LOR Questions

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Do you guys think it's fine to ask a LOR from a professor via e-mail or should I ask him in person? I'm always intimidated to ask for LORs and it's the worst part of the application process, IMO. :(
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i would recommend in person :thumbup: then again, you may end up doing BOTH[follow up], as s/he may forget about you considering you're not the only student asking. hope this helps and best of luck :luck:
 
In person is always best. THEY are doing YOU a favor. Plus, it always helps to distinguish whether they really want to or if they're hesitant or unwilling, which is hard to tell over email. If they say, Sure! I'll be happy to write you a LOR! vs. Well.... I'm not sure, I'm busy, and I am afraid I don't have much to write about you, but I guess I could write a little something .... well, do you really want someone to write you a letter based on the latter?

In short, ask in person, then the following communication can be in person or email. If however, you are out of town or unable to reach them in person, then email is okay.
 
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Do you think it is appropriate to ask your recommender to save the LOR long term in case I don't get in this year and want to ask them again next year? :confused:

Thanks
 
MRSA Sucks said:
Do you think it is appropriate to ask your recommender to save the LOR long term in case I don't get in this year and want to ask them again next year? :confused:

Thanks
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I know someone that is doing that. They had opened up a PharmCAS account and sent the recommendation email. The professor then saved all the necessary information needed to complete the recommendation on their HD for next cycle. If you are comfortable with your recommender then I don't see a problem in asking them.
 
Just a quick question for a friend, since he claims pharmcas doesn't seem to want to respond to him, and he and I both looked on the pharmcas FAQ but didn't see anything exactly talking about it. After e-submitting, can you add another reference to your application to be forwarded to a school(s), or is it closed off for good?
 
apteryx said:
Just a quick question for a friend, since he claims pharmcas doesn't seem to want to respond to him, and he and I both looked on the pharmcas FAQ but didn't see anything exactly talking about it. After e-submitting, can you add another reference to your application to be forwarded to a school(s), or is it closed off for good?
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you can add a recommendation after e-submitting. I asked pharmcas the same question because one of my recommenders thought she would not have been able to finish my recommendation before Friday. I am very glad that she was able to finish it before then!
 
Yes, you can, I had asked them as well since I had submitted my application but decided I wanted to add my inorganic chem. professor as a reference as well and they said it would go through without a problem. So no worries.
 
Hi guys!

I just started volunteering in a pharmacy at a hospital today, and I hope eventually I can ask for a LOR from the pharmacist here (I still have a lot of time since I'm not applying until my 4th yr and I'm currently a 2nd yr). But there's a few things bugging me:

1. Everyone in the hospital is so nice except for the pharmacy ppl. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get to know them, be more friendlier with them if they all ignore me and the other volunteers. Not just ignore but even give us the "we don't need you all you do is bother us" kind of face when we come in. I've tried several times to introduce myself, ask how was their day kind of thing, but have gotten either none or a "forced" response from them.
Keep in mind they were not busy when I was talking to them. During my shift, they usually just joke w/each other or eat dinner or listen to music in their own little lunch room. It's a "small" hospital so i guess there's not too much work, especially at my shift time.
And the volunteers work in the back, them in the front (we kno our duties) and never ask them a thing so idk how we are bothering them. we work quietly too lol.

2. I have no clue who the pharmacist is, so that I can at least try talking to him/her. Everyone except for this one lady wears scrubs. Now I know the scrub wearers are pharm techs, but idk about the lady. She wears regular clothes, but no white coat?
Though I hope she's not the pharmacist, b/c she is the most rude of them all lol.

So any advice on dealing with this? I'm pretty stuck as on how I'm supposed to get "closer" to them so I can eventually ask for a LOR.
 
Seriously this is what i hate about volunteering, especially at Pharmacy. They think we are incompetent people who are there to mess up their life, and I totally agree. Imagine you're the pharmacist, and you have these noobies who had no prior training and want to "help out". The only thing in the pharmacist's mind would be ,"Great i have to babysit them now..and I have to be their friends?"

So if you understand their mentality, you will be less upset and just keep being patience. After all, nothing is free in America or elsewhere for that matter. But at the end, I do think that they shouldn't treat you or anyone this way. Why can't they just be more humorous and friendly so their work days can go by faster?

I volunteered at this place and every time i came in they would show this cold face as they don't want me there. But for the sake of pharmacy school, I had to endure and learn as much i could at the time being. I empathize your situation and wish you the best and just hang on. You might turn those hard machines into cordial friends =].
 
Do you truly have a personal relationship with this pharmacist???

If not, asking someone who barely knows you is not a good idea for LOR. Just because they are in the pharmacy field doesn’t make their letter supreme of all letters. What can they really even say about you? You show up to work on time, you do ur job well, and your polite?

You should choose someone to write you letter who knows you and can actually speak of your character, using concrete examples from you life. That’s why I chose my scoutmaster since I became a boy scout @ 11. From his knowledge of me, he could really put the things in my letter that pharmacy schools are looking for, and don't already know.

Your Pharmcas application already states that you have job shadowed. Don’t waste a whole letter re-affirming the last six or so months of your life. Use this letter to ur advantage to get someone who can actually add to your application.
 
^ well the reason I wanted a LOR from a pharmacist is b/c some schools that I want to apply requires it. And of course she doesn't know me now and that's why I was hoping to get to talk to her (since I have a lot of time before I apply) , but as I stated it's really hard to lol.

So I was asking for advice to those people who also had asked a LOR from a pharmacist at the place they volunteered at how I could go about doing that.

fujitsux: thanks for the support! I thought everybody in the hospital was so nice when the volunteering coordinator was taking me around and introducing me to ppl. Only when I entered the pharmacy did things go wrong (mean ppl) haha. Of course I will continue to volunteer and hope that after a while of seeing my face a lot, they'll get used to me and open up :]
 
Ayuka001 said:
^ well the reason I wanted a LOR from a pharmacist is b/c some schools that I want to apply requires it. And of course she doesn't know me now and that's why I was hoping to get to talk to her (since I have a lot of time before I apply) , but as I stated it's really hard to lol.

So I was asking for advice to those people who also had asked a LOR from a pharmacist at the place they volunteered at how I could go about doing that.

fujitsux: thanks for the support! I thought everybody in the hospital was so nice when the volunteering coordinator was taking me around and introducing me to ppl. Only when I entered the pharmacy did things go wrong (mean ppl) haha. Of course I will continue to volunteer and hope that after a while of seeing my face a lot, they'll get used to me and open up :]
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My bad. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!
 
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Ya. I would like to know too...I left my job as a pharmacy tech (went to pursue other job opportunity;didn't really leave in good terms with the pharmacy manager. I tried, but didn't workout. Long story.)
 
Hi Ayuka,

Give it some time. Just keep doing your work with a smile and eventually they will appreciate your work.

I can relate. I started volunteering in a hospital pharmacy 4 weeks ago (4hr per week). The techs are given the responsibility to keep me busy with things to do and I can tell they (well, one in particularly) don't want that extra responsibility because they are so busy themselves. I am ignored. I don't ask questions because I know they are busy and I don't want to get on their bad sides. I don't really know who is who either because their name tags all seem to be hidden.

My goal is to shadow a pharmacist. Meanwhile, I have been keeping my eyes and ears open to understand how the pharmacy works in that setting just in case it is an interview question. I've learned to keep busy on my own otherwise I will be told that there is nothing to do and that I can leave, which is how it was the first day there. (I kept asking 'what else can I do?' - probably bugged her a lot.) I've noticed that the techs are so busy that their stockroom is a mess so one day I spent a few hours just cleaning it up (i.e. taking things out of boxes and up on the shelves, getting rid of the boxes). I noticed too that when they get a shipment in they just stuff the new stuff on top of the old stuff so I started weeding out the expired stuff on my own too, all with a pleasant smile on my face.

The pharmacy supervisor noticed the clean room and noticed my attention to details that she personally gave me work to do. Then, this past Monday, another tech called me to the satellite pharmacy unit (I didn't even know there was one) and asked me to weed out the expired stuff in there (I'm guessing that the pharm supervisor told her that it was a task I could do). That tech liked to chit-chat so she learned that I want to become a pharmacist (others probably think I want to become a tech) and it was nice to talk about life.

If I'm invited for an interview this year, I feel much more better about asking the pharm supervisor to shadow someone in the near future.

You still have plenty of time. So, my advice to you is to keep volunteering. Look for things to do so that your work will be appreciated. If you work with other volunteers at the same time, try to stand out in some way. Someone will eventually notice.
 
It's called math for a reason.
 
apteryx said:
Horrible, isn't it? I went through this last admissions cycle. After I got the LORs, I ended up not even applying to the schools because of a bunch of stupid garbage that happened in life. Now, I'm in a totally different school, know NONE of my professors, and I'm completely out of touch with my old professors. FML on this one.
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why not just go back to your old school and ask those professors?
 
Old men? Those old men know an amazing amount of knowledge. What age do you think many pharmacists are? Old! What age do you think a large part of your patient population will be? Old! Show some effort in what you want!
 
Endospore said:
Old men? Those old men know an amazing amount of knowledge. What age do you think many pharmacists are? Old! What age do you think a large part of your patient population will be? Old! Show some effort in what you want!
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Many of the students that were in my pre req classes thought 30 was old...damn ageism. wtf
 
Personally I think this is one of the advantages of going to a small/community college. Most of our classes had less than 20 people and we knew our profs well
 
Taurus1971 said:
Personally I think this is one of the advantages of going to a small/community college. Most of our classes had less than 20 people and we knew our profs well
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Exactly! My microbiology class has 14 people in it.... started off with full class of 25 now we're down to 14. My teacher knows each of our names and even our majors!
 
I had a neuroscience professor who straight up told us the first day of class that he likes to write LORs and he would be willing to help any of us (class of about 80 students).

Too bad this was in undergrad before I was applying to pharmacy school. I really don't like how PharmCAS wipes their system every year so you can't get the LORs early. I know some people go back and ask later on if they really knew the professor well, but I didn't know him that well unfortunately. I ended up getting a science LOR from post-bac classes I took at the community college. The professor loved me there because I didn't complain he was talking to fast, writing too messy, etc. lol Two schools I applied to (UF and Mercer) don't require a science professor specifically, which I also think is great because they would rather hear from someone who knows you really well than a science professor who may or may not BS a recommendation just so you can meet the requirement.
 
nicolemsm said:
Exactly! My microbiology class has 14 people in it.... started off with full class of 25 now we're down to 14. My teacher knows each of our names and even our majors!
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Did your teacher also know your hometowns and favorite colors? :laugh::laugh:
 
crazybob said:
Did your teacher also know your hometowns and favorite colors? :laugh::laugh:
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Almost. He knows a couple of the people in my classes life stories based upon the fact they talk about themselves during class and relate everything we're learning to themselves hahaha
 
I became friends with my chemistry prof- he isn't my prof anymore of course, but we get coffee and stuff sometimes. We clicked pretty well and talk about all kinds of stuff.
 
nicolemsm said:
Almost. He knows a couple of the people in my classes life stories based upon the fact they talk about themselves during class and relate everything we're learning to themselves hahaha
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Was it one of those cheerleaders that you mentioned? :laugh: I think you did back when you discussed your microbio class, or some class you took with not very many people in it.
 
crazybob said:
Was it one of those cheerleaders that you mentioned? :laugh: I think you did back when you discussed your microbio class, or some class you took with not very many people in it.
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No, I don't have any cheerleaders in my class. Everyone in my class (besides my lab partner and I) have at least 1, 2 kids and lots of "life experiences":laugh:
 
nicolemsm said:
No, I don't have any cheerleaders in my class. Everyone in my class (besides my lab partner and I) have at least 1, 2 kids and lots of "life experiences":laugh:
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I knew people like that in my microbio class. When we had to give a powerpoint presentation, one lady was like "I usually teach kids, so this is why I talk this way." :laugh:
 
nicolemsm said:
No, I don't have any cheerleaders in my class. Everyone in my class (besides my lab partner and I) have at least 1, 2 kids and lots of "life experiences":laugh:
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Do you have a lot of religious people at your school? (Thinking of your location)

I remember there were some fundamentalists in a couple of my bio classes and they were pretty rude regarding the whole evolution thing. They would laugh at the teacher before/after class.
 
crazybob said:
I knew people like that in my microbio class. When we had to give a powerpoint presentation, one lady was like "I usually teach kids, so this is why I talk this way." :laugh:
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haha gotta love people who include their other lives into the classroom. everyone in my classes are kinda midlife crisis spur of the moment career changers so that should give you some indication of how they are...

rxlea said:
Do you have a lot of religious people at your school? (Thinking of your location)

I remember there were some fundamentalists in a couple of my bio classes and they were pretty rude regarding the whole evolution thing. They would laugh at the teacher before/after class.
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luckily in my microbio class, no. but in my honors class everyone is Über (look at those cool rock dots) religious so when we discuss this book we're reading there's always religious connotations and comparisons. it gets REALLY annoying after hearing the same comparisons OVER, and OVER and OVER again, but i just deal with it. also, in my online classes i see a lot of the time people try and include their religious ways into discussion boards but they usually get shot down pretty quickly by the teacher (of all people)!
 
nicolemsm said:
haha gotta love people who include their other lives into the classroom. everyone in my classes are kinda midlife crisis spur of the moment career changers so that should give you some indication of how they are...


luckily in my microbio class, no. but in my honors class everyone is Über (look at those cool rock dots) religious so when we discuss this book we're reading there's always religious connotations and comparisons. it gets REALLY annoying after hearing the same comparisons OVER, and OVER and OVER again, but i just deal with it. also, in my online classes i see a lot of the time people try and include their religious ways into discussion boards but they usually get shot down pretty quickly by the teacher (of all people)!
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Das ist ein Umlaut. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_umlaut
 
I've basically destroyed Organic I & II under this professor and I'm basically the teacher's pet. I was going to approach him about working in his drug design lab, but turns out (I asked one of the students in their now) I won't have time next semester to get in the required 12 hours or whatever. Actually, I probably won't have time to do the required two semesters of it in the remainder of my under grad career. So, should I approach him and show interest anyways? I haven't maintained a personal relationship with this teacher, but he has shown interest in me. He's not the kind of teacher that seems to like the playing dumb technique.

If I get a LoR I have to have it sent to PharmCAS, right? So I should wait until I have that set up, correct? So, should I approach him and tell him that I intend on asking him to write one later?

I probably should have read the stickies more, but I feel like I have some specific questions. Also, any tips on maintaining correspondence with teachers?
 
Darkthrone said:
I've basically destroyed Organic I & II under this professor and I'm basically the teacher's pet. I was going to approach him about working in his drug design lab, but turns out (I asked one of the students in their now) I won't have time next semester to get in the required 12 hours or whatever. Actually, I probably won't have time to do the required two semesters of it in the remainder of my under grad career. So, should I approach him and show interest anyways? I haven't maintained a personal relationship with this teacher, but he has shown interest in me. He's not the kind of teacher that seems to like the playing dumb technique.

If I get a LoR I have to have it sent to PharmCAS, right? So I should wait until I have that set up, correct? So, should I approach him and tell him that I intend on asking him to write one later?

I probably should have read the stickies more, but I feel like I have some specific questions. Also, any tips on maintaining correspondence with teachers?
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I have had professors actually tell the whole class that if a student wants a letter after the semester, or later on, the students should go to the professor and let him know. He said he likes to know ahead of time which students want a letter so he can pay more attention to them and make an effort to get to know the student. So I would suggest to go to him and let him know you want a letter in the future.
 
Darkthrone said:
I've basically destroyed Organic I & II under this professor and I'm basically the teacher's pet. I was going to approach him about working in his drug design lab, but turns out (I asked one of the students in their now) I won't have time next semester to get in the required 12 hours or whatever. Actually, I probably won't have time to do the required two semesters of it in the remainder of my under grad career. So, should I approach him and show interest anyways? I haven't maintained a personal relationship with this teacher, but he has shown interest in me. He's not the kind of teacher that seems to like the playing dumb technique.

If I get a LoR I have to have it sent to PharmCAS, right? So I should wait until I have that set up, correct? So, should I approach him and tell him that I intend on asking him to write one later?

I probably should have read the stickies more, but I feel like I have some specific questions. Also, any tips on maintaining correspondence with teachers?
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Teachers are regular people that happen to know a lot about a particular subject. So just treat him as such. Go to his office hours, shoot the **** a little bit, and then ask if he would be comfortable writing you a positive letter of recommendation. Be sure to have your CV, transcript, and personal statement on you ready to hand over if he says yes. If he hesitates, tell him that you will be providing those so that he can get a better feel for who you are. Worked for me :)
 
Darkthrone said:
Also, any tips on maintaining correspondence with teachers?
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I got 2 LORs from professors 1-2 years after taking their course. I stayed in touch by dropping by their office every once in a while to say hi, by volunteering to proctor their exams (at my school the science depts are ALWAYS looking for volunteers for this), tutoring their subjects which I aced, and chatting when I would run into them on campus.
 
Thanks guys. Looks like I need to make my personal statement and, you know, be generally more sociable.

Arkansas, maybe if you pay for a year of employment ;)
 
Hi, all.
I got a question about LOR.
I saw pharmcas saying "pharmcas don't accept the LOR mailed by applicants."
does this mean the evaluators have to mail it to them?
I was going to mail it after the professors sign and seal it on official envelop.
Can I just mail it? or Must evaluators send it directly to them?
Thanks in advance~!:)
 
sunnywon said:
Hi, all.
I got a question about LOR.
I saw pharmcas saying "pharmcas don't accept the LOR mailed by applicants."
does this mean the evaluators have to mail it to them?
I was going to mail it after the professors sign and seal it on official envelop.
Can I just mail it? or Must evaluators send it directly to them?
Thanks in advance~!:)
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If you choose to use the mail option: yes, your evaluators must mail the letter themselves. You are not allowed to mail the LOR. I recommend giving your evaluators an addressed and stamped envelope, so that they do not have to pay for postage.

However, why not use the electronic option? First, ask your evaluators if they would be willing to write you a letter of recommendation. Most likely they will agree, so tell them to expect an email from PharmCas with log-in instructions. After they agree, login to PharmCas and add their contact information under the references section. This will generate an email to them, they fill everything out online, and you will receive a notification that your LOR is complete.

Unless your evaluator does not use a computer (like you are getting a reference from an Amish farmer that you worked with all summer) then I strongly recommend the electronic option. PharmCas is not generally quick with paperwork, so try to keep the paperwork to a minimum.

Lastly, did you notice that I said to ask your references before you add their contact info to PharmCas? This is important, because it would be rude to presume that they will write on your behalf, and secondly, they may not know what the email is about and delete it before you talk to them.
 
Thanks~!
That was really helpful.
I really appreciate it~!
 
generally speaking you should always waive the right to see the content of the LOR, so you should not mail it yourself. so unless your evaluator ask you to mail it for some reason, or if you are on really good terms with the evaluator and hes ok with it, let him do the mailing. dont use your own address on the envelope tho
 
Since I am applying to schools with rolling admissions, obviously the earlier I apply, the better. I am taking the PCAT in a couple of weeks.

I have three possible professors to ask for LORs.

Professor 1 is a science professor at a university. I did very well in his class, despite having a long break from science courses. He knows how hard I worked for the A, and told me so on the last day of class. The biggest issue with him is that it took him a long time to correct exams, put things on the course website. I have a feeling it would take him a while to get around to the LOR.

Professor 2 is a science professor/dept chair at a CC. I also did very well in her class - on the last day of class she said that she wished that more of her students were like me. She is currently on sabbatical to give her courses a technology upgrade and will not be back until spring.

Both Prof 1 and Prof 2 know me mainly in an academic capacity - they can talk about my work ethic and things like that, but they do not know me on a truly personal level.

Professor 3 is a nonscience professor. I did very well in his class. He knows me very well because the class was small and we had to write journals - he knows my story (nontraditional student, going to school while balancing three kids), the things that my personal statement will be based on.

None of these professors will be teaching over the summer. I will be in Professor 1's class again in the fall.

My third LOR will be from a former (non-pharmacy) work supervisor who knows me extremely well.

Is it a better idea to a) ask via email now, or b) ask in person when school resumes even if it means the letters won't be submitted until October?

Which two out of the three should I ask?
 
Prof 1 for sure. You mentioned an inability to grade things on time and such, but you have to remember that they have a lot of other duties during the school year. Just because they're not getting things done quickly, doesn't mean they won't when you ask. And typically asking for a LOR puts you on top of their to do pile.

Prof 3, of course, is a no-brainer.

As for when to ask, it depends a bit on when the admissions deadlines are for the schools you're applying to. In any case, I would shoot of a warning email just so they'll be somewhat prepared to do one. Can't hurt to let them know ahead of time.
 
I say ask early and keep pestering them until they do it. If professors are anything like me, and I kinda feel a lot of them are, they will put it off until the absolute last minute because it isn't a priority. But if you let them know how important it is, they will get to it. But let them know as early as possible and give them about a week to do it. If they haven't done it yet, remind them again. There's no harm in having them write a LOR early, unless they barely know you. In that case, get to know them and then have them write one for you. Don't forget the thank you card.
 
I wanted to get some advice on who to ask for a LOR. Most schools, as you know, require a professor's LOR. Well, I graduated with my bachelor's back in 2006 (and from an out-of-state school).

Since I decided to go into pharmacy, I took genetics at a local 4-yr university, but the prof doesn't know me at all.

I also took psych at a CC, and that professor at least kinda knows who I am because of the small class size.

Obviously, I did well in both classes, but between the university or CC prof, who would it be better to ask for an LOR from?
 
University or CC shouldn't really matter. You want to make sure, though, that the professor who writes your LOR will speak highly of you and your academic abilities. Did the genetics course also have a lab component to it? If so, I'd go with the genetics professor since LORs from science classes with labs may look more favorable to some adcoms. Whichever you chose, be sure to hand the professor you are asking a sheet of information about yourself, your goals, past and present experiences so that they can use the information to write your LOR, especially if they didn't get to know you during the course.

Good luck!
 
Hello guys, I have another question. This forum is very helpful in getting general application questions answered. :D

I'm planning on having 4 LoR sent to PharmCas

1) Upper Division science prof
2.)Micro prof
3.)Pharmacist
4.) TA (upper level science) or Science PhD who taught me during an upper division science writing class

I've confirmed to have options 1 and 3. Option 2 hasn't returned my email yet. I'm having a problem deciding option 4. My TA said he was willing to write me one and I haven't asked the writing prof yet but I think she would write me one. Who should I pick for option 4?

While I have my own thread, I guess I should confirm a few things I've read on the forum
- E submit as early as possible (When all transcripts are in)
- E submit even though you don't have your PCAT scores in and all LoR in

Thank you
 
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