letters of recommendation

[mariamonte]

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Sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm thinking about who to ask for letters of recommendation and I'm not very clear on something. SOPHAS asks for three letters and most schools do so as well. what's not clear to me is if i should submit a separate letters for each school or if I only send in three to SOPHAS and then copies are forwarded to the schools. what is the process for schools that use SOPHAS?

 

[deleted462159]

You should ask people who have intimate knowledge of your abilities, work ethic, passion, integrity, etc. These generally include professors with whom you have worked closely; employers (some programs with concentration in Health Management may require 1 letter from an employer); research advisors or other people who know you and your work.

You have your references send in letters to SOPHAS electronically and the same letters will go out to each school. In this way, the letters will not specify schools by name. But the more similar the programs you apply to, the better. After all your references are not only speaking about your abilities, work ethic, etc., but how these will make you a successful candidate to these specific programs.

 

[Emsy]

If you are applying to schools that do not participate in SOPHAS, you probably should look at their websites to see how they want their letters. They may want them directly from recommender or they may accept them from a dossier service.

I set up an Interfolio account to manage recommendation letters and unfortunately, SOPHAS will not accept letters from a dossier service, they want them from your letter writer directly.

In your SOPHAS account, you e-mail the request form to whoever you want to write your letter, they fill out a form and can e-mail the letter directly back to SOPHAS.

If you are asking whether to have each specific recommendation letter to be tailored to the school you are applying to, like "so and so would be a wonderful candidate for Yale...", I didn't do that.

I had the chair of my department in college and two surgeons that I worked for and closely with write my recommendation letters. I just asked them to talk about my qualities, how I could handle graduate school and my abilities as a student and employee.