LOR Question

[hoosier1]

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My school doesn't have the LOR service, so did you guys have the person writing the LOR mail it out or did you personally do it? Would the return address be my home address? I don't want the schools to think I wrote them myself.

 

[mthwong]

hey hoosier1. if your school doesn't have a LOR service, the optometry schools your interested in applying to should have a cover letter available online that you can print out an include with the request of the letter writer to write the LOR.

also the cover letter will have instructions for your letter writer about how to submit the letter.

Tips for you would be:
prepare a package for your letter writer which includes unofficial transcript, any essays if already written, and resume. if you don't know the letter writer that well ask if you can meet with them and tell them why you're interested in optometry, and also make sure to ask if they can write a STRONG LOR for you. include the materials in a bright folder with the person's name on it and include a self-addressed stamped envelope to the optometry school.

 

[171590]

To be off topic, in my experience, the "letter committee" at my school was next to useless for optometry. We have a very competitive med school so the writers only concentrate on med school. They don't even really know details about optometry school. They couldn't tell you what is an acceptable OAT score was.

To be on topic, I agree with mthwong. You should definitely prepare some kind of "package" or instructions. All schools want the LOR's to be written on OFFICIAL LETTER HEAD and in an official envelope signed and sealed so I personally did not include pre-addressed envelopes. Stamps I only gave to people like my employer or OD I shadowed and more personal references b/c school references/professors can just use department envelopes and stamps. That's exactly what the school wants them to use them for. 🙄

Then, I made a list of the schools I was applying for and arranged them into columns. One column for the letters to be mailed directly to the school (w/ corresponding addresses included) and another column for letters to be signed and sealed with enclosed cover letter and sent to my house. Those ones are the ones that you have to send in an application package to the optometry school (ex. ICO and PCO)

The schools won't think you opened them b/c they will be "signed and sealed." So obviously dont open any letters that come back to your house signed on the back flap!!!

Also, I found it easier to cut and paste blurbs about what the schools wanted the writer to evaluate about me on the same sheet with the school addresses. This way the writers had some general direction in addition to some on-line forms. Then I told them to just write one letter and send the same one to all of the schools so they dont have to fill out separate forms for each school. I think schools like personal written letters over the pre-made forms. Then it seems like a more personal description of your character. Hope this helped.

 

[hoosier1]

To be off topic, in my experience, the "letter committee" at my school was next to useless for optometry. We have a very competitive med school so the writers only concentrate on med school. They don't even really know details about optometry school. They couldn't tell you what is an acceptable OAT score was.

To be on topic, I agree with mthwong. You should definitely prepare some kind of "package" or instructions. All schools want the LOR's to be written on OFFICIAL LETTER HEAD and in an official envelope signed and sealed so I personally did not include pre-addressed envelopes. Stamps I only gave to people like my employer or OD I shadowed and more personal references b/c school references/professors can just use department envelopes and stamps. That's exactly what the school wants them to use them for. 🙄

Then, I made a list of the schools I was applying for and arranged them into columns. One column for the letters to be mailed directly to the school (w/ corresponding addresses included) and another column for letters to be signed and sealed with enclosed cover letter and sent to my house. Those ones are the ones that you have to send in an application package to the optometry school (ex. ICO and PCO)

The schools won't think you opened them b/c they will be "signed and sealed." So obviously dont open any letters that come back to your house signed on the back flap!!!

Also, I found it easier to cut and paste blurbs about what the schools wanted the writer to evaluate about me on the same sheet with the school addresses. This way the writers had some general direction in addition to some on-line forms. Then I told them to just write one letter and send the same one to all of the schools so they dont have to fill out separate forms for each school. I think schools like personal written letters over the pre-made forms. Then it seems like a more personal description of your character. Hope this helped.

Thanks a lot for the info! So you didn't have the LOR writer to fill out the different forms for each school? You just had the LOR sent in correct? I plan on giving my writer the different LOR forms including the letter itself. What do you think of this?

....filling out multiple lor forms might be a daunting task for the writer...

 

[mthwong]

Well the LOR service at your school should also be able to electronically send the letter to your desired optometry school. NOT ALL schools can receive the letters electronically. Here is an updated list of which schools can receive the LOR without a cover letter

http://advisingservices.ucdavis.edu/advising/hsa/pdf/ve_list_optometry07.pdf

I only had to ask my letter writers to fill out a cover letter for U.C. Berkeley because of their early deadline. I also applied to SCCO and SUNY and both accept my LOR through e-mail.

Cover letters are USUALLY required if there is not LOR service at your school. It's always best to contact the admissions office to clarify what they want, and to make sure they receive everything in ample time before the deadline.

 

[171590]

hoosier1,

Yes, that's correct. I did not have my writers fill out separate forms for each school. They only have to to either or. I just made sure that they signed the appropriate cover letter (the paper they are to include w/ their personal letter that you also sign to waive your right to access its contents) for the schools that required them.

I dont think giving them the separate forms is necessarily a bad thing. It depends on the person/people. My recomenders were all big "writing types" since they write a lot of academic papers or publish various reports as part of their job. Also, they were extremely busy people so, like I said, writing one paper was prob easier for them to send out and remember.

For me, I knew I wanted a handwritten description of myself by them specifically. Many people do not like to write or dont have time. For that case, I think the forms are great. It gives them a choice. From what I gather, you may not know your recomenders very well personally (which is okay) so perhaps giving them a choice is a good idea. Or maybe the one person you know the best you should try to urge to write a letter. Like I was saying, I am more in favor for the unstructured letter. Good luck.

 

[hoosier1]

Thanks for the response, it has helped me out a lot. BUT, what if there is no form for a school (like PCO) that asks if I want to waive my right to read the LOR?