letters of reccomendation...

[dentistinacan]

I'm a little confused about how to go about these...I expect to get a reccomendation from my biology professor yet do I do this after the class? Or do I wait until I apply to dental school (which will be in 1 and a half years). It seems ridiculous to wait that long, and there is alot of room to forget a person in that amount of time. What should I do? Whats the traditional way to go about this? Thanks!

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[Comet208]

wait till you are ready to apply and then ask your current profs.

advantage:
classes are smaller so they know you more
they are upper lever courses
it will talk about that time instead of 2 yrs behind

Comet

 

[le fort guy]

Or just stay in contact with your current professors (drop by their office and say hello). Then by the time that you are ready to apply they will know you not only as a student but on a personal level as well. At least that is what i did.

 

[UBTom]

Originally posted by dentistinacan
I'm a little confused about how to go about these...I expect to get a reccomendation from my biology professor yet do I do this after the class? Or do I wait until I apply to dental school (which will be in 1 and a half years). It seems ridiculous to wait that long, and there is alot of room to forget a person in that amount of time. What should I do? Whats the traditional way to go about this? Thanks!

Does your college have a preprofessional advising committee?

If it does, you are supposed to open a file with them. You ask your instructors to send the LOR to the preprofessional office where they will keep it on-file for you. That way you can ask your instructors for LORs right after you finish the course and their experience with you is still fresh in their memory.

And when the time comes to apply to the schools, you will request the preprofessional advising committee to send copies of the collected LORs in your file to the schools you are applying to.

At most colleges this is the traditional way pre-dents, pre-meds and pre-laws handle their LORs. So find out if there is a pre-professional office at your school and ask them what their specific procedure is.

Good luck.

 

[blankguy]

Originally posted by Comet208
wait till you are ready to apply and then ask your current profs.

advantage:
classes are smaller so they know you more
they are upper lever courses
it will talk about that time instead of 2 yrs behind

Comet

I've been wondering when to get the LOR but isn't it better to ask for the recommentation towards the end of a class since the professor will remember you better instead of asking him say a year or 2 later when he/she may not remember you?

 

[Dr.BadVibes]

I really dont see the point in getting LOR's from profs who just know you by saying hi to them or your grades. A prof that knows **** about you is just gonna say, "XX did well in my class, the class averag was XX, blah blah blah"! Who cares! If the adcom wanted to know if you did well in the class, they dont need a personal letter....just look at your transcripts.

For me, my LOR's came from profs who I got to know a bit personal. For instance, I am really interested in health policy, and when I took a health policy course last year, i would frequently talk with my prof, cause we shared the same interests. Not only did we talk about school stuff, but we talked about travelling, hockey (of course!), stuff like that. Even if you dont have an interest in the material, try and find other stuff u could talk about. For instance, when I was in England, I would always shoot the **** with my organic chemistry prof about Canada vs. English values, and asked him for advice on travelling in Europe, or how to get a bank account.....stuff like that. Of course this type of conversation usually came from course-related questions, but course-related questions can be used to break the ice.

There are other ways to get personal with your profs. Research is a great way! I didnt do this, but another great way is to start a conversation with a prof in his office and then ask him about his/her research....Profs always love to talk about their research to boost their ego, but be prepared for a long speech and continously nodding your head saying, "uh huh"

Sometimes I question the need for 3 LORs by schools, cause usually the LOR will be totally useless. It should be only 2 with at least one from a science professor!

Once again, just my two cents!

 

[blankguy]

thanks for the tip avingupta

 

[blankguy]

I noticed that certain schools require a letter from a dentist that you've shadowed to verify that you in fact spent the time shadowing, should letter be a full blown letter of recommendation or just a simple letter stating that you've spent the required amount of time?