So on my application to PT school I need 2 LOR from PT's and 1 LOR from a professor. The 2 PT's I can easily ask my boss and her assistant to write me but the 1 LOR from a professor is a tricky one. I went to a large university where the average class was 100+ for all the science classes. There was one class that I fairly did well and gotten to know the professor on a decent basis, but that was almost 3.5 years ago in my sophmore year. Should I just ask a professor that I received an A that I recently took? How likely are professors to write you a bad LOR if they don't really know you, but you have a good grade?
LOR from professor?
- Thread starter jrock89
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I'd go with the one that knew you fairly decently.
if you look on PTCAS there's a pdf of the questions they have to answer and it doesn't matter so much the grade you got but they need to know how you behave/react/respond as an individual in certain situations.
I would email the prof from 3.5 years ago and say something like "Based on our discussions about XXX, the time I spent in your office going over XXX, and how well you got to know me, would you fill out a recommendation.."
By putting in the "XXX" you will remind him of all the things he may have forgotten about you over the 3.5 years.
I did this for a prof I hadn't had for.. I think it was 4 years? He was fine with it and did it right away.
if you look on PTCAS there's a pdf of the questions they have to answer and it doesn't matter so much the grade you got but they need to know how you behave/react/respond as an individual in certain situations.
I would email the prof from 3.5 years ago and say something like "Based on our discussions about XXX, the time I spent in your office going over XXX, and how well you got to know me, would you fill out a recommendation.."
By putting in the "XXX" you will remind him of all the things he may have forgotten about you over the 3.5 years.
I did this for a prof I hadn't had for.. I think it was 4 years? He was fine with it and did it right away.
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Can you retake one of your pre-requisite classes to raise your grade and also obtain a fresh LOR at the same time? If you have a B in the class, take the class again, get an A, but also get to know the professor well. Take it at the community college to save money and to be in a smallar class.
Kevin
Kevin
Yea I am taking a microbio class this fall semester. but I am wanting to apply to PT schools for the fall 2013 semester and the deadline is november 1st but I want to send in my apps early. Can you do more than one priority application? I am trying to send all my apps before the priority deadline which is around mid september.
I would ask the one your knew well a few years ago. If you knew them well, they will most likely remember you if you contact them again and be willing to write you one. I had a professor 4-5 years ago that knew I was interested in applying for pt school but also knew I would not be applying for another 4-5 years. Since I knew him well, he offered to write me a LOR and told me to contact him again in 4-5 years when I am about to apply and he would write me one then. Granted, I never took him up on that one because he is a not a professor in my major, and I wanted to ask my human anat and phys professor for a LOR, but he offered to write one that long after I knew him so you never know what will happen if you ask your former professor from that long ago. Just make sure they remember you well because you want to make sure they still have a lot of good stuff to include in the LOR.
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I'm planning on getting a professor to do a LOR but the professor I am planning to use is for this General Biology Course that I am taking this fall. I don't know if that will be too late or not the best idea as the semester will end in December and if I am using that professor it would probably be best to at least know him for a full semester before asking him/her to write me a LOR. I have the option to find a professor that I'm more familiar with from my undergraduate semesters (which I just completed recently) but I just thought it would be better to get the recommendation from a biology professor instead of a professor in my undergraduate major field which was Communication. What do you guys think? Should I get the LOR from a familiar past professor from my Undergraduate Communication major (which I can get now) or should I wait until December and get it from my General Biology professor at the end of this fall semester? Basically I'm asking, is getting a LOR from a Biology professor better than getting one from a Communication professor?
I think getting a LOR from a biology teacher is better than getting one from a communication teacher. Although, I have heard that LOR can come from any professor you had, schools prefer though that it comes from a professor in major. I am not really sure if they mean from a professor of a prerequisite you took or from a professor in your communication major. You can always contact the schools you plan on applying to to ask them that though.
If the schools that you are applying to have a deadline in December, I think it would be appropriate/enough time to have known them to ask your biology teacher in early November if he or she can write a LOR for you. Just make sure you know them well by that time. I had a professor for the first time starting mid-January, and I asked her if she could write me a LOR in early April, a month before the semester and class ended. I got to know her well in that time, and she said she would be really happy to write me one. But I also had her for both lecture and lab, which helped to get to know her more than if I just had her for one or the other and not both.
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While it seems ideal to get a letter of recommendation from a professor in a science or prereq course, schools want to get a sense of your personality and character, and if a communications instructor has a better sense of who you are, I think they would write a stronger letter. If you go with the Bio professor, make sure to start interacting with the professor right away, and give the professor plenty of time to write the letter. Remember most instructors are quite busy during the last couple of weeks before finals.
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Thanks. I also have the option of going to my Chemistry professor but I haven't seen him since i took the course in spring of 2011 and also he never seemed like the kind of professor that liked to be bothered about anything. He was kind of grumpy most of the time. Although I did do well in both his courses (Chemistry 1 i got an A and Chemistry 2 I got a B). Chemistry is a science but I'm not sure about going to him for the recommendation for those two reasons I listed, he's kind of grumpy and it's been over a year since i last seen him. But he knew me and my situation. He knew I was planning on going to graduate school for PT, he knew I was taking 21 credits while I was taking his Chemistry 2 course which is probably the reason I got a B instead of A like I did in Chemistry 1 (where I was only taking 8 credits at the time). We actually even had a conversation outside once during a fire drill but his grumpiness kind of gets to me, sometimes I would go to him for help and he would look frustrated and discouraged to help me. And he is mean to students and well known for that. So despite my good grades in his classes and the fact that i was with him for 2 semesters, i still feel uncomfortable getting a recommendation from him.
