letters of recommendation

[cp00739]

in my school we dont have a pre-med committee for LOR, instead i'll have to go to a prof everytime i need a LOR, wont that get annoying??..does anyone know how to deal with this..i mean..i'm planning on applying to lots of schools...wont it get annoying for the prof??

anyone know how to deal with this situation??

thanks!

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[dnetko]

I'm in the same position...my school doesn't have a pre-med committee either! Since I go to a small college, I am just going to explain the situation to the two science progessors who are writing me the recs and hope that they understand!

 

[AnnaMags]

My school has a committee but when I visited each professor and physician about writing my letters, I gave them a packet of information. This is what I suggest to you. Put together a folder with your resume, essays, transcript, a letter describing what you're asking them to write, and instructions for mailing the letters. Let them know that they should type the letter and save it on their computers for future use. Each time you find out the directions for a letter of recommendation at a particular school give them a new sheet to include in the packet. That sheet of paper would need to have the address the letter needs to be sent to, the date you'd like it to be done, and any extra directions the school gives. Some require a form to be filled out, others require a specific envelope be used. Pay close attention to these details.

If the letter writer is aware that you will contact them several more times, they will agree to do that. If you have the information in a professional, organized manner, it will make their job very easy.

Does that all make sense? Good luck.

 

[slydawgg]

your college should have a refrence letter center so that you don't have to ask your prof for a recommendation every time. you should ask your prof for a recommendation and give him a self addressed stamped envelope so he can send the letter to the reference center after he's done writing it. the reference center than makes copies of the original letter and sends them to whichever med schools you want them to be sent. From what i know that's how it works in most schools, so you don't have to hassle the professor all the time.

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[Claymore]

Very few schools require you to use their forms for recommendations (MSU comes to mind as one that does), so you can give your recommenders a stack of addressed, stamped envelopes very early (i.e., now) along with your resume, transcript, instructions, etc. Just address the envelopes to the admissions dept at each school, which you can find on aacomas.org or the school websites. I think doing it like this is easiest since the recommender can just write up one form, print it out a bunch of times (on his/her letterhead), stick it in your addressed envelopes, and mail it at his/her convenience. If you get to them now they will have plenty of time; ask that they're mailed by August. Also tell them to keep a copy of the letter on a disk, and if you do encounter any schools that require their forms, you will get back to the recommender. Good luck!

 

[Kritenoel]

I'm from a very small school as well - one of the professors in the chemistry dept. agreed to be the "pre-med committee" and create a folder for me. He said he'd done it in the past when we had more students going to med school. Perhaps you could find someone to do this for you? (I'm having everyone send their lor's to him, and he'll create a composite letter for me.)

Good Luck!

 

[lady bug]

Do you all that don't have a premed committee have an option of having a closed or open file? Like at my school we have a premed committee that makes a composite evaluation packet for us, and they ask us if we want to either waive or retain our right of access to that file. Do you all without a committee have this option? Do you ask your recommenders to directly send their letters to the med schools?

 

[mpp]

I asked my recommenders to send letters directly. I provided stamped envelopes for them, or just the stamps in the cases of those that wanted to send the letters in their own envelopes. One recommender had me review th eltter prior to her sending it. For the others I never saw the letter.

 

[DrMom]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by cp00739:
•in my school we dont have a pre-med committee for LOR, instead i'll have to go to a prof everytime i need a LOR, wont that get annoying??..does anyone know how to deal with this..i mean..i'm planning on applying to lots of schools...wont it get annoying for the prof??

anyone know how to deal with this situation??

thanks!•••••Have the prof write a letter to the admissions committee or something else generic without listing the school's name. That way the same letter could be used for each school.

Also, using computers makes it easy to individualize the letter without totally re-doing it. I guess you just have to find an understanding prof.

On a side note, all but one of the people who wrote my letters gave me a copy. I hadn't expected to be able to see any of them.