My Advisor gonna be the death of me!

[EReze]

ok... I have posted about how none of the DO's i have asked to write me a LOR have replied..... but this is even worse! Most schools "hint" that a letter from a DO is nice, but not required. But you MUST have a letter from your pre-med board or advisor.

well..... MY ADVISOR STILL HASN'T SUBMITTED MY LOR!@%$^&

I requested it in AUGUST even before I got any secondaries.. she was on vacation until early september, so i said ok, i can be patient.... but what the HELL. Its OCTOBER NOW (as of 12am) CAN I GET A BREAK?

What's worse is that i'm not just a faceless number, i was in a small pre-med program, so she knows me. she knows i am a good student with a good academic record. I'd have a pretty good chance of getting into med-school IF MY FILE WAS COMPLETE!

I have been e-mailing the hell out of this woman beacuse i have recently graduated and work full time, i can't physically harrass her... What can i do? I am at my wits end.

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[DrLady]

You should keep on emailing her once a week! Just do it, leave a message on her office phone. Keep on reminding EVERY WEEK or even twice a week, thats the key!

For example, my science prof. I asked for his lor in mid july and he was VERY enthusiastic about it, even gave me lots of advice, told me to send him a reminder in a week. He also said that he knows some schools require their own forms and he will even write them again for me, no problem. Well, its October, has he written one? NO! Ereze, I reminded him every week, twice in person, and he still hasn't written one to me yet! I found out last week that he does not come to his office regularly, because he is not teaching this year. Yeah, so I am actually stalking him through email. I just sent him a reminder last friday, I just got back checking his office ( he wasn't there). He is getting another reminder today. I need his lor because he knows me really well and it would really help. He is also old, i think late 60s so maybe he is getting senile earlier than expected.

I also think you should exaggerate a bit saying all there is left for your file to be complete are the LORs. Honestly, sometimes these profs just get busy and sometimes they forget, and sometimes they just get lazy! I normally would advise against exaggerating, but when the profs/advisors won't listen or be prompt, then you have to do this.

 

[luvmeow]

you're right dr. lady, but sometimes you still get no response. sometimes i feel why did you even say yes in the first place if you didn't want to help me? I have this one teacher who sent my LOR within a day of me asking. It literally takes like 15 minutes to write one. if you're busy... every school department has a secretary--- some professors have thier own secretary.

i've even told professors that the LOR can be generic, since most are. even if they know you, some people are just bland writers. schools understand that, plus even if the teacher knows you in class, they have no idea what extracurricular activities you do.

This is a person's future. Good luck!

 

[Amy B]

That is awful and I can only imagine just how helpless you must feel. Maybe you can approach it another way. Why don't you email her and ask her if there would be any reason she would feel uncomfortable in writing a LOR for you. Ask her if maybe there is a problem you aren't aware of. You could stress to her that there are a number of schools ready to give you an interview date and they have asked you to contact her for this very important letter.

I would also approach the director of admission's at the schools you are waiting for her letter and explain ALL the steps you have taken to no avail. I would ask them if it is possible to be granted an inteview with this letter not available. Maybe they have a suggestion or maybe have someone who could call her on your behalf. I would ask them if they would be willing to assist you in this manner.

I contacted a school and explained about my problems with not being able to find a DO to shadow. It is that school that helped me with solving this problem.

Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DrLady]

Hey you guys, yeah I right there with you, luvmeow, yeah it takes maybe one day out of the whole weekend, if they can't. Amy B, glad to know that you ended up getting an LOR from a DO physician.

So i have an update on my situation. I went to check the premed office to see if my letters are in before I send out the reminders and the lady is gone for the whole week: vacation week. So then I decided to try once again to go to my prof's office and i found him! I told him i am sending out my secondaries in a day ( ok, 2 days) and that I need the lor. He apologized 2-3 times and said he will get busy with them. We then talked a lot more about what my future plans are, etc, and I just hope he will write me a good one. He probably got annoyed with me..i am sure.

Good Luck, Ereze!!!! Just bug the hell out of your advisor. I am still going to go and send a thank you card ( an nice Hallmark one!) to my recommender so if by then he hasn't written, he better feel guilty about not writing it in next 2 days!

ps. I have one more question. What if a recommender misspells your name on the lor? Not that mine did, but I am wondering, how would that affect the reviewing of secondaries.

 

[EReze]

Good luck with that situation!

I spoke to my advisor's secretary and my advisor emailed me. i gave her one more thing she needed, and said she would send it out tom. (hopefully). i got my fingers crossed. she also said she would call the admissions of my top choice to let him know.

now let me start working on those darn unresponsive DO's.....

 

[idlehouse]

send your writer some flowers or cookies (whatever) with a card saying something like "i just want you to know I really appreciate you helping me out, I know how busy you are, and it's very kind of you !!" you know, just trip them with guilt , maybe that will help ?

 

[Goofyone]

ERez, I feel your pain.

I went through HELL to get my LORs and almost didn't get into school because of it.

Lazy @$$ teachers and doctors forgetting plus my school botching up the list of schools I wanted which letters sent to(I applied DO + MD so my letters were different to each).

One thing that definately helps is to give your writer a solid deadline. Also, don't give them too long to write it. I would say less than a month because things are sooo easy to put off if you know they're far away-then you forget. Then friendly little reminder emails updating them on your application process and an early thank you card seemed to do the trick for me.

Maybe the advice is too late for you but maybe someone else can benefit.

Good luck w/ things.

 

[Nater44]

Originally posted by EReze
okBut you MUST have a letter from your pre-med board or advisor.

well..... MY ADVISOR STILL HASN'T SUBMITTED MY LOR!@%$^&

I requested it in AUGUST even before I got any secondaries.. she was on vacation until early september, so i said ok, i can be patient.... but what the HELL. Its OCTOBER NOW (as of 12am) CAN I GET A BREAK?

What's worse is that i'm not just a faceless number, i was in a small pre-med program, so she knows me. she knows i am a good student with a good academic record. I'd have a pretty good chance of getting into med-school IF MY FILE WAS COMPLETE!

When I read your post I almost cried...I had the same problem. Not only did my advisor now me...but I spent two summers working in his lab and played basketball with his kid! He was just dragging A** and it drove me nuts! I got so fed up I sent an email telling him to hurry...Hang in there....Now as each day passes I get more nervous b/c I haven't heard from any schools. My application has only been complete for a week...Ahhh. I cant wait for all of this to be over.

 

[Chronotropic]

If people couldn't tell what my name was I would have a little rant about certain problems I'm having in the process.

 

[Idiopathic]

I agree. I solid deadline when asking for LOR's is key. Some people are afraid to ask for things by a certain date, but you have to in this situation.

 

[dokita]

Hey guys,

I want to share my experience regarding LOR, may be someone can learn from my situation and avoid potential pitfall. Take time to read.

Last year I feel like I missed getting into an MD school because my pre-med advisor probably did not write me a good letter after burging her. First it was difficult to see her (usually takes a min of 3 wks after making appointment). When I eventually got to see her, she said she was going to write my letter after she's back from vacation, by then it was going to be past the deadline. I argue about that and she insisted that schools usually have seperate deadline for advisors, I said I haven't heard of that before as school usually tell students that it's their responsibilities to ensure timely reception of all materials. She insisted that she can't do it earlier bcos she has to go on vacation. I decided I wasn't going to apply again if my letter couldn't be mailed on time. I left and "luckily" for me I got an interview invite from an MD school even before I send my secondaries and LOR but they want me to ensure the secondaries and letter comes in before interview date. I called and told the school my situation and that my secondary and fees will be in but LOR is really beyond my control bcos of the situation. they encourage me to still come, I went for the interview and I had a blast of time, I like the school and everything went great. They even told us that everyone have 90% chance of acceptance as they only interview few applicant who they want they would rather not have them spend a lot of money when they don't intend to accept them. That was very encouraging and I started talking to people confidently that I will be going to the school (imagine, who will not with the way things have worked out so far). But when I got a response after every document was complete and after the interview, it was a straight rejection without even a waitlist. I spend a lot of money flying for the interview in response to the encouragement and I felt really disappointed. When I finally paused thinking through what might have gone wrong, I figured that the only thing the school got after they offered me interview was the LOR and I was wondering whether she wrote me a good letter or not. I made an appointment on the advise of my undergraduate advisor to look into her eyes and ask her if she wrote me a good letter, but lo and behold, she canceled the appointment twice after waiting for a month to see her on each ocassion on the flimsy escuse of being sick. I then decided to go alone without her. This year I avoided her like a plague because I don't think I can trust her anymore plus it was difficult to see her. It still pained me that I missed that chance last year but it's all good as I've gotten many interviews this yer and I believe God that It will come through for me this year. I make sure all my letters were sent directly by each professor. Come to think of It, I believe it was better in the long run because I can easily go to my prof's office without having to make stupid appointment and wait for 3 weeks when everything would have been late. The result is that all my letters were in and Within a week of completion I started getting interviews. In all the schools, only NSU-SOM have said they are missing 2 letters and I have it re-sent by the professor, remaining that of the DO who is not around (the DO is my primary physian for the past 5 yrs). I am goint to talk to the DO again and it should be easy since it's just going to be a copy of what he already sent.

I think NSU may be disorganized a bit because I believe all the letters were sent at thesame time by the prof and the DO and if all the other schools got it then I believe it was sent also to NSU.

I still have some interviews coming and I'm happy with my decision for not going to that pre-med advisor. Otherwise, I don't know where I would have been in the process now.

--dokita