Q About Recommendation Letters

[Hellothere2]

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Hi Guys,
I'm in the process of getting some recommendation letters, I'm wondering what is the typical way of going about this? Does one normally submit a resume, personal statement, or a CV.
One person asked me for a CV. I'm not sure how extensive this should be? What do you normally include?
I'd really appreciate any insight you can give me.
Thanks

 

[DaBeav]

I gave my recommenders a C.V. which is just basically a resume and a PS. I included contact info, education thus far, list of awards/honors/activities/research, couple sentence career goal paragraph...I included an unofficial transcript for one guy. The PS I gave them was like a really rough initial draft of my AMCAS personal statement. I put those two things together and wrote a small note about why I chose them to recommend me. Thats about it...good luck.

 

[Haemulon]

Hi Guys,
I'm in the process of getting some recommendation letters, I'm wondering what is the typical way of going about this? Does one normally submit a resume, personal statement, or a CV.
One person asked me for a CV. I'm not sure how extensive this should be? What do you normally include?
I'd really appreciate any insight you can give me.
Thanks

Give him or her as much information that you can so that they can have an even better understanding of what you are about. Plus, it should help to jog their memory about your history and performance. Hopefully your recommenders are people that know you very well anyway, but specifics are a must. I hvae a committee and 3 individuals that have agreed to write letters for me. Unfortunately summertime is difficult to get things through so I will probably not have them until sometime in August.

I will be providing them with my resume/CV and a copy of my AMCAS application at a minimum (which also has my personal statement in it obviously). An alternative could be to type out course coursework and EC history or copy your transcripts for them along with a copy of your PS and CV (if you did not want them to see your full application for some reason). Another thing I am doing is typing out an indiviualized letter to each one expressing why I want to go to medical school and a little bit about why I thought they would be a good reference for me. Thats what i'm doing anyway. Hope it helps.

 

[Depakote]

Hi Guys,
I'm in the process of getting some recommendation letters, I'm wondering what is the typical way of going about this? Does one normally submit a resume, personal statement, or a CV.
One person asked me for a CV. I'm not sure how extensive this should be? What do you normally include?
I'd really appreciate any insight you can give me.
Thanks

Different recommenders will want different things when writing your letter. A CV is a standard request. BTW. a CV is just an academic resume, there's no real difference, but you use a CV to apply for academic positions while a resume is used when applying for jobs, it would include all the standard fair included in a resume. Education, Previous Jobs, Relevant Extracurriculars, etc.

 

[strawberryfield]

Different recommenders will want different things when writing your letter. A CV is a standard request. BTW. a CV is just an academic resume, there's no real difference, but you use a CV to apply for academic positions while a resume is used when applying for jobs, it would include all the standard fair included in a resume. Education, Previous Jobs, Relevant Extracurriculars, etc.

my CV has my hobbies and other languages on it too 😉

 

[modelslashactor]

This is a beautiful opportunity for me to go on a rant: whenever you want your profs to turn in your LORs, give them a due date at least 2 weeks prior to whenever you actually want them to turn it in. You'd think you were asking them to donate a kidney the way some profs procrastinate with these things.

 

[strawberryfield]

This is a beautiful opportunity for me to go on a rant: whenever you want your profs to turn in your LORs, give them a due date at least 2 weeks prior to whenever you actually want them to turn it in. You'd think you were asking them to donate a kidney the way some profs procrastinate with these things.

that's what I did also, and of course, I got them 2 weeks after the date I specified, which is when I really wanted them. This is the way to go! 👍

 

[Hellothere2]

Thank you very much everyone. This was my first time trying the site, and I'm amazed about how supportive you all are.

 

[ADDchild]

Ask the pre-med advisor at your school. They may have certain protocol. Also remember that just because you aced the class doesn't mean that the prof's letter will be of any help but- might just say "was pleasant person and scored well on exams" although most feel priviliged to be asked to write a letter. Try to find a prof that you really interacted with, that really knows you and how capable you are (Acing the class at the same time can't hurt)

When I was applying I asked my research advisor to write a letter as well. Research usually shows the ability to think and motivate on your own-good things for the admission people.

If you have someone like I mentioned above(either paragraph) send them a letter when/if you get in, it's make them happy to know and you never know when you might need another letter