Q:Letters of Reccomendation Process

[shakenbaik]

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Hey all, I am just finishing up my fall quarter of my senior year. I've finished my DATs and all I need now is to get my letters of recommendations. I have two people that I would like to get a LoR from but I am not quite sure how the process works. When I ask them to write a letter of rec, where do I tell them to send the letters? Am I able to receive a copy of my own to see if its simply generic? Also, do the formats/contents of the LoR differ based on different schools? Sorry for all the questions. I have tried searching through these forums but reading the answers got me more confused. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Papasmurf1234]

I would get a minimum of 5 LOR ranging from a liberal arts professor, to work boss, to science professors, to dentists. You never know when one of them will fall through. Also, schools require different LORs and AADSAS only allows you to upload 4 total. The rest, you will have to have the professors email/mail them directly to the schools or you can use Interfolio. You are technically not allowed to see your LORs. However, if the person writing your letter is nice enough to let you see it secretly, who's to stop you? If they allow you to do that in the first place, they obviously care and want to write you a good letter. I wouldn't just ask to see them though...it'll come off brash and they may write negative things about you without you knowing it should you still submit their letter. As for the letters, they should be very personalized. You will most certainly want a letterhead and a signature at minimum. For your dentist LOR, you should ask him/her to mention how many hours you shadowed just in case. You should also make sure that what he/she puts in your letter matches what you report.

 

[Glimmer1991]

Hey! Jaesango did a good job of answering this, and kudos to you for thinking ahead. If you want to get a pretty good look at how AADSAS process looks, check the FAQs link in my signature. 🙂

 

[HaverfoodsDDS]

Fortunately, my school has a very helpful pre-health professions office that was kind-enough to hold onto all of my LOR's. You should see if your school offers a similar service. Like you, I got all of my letters around January (because I needed them for my committee letter), and I then submitted my committee letter (along with 4 of my "traditional" LOR's attached to the committee letter) in June when the cycle opened up on AADSAS.

 

[fungames]

Try using interfolio. Google it! Also, I think 5 letters are way overkill. Once you get 3-4 of the letters you need into interfolio, you can send them out to AADSAS when the 2014 application cycle opens up.

 

[shakenbaik]

Oh my goodness you guys are all so awesome for answering my questions so quickly! I just had another question. Do professors/researchers generally know how the letters should look like or should I be sending them some instructions on how to write them? If so, can I find these instructions on the dental schools website?