful, they won't think you're feeding them your letter. And this method avoids the risk of "Alice is in my class. She received an A. She would be a good candidate for medical school." (letter of death)

This is not an original thought. I ripped it off of my own pre-med adviser's advice to me. I had already asked the jokers to write for me, and did in fact wind up with a letter about as boring as that last example....doh.

Recs are the most important factor my employer uses to find people from her lab. I am sure they weigh heavily in the application process. Treat them with as much care as you would your personal statement.

 

[Wednesday]

How do you know that you got a boring letter? Didn't you waive the right to see them?

 

[Jamier2]

Originally posted by Wednesday:
•How do you know that you got a boring letter? Didn't you waive the right to see them?•••

I asked my letter writers straight out if they would write a strong letter. I simply said that I only wanted a letter if they wanted to write a very positive one. When you ask what kind of letter you'll be getting you should be able to tell by the writers' reactions. If not, maybe you don't really know them well enough for them to be writing letters of reccommendation for you.