LOR Advice Please

[trying]

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Hey Guys,

I am getting together all the material I am going to give to my humanities TA to help him write me a great LOR. I am going to give him a transcript, and write him a personal letter explaning why I am choosing medicine, what i plan to do with an MD as well as my current research and EC's. What else have you guys given to profs to help them write the best possible LOR for you. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Dr. Chiquita]

That sounds good to me. That's pretty much what I gave them as well (personal statement & resume). 🙂

PS: I didn't think a transcript would be helpful in my case. I guess I don't want them evaluating me based on the grades in my other classes.

 

[Kalel]

You should write a draft of your personal statement and give that to him so that your app will be consistent. A CV would be a nice, concise way to list those EC's too. I had heard that LOR's from TAs/grad students were frowned upon by med schools too, but maybe someone has heard differently. If they are, you could always ask him to write a letter and see if he could get your prof to sign it.

 

[Bad Mojo]

You're already doing/giving more than I did. The people that I was counting on for LORs already knew me pretty well. One guy asked for a resume, but he had also been my research advisor/boss for a couple of years. The LORs should discuss your work ethic, maturity, and character -- all things that adcoms won't really see with your transcript, etc. Your personal statement will hopefully address why you want to be a doctor well enough that the LORs don't need to address it.

 

[CUskibum]

How do you think a LOR from a nurse you've worked closely with look? Where I volunteer I have a lot more contact with nurses than anyone else.

 

[jlee9531]

everything sounds good.

maybe if you had a TA. you can have the TA write down some comments about you and your prof can incorporate that into the LOR as well.

 

[Dr. Chiquita]

CUskibum,

Some schools I think require that LORs be from professors or people who can evaluate you from an academic stand point. Maybe I am wrong. But you should check to make sure. But I think you can always add any extra LOR as an icing on the cake. It could only help!

 

[trying]

My school has a LOR service where the profs submit the LOR and the service sends them out where we request. Is it a good idea to use this. Also, how many LORs should I get? Thanks guys.

 

[Dr. Chiquita]

Trying:

I am assuming this service your are referring to is NOT your school's premed committee. If your school does have a premed committee, then you should use them (b/c almost all med schools require that you go through them). But it seems like this is just a service that your school offers, then I think you can submit as many as you want. Usually if a school has a premed committee, they have a set number of LORs they require (for me, that's three), then they write up a summary letter after they interview me. I heard that some schools' premed committees allow you to submit as many LORs as you want, then they select the best three and send it out along with their evaluation letter. Hope this helps.

JHS

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by trying
My school has a LOR service where the profs submit the LOR and the service sends them out where we request. Is it a good idea to use this. Also, how many LORs should I get? Thanks guys.

yeah you have to use it. cause that means you guys dont have a premed committee like a lot of schools.

its safe to get 5 LORs.

3 LORs from science Professors.
1 LOR from an EC
1 LOR from a humanties Professor.

 

[trying]

I will find this out Tuesday for sure, but is there a difference between a LOR distribution service and a school LOR committee. In other words, if my school has a service to distribute LOR's from profs, does that mean we probably don't have a committee to write us one? I got to UC, Irvine by the way. Thanks.

 

[Dr. Chiquita]

Trying:

There is a difference between the two. Some schools have premed committees. They conduct their own interview and write a summary letter based on the interview and LORs from your professors. Then, they send the LORs with their letter to schools you apply. If your school has this, you kinda have to use them and follow their rules. Some schools don't have premed committee so they just provide a service, where they collect LORs from your profs and just compile them and send them out to schools you apply to make things easier for you. Some schools do not have any kind of service, which means you have to ask your profs to send them out to each school you apply. This can be a hassel. I hope this cleared some of your questions.

JHS

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by trying
I will find this out Tuesday for sure, but is there a difference between a LOR distribution service and a school LOR committee. In other words, if my school has a service to distribute LOR's from profs, does that mean we probably don't have a committee to write us one? I got to UC, Irvine by the way. Thanks.

hey man i go to UCB. i dont think any UCs have a premed committee. so we dont have a premed committee letter. dont worry about it. med schools know this. your letter service is part of the career center right? you just get the waiver forms from them for you and your profs to sign and when they finish writing your letter your profs will send the letters to the career center and they will hold them for you and send them out to the schools you want to send them to.

makes it a lot easier than doing this all by yourself.

 

[meanderson]

Originally posted by trying
I will find this out Tuesday for sure, but is there a difference between a LOR distribution service and a school LOR committee. In other words, if my school has a service to distribute LOR's from profs, does that mean we probably don't have a committee to write us one? I got to UC, Irvine by the way. Thanks.

A LOR committee will actually participate in the makeup of at least one letter. In many cases they will take letters from several of your profs, look at your grades/mcat, and then make up a composite letter they send to all the schools you applied. But there are several small variations from school to school concerning letter of recommendation committees. Most schools who have LOR committees also serve as LOR services....they just send off the committee letter.

If your school just has a LOR service, then yeah, from the wording that would indicate your school doesn't have a committee.

Whether you have to use the LOR service or committee letter frm your undergrad really just depends on the schools you apply to. Every single medical school will accept letters from the professors themselves......why? Because not every undergrad has a lor committee or letter service. But some medical schools require that if your undergrad has one you must use it. For cali med schools who have this requirement, you'll probably have to use your school's lor service because the UC med schools will know UCI undergrad has one. But for out of state schools you can probably do whatever you want to and they will accept them. I used a commercial service for some schools and with other schools just had the professors just mail it themselves. It's a big hassle, but you just have to play the game.....

 

[trying]

Ok, thanks makes a lot more sense. I have heard a lot about the committee letter on SDN but no one at UCI has ever talked about it so I assume like other UC's we don't have one. Thanks for your help guys.

 

[jlee9531]

Originally posted by trying
Ok, thanks makes a lot more sense. I have heard a lot about the committee letter on SDN but no one at UCI has ever talked about it so I assume like other UC's we don't have one. Thanks for your help guys.

yeah dont worry about it at all. just one less for us to deal with 😀