Personal Statement for LOR writers

[junkct]

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Hey, I was wondering what we should give our LOR writers when we ask them for letters. People have told me to give a resume/CV (which one is better?), personal statement, and then whatever else they might request.

If you know a professor pretty well... either TA'd for them or just gotten to know them really well... is it necessary to provide them with your PS? I mean, isn't the whole point of a LOR to get their recommendation for you, and not to have them affirm whatever you wrote in your PS? How would providing your PS help?

I ask this because I have just started writing my PS. I got to school in CA, so school doesn't end till June. I was planning to ask at the beginning of Spring quarter for letters, but I'm not sure if I'll have my PS done by then. How long is avg for finishing a PS anyway?

Sorry, lots of questions, but I'm not too certain how to go about getting letters... also, how late is too late to ask for letters? Like, if I asked for one in late May, would that be bad? (that would give them until July/August to write it... a couple of months)

thanks in advance for the help!

 

[redsquareblack]

You will def. want to at least provide your potential letter writers with a CV/resume. If you have a PS prepared, it might not hurt, but it's not strictly necessary.

Best way to go about it is to ask your potential letter writer whether he/she feels he/she can write you a strong letter of recommendation, and if so, schedule a meeting to discuss it. At this time, you might forward a copy of your CV/resume so that they will have some time to look over it before sitting down with you.

Meeting with your potential letter writers is a way to convey your goals, and discuss your positive attributes, as well as explain any negative ones. If you meet with letter writers, you needn't also give them a PS, but YMMV.

EDIT: As to your last question, try to give your letter writers at least 2 weeks, although even that is cutting it close. Best time to approach is probably early-mid March, with a meeting no later than mid-April or so.

 

[Myuu]

Hey, I was wondering what we should give our LOR writers when we ask them for letters. People have told me to give a resume/CV (which one is better?), personal statement, and then whatever else they might request.

If you know a professor pretty well... either TA'd for them or just gotten to know them really well... is it necessary to provide them with your PS? I mean, isn't the whole point of a LOR to get their recommendation for you, and not to have them affirm whatever you wrote in your PS? How would providing your PS help?

I ask this because I have just started writing my PS. I got to school in CA, so school doesn't end till June. I was planning to ask at the beginning of Spring quarter for letters, but I'm not sure if I'll have my PS done by then. How long is avg for finishing a PS anyway?

Sorry, lots of questions, but I'm not too certain how to go about getting letters... also, how late is too late to ask for letters? Like, if I asked for one in late May, would that be bad? (that would give them until July/August to write it... a couple of months)

thanks in advance for the help!

A lot of my professors (even though I know them pretty well) still asked for my PS. I think it might have been so that they could write things that would support the arguments/examples I gave in the personal statement.

If you're trying to apply early (just about everyone should), you'll want to have those letters available to schools when they get your secondaries, which ideally will start coming and going around July, though some schools have applications that open earlier. If you think your letter packet will be ready to go by then, by all means go ahead. If not, I would ask for them earlier. You might also want to suggest to them an arbitrary deadline to make your life a little more manageable.👍

 

[Sonnet43]

Start asking for them in late March and April, esp if you go to a large university. Even though I knew my prof's pretty well they took a while to write them. At large universities, spring is LOR season and the professors will be overwhelmed with them by the end of Spring quarter/semester. You don't want to be on the tail end of a Prof's letter writing season and have your LOR sounding like the 20-30 others written before yours.

What I included in my packet:
1) Cover letter (saying how I know them, in what context, and a thank you for taking the time to write this and how much it means to you that they're taking the time out of their busy schedule to help you)
2) Detailed resume
3) Personal Statement
4) Summary of my research (abstracts- mostly for the science prof's that I was getting LOR's from)
5) Tips on writing an effective letter of recommendation (a handout from my university's career center on writing LOR's for students going into health care professions)
6) How to format/submit the LOR (Be sure to specify that they need University/Organizational letterhead, Signatures, and where to send it)
7) Pre-addressed & stamped envelope

**All of this might be overkill, but I generally got good feedback from the prof about how helpful the packets were.


Be sure to ask early! My worst case scenario: One non-science Prof I asked in April didn't get the LOR into interfolio until late June and it was formatted wrong (not in university letterhead). I wasn't notified about til until Aug and had to wait til Sept when I had to request a newly formatted one be re-submitted. This delay my application significantly.

 

[cpants]

The best time to ask is now, really. If you already know you want a letter from a certain person, just ask and get the ball rolling. Usually the professor will tell you what information, if any, he needs. Request a face to face meeting to discuss your goals, passions, and the importance of your experience with that professor. This not only will ensure a more personal letter, but also is good practice for future interviews. In my experience, the best letters usually come from people who know you well enough not to need a resume/statement.

 

[justdoit31]

I did not give a personal statement to my writers... my packet was the info for my letter service and a resume.

I used 3 professors that I knew very well (2 of them I had done international trips with) and also did my personal physician who knows me both as a patient and after spending time shadowing her... also a volunteer coordinator just to have a service letter.

I don't think it is necessary if they know your motivation

 

[junkct]

yeah, that's the thing... I feel like, for the profs that know me decently well, a PS wouldn't really add much. I don't think it would influence them to write anything different than they normally would. believe me, if i had my PS done or almost done by now, I'd definitely include it in the packet, but maybe I'll just go ahead and ask for letters before I finish my PS, since it might get too late otherwise.


On a side note, I know it's bad to have a cookie-cutter "student was good, got an A, blah blah, recommend for med school, blah blah" LOR, but if you have one of these, one pretty good LOR, and one stellar unbelievably good LOR, do you think it would hurt the app?