letters of recommendation

[blobs]

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hi,

how important are letters of recommendation? I suppose its the single thing aside from your stats and extracurriculars that gives any sort of "personal information", but they can't be too influential can they?

I'm planning on getting a letter from 2 professors (took clases with) and one optometrist... I've had a bunch of jobs, but since they;re research jobs all the PI's are super busy and none of them are willing to write a letter (might be a reflection of what a terrible person I am, maybe not).

i guess its a dumb question but how much of it is GPA/OAT and how much is letters?

thanks haha

 

[Oogilily]

From what I heard, GPA/OAT scores are the best thing to do well at. I also have heard that an optometrist letter will carry more weight than one from a professor. I was worried about the same thing because my letters weren't really strong, but I was told not to worry about it too much. Just get letters from professors who you got good grades in. It's surprising what they remember about you.

 

[student2008]

I think it varies depending on the school you are applying to. For example, for SCCO, they would plug everything you give them into a formula; variables consist of GPA/OAT and I guess a subjective score for your letters and ECs, but I believe GPA/OAT are weighted more heavily.

For Berkeley, well I'm imagining lots of applicants have great stats. if you look at their applicants' avg gpa/oats 3.54/366, then i'm guessing that to make the first cut you'd have to have pretty good letters of rec. But then again, I'm guessing if your stats are stellar (3.9+ from a good college and difficult major/380+), I think anybody would be impressed and as long as your letters are OK, you'd get an interview.

Also, applying early is a plus.

 

[student2008]

While we are on this topic, does anyone know if schools would start reviewing your apps without receiving all of the letters of recs. What if one of your recommender is a procrastinator and have trouble turning in the letter on time?

For schools with rolling admission, if you've submitted say 2 letters of rec and everything else, the only thing missing is one single letter of rec, would you be able to get invited for their earliest interviewing date?