Question About Seeking Recommendation Letters...

[nyc76]

This is an area that I have seriously neglected. I haven't made any real strong relationships with any professors. I pretty much finished all of my pre-requisites so I can't really take another class and try to bond with a professor. Basically I need 3 LOR's from either a pharmacist or a science professor. That is what Nova is requiring which is where I would love to go.

I have worked a ton of volunteer hours for a hospital and the Pharmacist Manager loves me and said she will do a LOR for me. So thats 1.

I do have 2 science professors that I can possibly approach but I haven't seen or spoken to them in about 2 semesters. Should I just blindly email them and in a productive way ask them for a LOR? I could also probably get another LOR from another pharmacist at the hospital I volunteer in but I feel getting too many from one spot might look bad?

I also work full time for a US Congressman but he's neither a science professor nor a pharmacist so his LOR wouldn't count I assume.

Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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[Skrumpy]

Kind of crappy they only accept LoRs from science profs or pharmacists.. are you sure they aren't just giving you a recommendation of whom to ask? If you are going to approach your science profs I would do it in person. That way you can judge their immediate interest in writing you a LoR. If someone grumbles about it when they say yes and then shoo you out of their office, you may not want that person's LoR. Also, it is much easier for someone to say "no" and much more difficult to judge the tone of interest in an email. Sure it is going to be more difficult to ask someone face-to-face, but maybe you could even slyly give them some ideas to write about as you catch up with them, ex: "I'd have to say that 1st exam on XXX really caught me off guard but once I aced that 2nd exam on XXX I really felt so much more comfortable with the material." I'd chat them up a bit and put on the charm. Definitely go in prepared with a list of things you liked/disliked about the course and/or presentation of the material. While you're obviously not there to grade them, you want them to know you were engaged on a deeper level than just taking notes and trying to score the highest on an exam. Maybe relate some of the material you learned to an interesting tidbit from RL experience since you got done with their course. Good luck!

 

[nyc76]

Hey thanks for responding. I thought of that but I guess I have to figure out how to make that happen cuz its summer for them now and I usually don't see them on campus. Here is what Nova says on their site:

"Three letters of Evaluation - a letter from the pre-professional committee (if such a committee does not exist letters of evaluation from two science professors and a liberal arts professor are necessary). A letter of evaluation from a pharmacist is highly recommended and may substitute for a letter from a professor."

I have no idea what a "pre-professional committee" is so I read that as I need 3 letters from professors or 3 from pharmacists if I can get them. I have 1 pharmacist and probably can get another from the same place I work at but that might be too much from one place. I was also thinking of volunteering someplace else and secure another recommendation letter.

I'd love to use my current boss as a LOR but from what it says there they wouldn't accept it. Am I missing something there?

 

[Skrumpy]

Hey thanks for responding. I thought of that but I guess I have to figure out how to make that happen cuz its summer for them now and I usually don't see them on campus. Here is what Nova says on their site:

"Three letters of Evaluation - a letter from the pre-professional committee (if such a committee does not exist letters of evaluation from two science professors and a liberal arts professor are necessary). A letter of evaluation from a pharmacist is highly recommended and may substitute for a letter from a professor."

I have no idea what a "pre-professional committee" is so I read that as I need 3 letters from professors or 3 from pharmacists if I can get them. I have 1 pharmacist and probably can get another from the same place I work at but that might be too much from one place. I was also thinking of volunteering someplace else and secure another recommendation letter.

I'd love to use my current boss as a LOR but from what it says there they wouldn't accept it. Am I missing something there?

I don't have any experience with a school requiring a letter from a pre-professional committee so maybe someone else can chime in there with more info. I would seek clarification on how many pharmacist LoRs you can substitute for professor LoRs. You could interpret that as singular, so I guess I would clarify just to be sure. While you are clarifying that you can always ask them if other letters can be accepted as well. That just seems really overly restrictive.