*~*~*~*Official Letters of Recommendation Questions Thread 2011-2012*~*~*~*

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Barcu said:
For Chrisebril:

Ask for your LORs NOW! The biggest hold-up during the app season is LORs, so you really want to get those done asap. Give the letter-writers a deadline, ask if they can make it, and follow-up with them to make sure they remember.

In terms of letters, two science, and then a non-science are good basic guidelines for professors. Then it is good to get some letters (1 to maybe 3) from ECs. You mentioned research? Definitely get an LOR from the person who heads your research. If it is just a grad student, have them write a letter and get the PI to sign it too (gives it more legitmacy). Letters from doctors you shadowed are ok but usually aren't given as much weight, so you may not need those at all. Choose your LORs carefully. Make sure they can write good ones. Also make sure you don't get too many. More than 5 is really pushing it, but doable, if you get good letters from a variety of sources (aka you don't need 4 science professors).

And if I didn't emphasize it before, ASK FOR THEM ASAP!

In terms of PS, it depends on you. Some write them fast, some slow. You can write a good PS in a short amount of time. Just get as many readers as you can. You want to make sure it makes sense and it conveys the message you want to get across. Getting a bunch of readers will make sure something isn't too vague, confusing, or can be interpreted poorly. It also needs to have just about perfect grammar.
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When do you think I should set the deadline?

Unfortunately I do not have the timeline of the application cycle fully understood, and just took it as, submit the application as soon as possible.

Early June, Mid June, late June (is that too late?).


Probably a really disheartening question but, when are applications submitted.

For some reason, I had the impression that applications did not get submitted till June. But somebody told me their application opened yesterday.... (May 5th).

Am I correct in the assumption that the first day applications are submitted is June first?
 
If he knows you well, it could be a good idea.

Make sure you emphasize what he should talk about in the letter though...determinination/work ethic/preparedness for lessons/reception to criticism/personality etc. are all skills that a physician needs. Most non-medicine people are relatively ignorant of the application process so don't feel bad suggesting topics to address.
 
If you are confident he'll give you a good rec letter then absolutely ask for it... most schools want non-science letters and it's always good to show that you in fields outside of the sciences.
 
Hey,
how should one send in a letter of recommendation post-waitlist? (from a PI for whom you currently work for ex.)

It would be fastest and most convenient for the letter writer to be able to simply email it to the dean, but is this acceptable?

I feel that a (snail mail) letter would take too long and might not actually personally reach the dean...

Anyone have any experience with this? thanks
 
Merging with the Official LOR Question thread.

yjj8817 said:
I am thinking about minoring in music performance (clarinet) during my junior and senior year (it's a 2 year program) and I was wondering if I can get rec from my clarinet professor for my medical school app. Would this be ok? he's super nice and likes me.

thank you!
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brahms11 said:
If he knows you well, it could be a good idea.

Make sure you emphasize what he should talk about in the letter though...determinination/work ethic/preparedness for lessons/reception to criticism/personality etc. are all skills that a physician needs. Most non-medicine people are relatively ignorant of the application process so don't feel bad suggesting topics to address.
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DrSmday said:
If you are confident he'll give you a good rec letter then absolutely ask for it... most schools want non-science letters and it's always good to show that you in fields outside of the sciences.
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(1) I feel dubious about the strength of LOR from my research proff whom I did research with for 2.5 years.
He said he will write an "honest" one and will be a "strong" one.
However, what make me feel uneasy is that he said that I was doing other volunteer work, so I did not do a lot of work as much as the grad students.
He is going to stress my skill in the lab which allowed me to get a publishable data, senior thesis and a poster presentation within a short period of time. (like a semester) Though this could be a strength, it could also misinform the adcoms that I did not have a lot of lab experience.
But this is not completely true. Though it was 2 years ago, I was doing a lot of preliminary techniques during the beginning of the year and spent about 15~18 hours per week for an year learning and mastering these techniques. In other words, I was assiduous too.

Regardless, do you folks think that the current letter written by him could work against me? Would it need a revision so that I was dedicated too?

(2) this question could be redundant, but I had trouble finding the answer. One of my LOR writers was saying that he would like to update my letter after I get my MCAT score on June 16th by calling every office of admissions. Is this the only way? Or there is a better way?
 
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Like the French letter poster, my letter would be coming from someone in a foreign country. Their English is pretty good, but would still be slightly awkward/non-native/grammatically not perfect. But in the office it would be coming from, there are bilingual people who work as translators, so they're just going to have that person edit it for clarity/grammar issues and submit it themselves.

Should be fine, right?
 
Hello, I am hoping someone could offer me some advice on my current situation. 2 weeks ago I emailed a professor I've known for awhile (have taken 3 classes with her and got As in all of them, TA'ed for her, went to her office hours often, made efforts to get to know her personally outside of class) asking to set up a meeting to discuss my plans to apply to medical school. I still haven't gotten a reply and I'm getting really worried since I know that she checks her emails daily. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I want to resend another email but I am not quite sure what to say on this second email without coming off the wrong way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
serene1 said:
Hello, I am hoping someone could offer me some advice on my current situation. 2 weeks ago I emailed a professor I've known for awhile (have taken 3 classes with her and got As in all of them, TA'ed for her, went to her office hours often, made efforts to get to know her personally outside of class) asking to set up a meeting to discuss my plans to apply to medical school. I still haven't gotten a reply and I'm getting really worried since I know that she checks her emails daily. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I want to resend another email but I am not quite sure what to say on this second email without coming off the wrong way. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
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Maybe drop by her office and say you wanted to set up a meeting to discuss something! Don't even mention the email.
 
Thanks for ur reply, but she's rarely in her office. I know this by experience from being her student/teaching assistant for the past 2 years (and she doesn't have a habit of holding office hours in her office either). I'm so bummed 🙁.
 
What exactly classifies as a "science" LOR. Does this mean a letter from someone in the hard sciences (bio, chem, physics, etc) only? Or do the social sciences (like psych) count as well?
 
rHinO1 said:
10 is too many. I used 5 letters: 2 sci profs, 1 non-sci prof, research mentor, and a physician I worked with (paid employment) for 5 years. My recommendation is to use 5 maximum.
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This is what I plan to use too, along with a personal letter of recommendation for those few schools who require it (University of Arkansas, University of Tennessee-Memphis)
 
Nobody has answered my question about physician LORs yet: are they appropriate?
 
Swiss Medical said:
Nobody has answered my question about physician LORs yet: are they appropriate?
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They certainly aren't inappropriate. Necessary? No. As with all letters, what will matter is how well they know you and whether they can write you a strong positive letter of recommendation.
 
I just had a letter writing professor request that I bring everything to her office hours in hard copy (that's fine) and include a "signed waiver form." I'm assuming she means something in writing waiving my right to see the letter (that's fine), but does AMCAS even do a formal waiver anymore? If I'm having it sent directly to AMCAS via snail mail, isn't that an automatic waiver? She's an ochem professor and must get hit up for letters of rec all the time--anyone have any idea which form she is referring to?
 
My committee won't let me schedule an interview with them until late June, I was a little slow in getting my materials together but there is nothing I can do about it now. I was planning on being in Brazil during June and July to do a project with my lab. I could cut the trip short but I would hate to have to do this just for a committee interview. My other option is to just wait until I return in early August to do the committee interview. How much will it hurt my application if my committee letter of recommendation is not out until mid august? Thanks.
 
MermaidMD said:
I just had a letter writing professor request that I bring everything to her office hours in hard copy (that's fine) and include a "signed waiver form." I'm assuming she means something in writing waiving my right to see the letter (that's fine), but does AMCAS even do a formal waiver anymore? If I'm having it sent directly to AMCAS via snail mail, isn't that an automatic waiver? She's an ochem professor and must get hit up for letters of rec all the time--anyone have any idea which form she is referring to?
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My university has a prehealth committee letter service and each letter that is submitted to the committee is submitted along with a waiver form. You can chose to deny or retain the right to read your letters.
 
Hey guys so I currently have two LORs on my schools LOR service. However, for some of the other letters I'm planning on requesting, I was wondering if I could use Interfolio instead as it seems to be much more efficient. Would sending LORs utilizing both my schools LOR service and Interfolio be alright?
 
MermaidMD said:
I just had a letter writing professor request that I bring everything to her office hours in hard copy (that's fine) and include a "signed waiver form." I'm assuming she means something in writing waiving my right to see the letter (that's fine), but does AMCAS even do a formal waiver anymore? If I'm having it sent directly to AMCAS via snail mail, isn't that an automatic waiver? She's an ochem professor and must get hit up for letters of rec all the time--anyone have any idea which form she is referring to?
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You could maybe point your professor to the AMCAS letters of recommendation FAQ here, where it states "under no circumstances will AMCAS provide applicants access to letters of evaluation."
 
Fingerz said:
My committee won't let me schedule an interview with them until late June, I was a little slow in getting my materials together but there is nothing I can do about it now. I was planning on being in Brazil during June and July to do a project with my lab. I could cut the trip short but I would hate to have to do this just for a committee interview. My other option is to just wait until I return in early August to do the committee interview. How much will it hurt my application if my committee letter of recommendation is not out until mid august? Thanks.
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It's very hard to say without knowing what the rest of your application looks like. If your numbers are strong then I suspect few would disagree it shouldn't be too much of a problem to wait until August.
 
TheRealAngeleno said:
Hey guys so I currently have two LORs on my schools LOR service. However, for some of the other letters I'm planning on requesting, I was wondering if I could use Interfolio instead as it seems to be much more efficient. Would sending LORs utilizing both my schools LOR service and Interfolio be alright?
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There's certainly nothing in the rules preventing this.
 
mauberley said:
You could maybe point your professor to the AMCAS letters of recommendation FAQ here, where it states "under no circumstances will AMCAS provide applicants access to letters of evaluation."
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Woohoo! That's EXACTLY what I did already. Your genius is rubbing off on me!
 
I currently have 5 letters of rec on the way: 2 bio, 1 humanities, 1 engineering, 1 doctor I shadowed. However, I am thinking about replacing the engineering letter (which is probably the "weakest" one I have) with a letter from my job supervisor, which I feel would be a lot stronger, since I'm pretty active at my job (assisting with interviews, training new hires).

Would it raise any red flags if I didn't have a letter from a professor from within my major (engineering)? Personally, I feel like the content of the letter should matter a lot more than the source of the letter, but the individuals that I've asked (i.e. other applicants, HP advisers) have been pretty wary about not including at least one engineering letter in my application. Ultimately, I'm satisfied with the LORs I have right now, so it's not the end of the world if I don't include the supervisor LOR. I'm just curious whether this "one letter from your major" rule is just some quack advice, or if it's a legitimate issue.
 
I'm planning on having almost all my LORs, personal statement, official transcript, and mcat score ready to submit by probably around late June (score comes in on the 21st)

The only concern I have at the moment is that one of my LOR will not be ready until mid-July; my professor is out of the country at the moment, and won't be returning until July 14th. I know LORs aren't viewed until secondaries are sent in, so if I have all my LORs ready by late July hopefully that will be fine?

I've asked several people and they said it shouldn't be a problem as long as all are in when you're sending in secondaries, but I wanted opinions here from others.

Just to confirm, can I still submit my app for verification if I don't have all my LORs finished?

I've heard you can submit for verification before MCAT score is in previously, as long as transcript and personal statement is ready.

So I'm assuming you are able to submit app before all your LOR are in.

As always, everyones help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
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I've been told you can and should submit your application before all your LORs are in. Apparently, they're really only needed for the secondary application at most schools.

For example, my pre-professional advising department provides a letter service in that I'm having my LORs sent to them, they'll look them over to make sure my name is spelled right and the pronouns are correct, then they'll send them all as one packet to AMCAS. They don't require the letters to be into them until July something, but I'm still expected to get my application in ASAP in June.
 
Hi All,

Quick question regarding LOR's. I notice that a lot of the schools require two of the LOR's to from science faculty; however I am a student in an engineering program (that is jointly run between science and engineering) and at my school engineering is considered a separate faculty from science.

Do you know if a letter from an engineering professor would satisfy the this LOR requirement? My strongest relationships are definitely with my engineering prof's (have worked for one for multiple terms) and I would hate to see this discounted simply because they are technically under a different faculty.

Thanks for your help!
 
rhysticlight said:
Hi All,

Quick question regarding LOR's. I notice that a lot of the schools require two of the LOR's to from science faculty; however I am a student in an engineering program (that is jointly run between science and engineering) and at my school engineering is considered a separate faculty from science.

Do you know if a letter from an engineering professor would satisfy the this LOR requirement? My strongest relationships are definitely with my engineering prof's (have worked for one for multiple terms) and I would hate to see this discounted simply because they are technically under a different faculty.

Thanks for your help!
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That's a damn good question!

I was an electrical engineering major in college. I wasn't sure if schools would count these professors as "science" professors either; considering AMCAS doesn't consider engineering classes as science classes, I went the safe route and got LORs from the engineering professors that I had good relationships with and AND a science professor.

I would just try to get the strongest letters you can.

My undergrad pre-med advisor seemed satisfied with my choices for LORs, so you can do with this advice what you will. If you have a pre-med advisor I would ask them for a second opinion. This seems like kind of a grey area.
 
Submit app before you submit LORs. It will be verified without them.

A mid-July LOR is fine, and you will still be plenty early.
 
Do any of your professors have any duel appointments? This may allow you to have them write is as a person from a science department even though they knew you from engineering. This seemed fairly common at my undergrad school.
 
rhysticlight said:
Do you know if a letter from an engineering professor would satisfy the this LOR requirement?
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Email the schools you're interested in attending and ask them if you'd like a direct, authoritative answer. Based on my own experience (a lot of non-traditional applicants have similar issues), schools are generally receptive to substitutions as long as the spirit of the requirement is met.
 
ucbsmd said:
Do any of your professors have any duel appointments? This may allow you to have them write is as a person from a science department even though they knew you from engineering. This seemed fairly common at my undergrad school.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, thats a great point, I think the situation is fairly common at my school as well.

Thanks for all your suggestions, much appreciated.
 
Hey Guys,

Sorry if this question has already been asked, I didn't really look through the rest of the thread. So I have most of my letters already uploaded to Interfolio. I made sure I asked the writers to have it on letterhead and with their signature. HOWEVER, AMCAS requires your ID number to be on their letters as well. Do I have to ask my writers to reupload the letters with this ID? I don't want to cause them any trouble, since they were gracious enough to write the letters for me in the first place.

Thanks!
 
phnerd1105 said:
Hey Guys,

Sorry if this question has already been asked, I didn't really look through the rest of the thread. So I have most of my letters already uploaded to Interfolio. I made sure I asked the writers to have it on letterhead and with their signature. HOWEVER, AMCAS requires your ID number to be on their letters as well. Do I have to ask my writers to reupload the letters with this ID? I don't want to cause them any trouble, since they were gracious enough to write the letters for me in the first place.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

No. Please follow the instructions here to submit your letters from Interfolio to AMCAS: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/faqs/147760/amcas_2010_faqs-17.9.html
 
I know letter entries can't be edited after we submit our application, but does the letter writer need to have the LOR completed by the time I submit the AMCAS application? If not, when would be the latest the LOR can be sent?
 
haloschief said:
I know letter entries can't be edited after we submit our application, but does the letter writer need to have the LOR completed by the time I submit the AMCAS application? If not, when would be the latest the LOR can be sent?
Click to expand...

Your letter writer does not need to have submitted their letter to AMCAS by the time you submit your application.

The latest your LOR could presumably be sent would be some day closest to the earliest secondary application completion deadline of the schools you are applying to.
 
haloschief said:
I know letter entries can't be edited after we submit our application, but does the letter writer need to have the LOR completed by the time I submit the AMCAS application? If not, when would be the latest the LOR can be sent?
Click to expand...

mauberley said:
Your letter writer does not need to have submitted their letter to AMCAS by the time you submit your application.

The latest your LOR could presumably be sent would be some day closest to the earliest secondary application completion deadline of the schools you are applying to.
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Merging related threads
 
For the non-science faculty, would it be okay to get a LOR from a graduate student (PhD candidate)? I was in his history course.
 
I'm graduating community college this month and I was wondering if it's a good idea to request letters of recommendation. I will be applying to medical school in 2012. I read on here that committee letters are recommended, but if I'm going to a new university will they not know me well enough? Would medical schools see it bad as just having letters instead of a whole packet from the school (I'm assuming that's what it is). I would want to ask my physics teacher and me tutoring supervisor. Would I have to store these somewhere? I don't really understand how it works. I once saw someone mention a web site they could be uploaded to. What should I do?
 
onakasuita11 said:
I'm graduating community college this month and I was wondering if it's a good idea to request letters of recommendation. I will be applying to medical school in 2012. I read on here that committee letters are recommended, but if I'm going to a new university will they not know me well enough? Would medical schools see it bad as just having letters instead of a whole packet from the school (I'm assuming that's what it is). I would want to ask my physics teacher and me tutoring supervisor. Would I have to store these somewhere? I don't really understand how it works. I once saw someone mention a web site they could be uploaded to. What should I do?
Click to expand...
You can request the letter you want, and have it stored on Interfolio in case you need it. However, it would be better to get LOR from your four year school. Also, if your four year has a pre-med committee, medical schools generally require that you use it. At the very least, it would look bad if you did not.
 
I'm asking my orgo professor an LOR. He's retiring and therefore decided to ask him to to write me one before he left. He asked me send along a copy of my PS along with my CV and transcript. However, since I'm not applying this cycle, I haven't yet written a formal PS.

Is it common for most professors to do this?
 
bbpina108 said:
I'm asking my orgo professor an LOR. He's retiring and therefore decided to ask him to to write me one before he left. He asked me send along a copy of my PS along with my CV and transcript. However, since I'm not applying this cycle, I haven't yet written a formal PS.

Is it common for most professors to do this?
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At least in my experience, yes, especially if you don't already have a lengthy relationship with your professor. In lieu of your formal PS, drafting a statement (doesn't have to be pitch-perfect) covering the same topics would suffice.
 
3/4 of the professors I asked for a letter wanted my PS, transcripts, and MCAT scores. It's pretty standard, even if they know you well.

It's never too early to start on that PS!
 
Only my graduate research PI asked for my PS. Everyone else (especially early in my premed career) asked for a CV, one or two asked for grades but most told them not to give them transcripts etc but pretty much everyone wanted a CV/resume.
 
bbpina108 said:
I'm asking my orgo professor an LOR. He's retiring and therefore decided to ask him to to write me one before he left. He asked me send along a copy of my PS along with my CV and transcript. However, since I'm not applying this cycle, I haven't yet written a formal PS.

Is it common for most professors to do this?
Click to expand...

I was asked to give the professors I wanted a LOR from a resume.

However I have a health committee who organizes all of my letters into one unified letter with additional comments, and they had my PS and CV.
 
barcoderider said:
3/4 of the professors I asked for a letter wanted my PS, transcripts, and MCAT scores. It's pretty standard, even if they know you well.

It's never too early to start on that PS!
Click to expand...

MCAT scores? seriously? WOW.

I just sent CV, PS, and a brief letter to the writer of "ideas" they can talk about. Didn't want my letter writers to all say the same thing.
 
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