Letters of Recommendation

[PookieGirl]

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Anyone know where there are good, clear guidelines as to how to write a med school letter of recommendation?

Thanks for your help.

 

[skiz knot]

Anyone know where there are good, clear guidelines as to how to write a med school letter of recommendation?

Thanks for your help.

Anybody you should ask knows what a LOR should look like!

 

[there_is_no]

Anybody you should ask knows what a LOR should look like!

I don't think that's necessarily true. Some of the best recommendation letters come from people who have no idea exactly what medical doctors do or what medical schools are looking for. Obviously, you'll want to have some recommendation letters from people who are savy when it comes to write letters of rec for med school, but if you're shooting for diversity of LORs then you might have some people who have no clue.

What I did was pull some together some of the information from the medical school admissions requirements book. In the 2004 book, specifically you can use chapter three, where it talks about development of personal attributes. I think that's a fairly good description of what personal qualities medical schools are looking for. That might give someone who's not so familiar with medicine a good idea of what to write.

Hope that's helpful. I really think that if you just ask someone to write you a rec letter without giving them any sort of guidelines, even someone who knows a lot about medicine. You might be doing yourself a disservice. I would write a letter to each recommender that reminds them of specific instances where you interacted with them that might show your positive attributes.

For most people writing a recommendation letter isn't very easy (some people ask you to write an initial draft to help the have a starting place), so any help or direction you can give that person would likely be very well received.

 

[Jason110]

One of my engineering profs (I'm a biomedical engineering major) said it takes him 'many iterations' (talk about nerdy) to write a medical school recommendation. This was after I spoke with him for 45 minutes regarding my background. I don't think it comes easily to a lot of people.


Jason

 

[gaf]

Look at the admission web pages of some of the schools you like. Some of them will tell you what they look for in your LORs.

 

[PookieGirl]

Hi,

Thanks! I'm asking the social worker of my "little sister" to write me one, and I'm not sure she often writes these. Figured I'd get some LOR writing tips ready for her before I ask. Thanks for the tips.

M

 

[BananaSplit]

Try these links:

http://career.berkeley.edu/Letter/LetterGuidelines.stm scroll to the bottom of the page

http://www.accepted.com/medical/LettersRec.aspx

Good luck!

 

[Medikit]

I'm confused on the LORs, I don't see anywhere on the AMCAS that has a LOR. Are LORs for just the secondary or did I miss something?

 

[thewzdoc]

One of my engineering profs (I'm a biomedical engineering major) said it takes him 'many iterations' (talk about nerdy) to write a medical school recommendation. This was after I spoke with him for 45 minutes regarding my background. I don't think it comes easily to a lot of people.


Jason

It's intimidating to write a letter that will be reviewed by a Medical school...you want to be sure that you've "dotted all the i's and crossed all the t's" you know.

Note this is OT:

When I write an email to a Physics prof I tend to simply state what I want/need/question and send it?..when I write to an English or Philosophy prof I review it and review it and so on until it?s ?perfect??.then agonize over it until I get the 3 word respons?? 🙄

 

[BananaSplit]

Hi,

Thanks! I'm asking the social worker of my "little sister" to write me one, and I'm not sure she often writes these. Figured I'd get some LOR writing tips ready for her before I ask. Thanks for the tips.

M

Maybe you could have your little sis and her social worker co-write the letter. That would be unique.

 

[BananaSplit]

I'm confused on the LORs, I don't see anywhere on the AMCAS that has a LOR. Are LORs for just the secondary or did I miss something?

Yup, LOR's are only sent when you send in your secondaries (and sometimes, not even then ie Michigan).

 

[Medikit]

Yup, LOR's are only sent when you send in your secondaries (and sometimes, not even then ie Michigan).

So do I ask for them now and make copies of them for secondaries, or do my People of letter writing of recommendations mail each one individually?

 

[Jason110]

So do I ask for them now and make copies of them for secondaries, or do my People of letter writing of recommendations mail each one individually?

Your recommendations are generally not considered credible unless you have waived your right to see the letter. This means that you cannot see the letter they are sending the medical schools. Make sure you remind them to mention that in the letter.

Since you can't see the letters, how can you copy them? Just ask them to send the letters on your behalf when the secondaries roll around. I caution you not to send the letters until specifically asked by the medical school.

Jason

 

[Medikit]

Your recommendations are generally not considered credible unless you have waived your right to see the letter. This means that you cannot see the letter they are sending the medical schools. Make sure you remind them to mention that in the letter.

Since you can't see the letters, how can you copy them? Just ask them to send the letters on your behalf when the secondaries roll around. I caution you not to send the letters until specifically asked by the medical school.

Jason

Thankyou 🙂