recommendation letters when you hardly know the recommender..

[lee9786]

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What's the best way to get the people writing your recommendation letter to know you better? Most of the individuals I'm looking to ask to write my letters know me only on a superficial level. I'm thinking that setting up an interview would be the best way. I'm more concerned about retaining LORs from PTs than in the academic world.

 

[hujee]

If the PT has time to sit down and talk with you that would be great. Also just spending more time working with them so they can see how you interact with patients, what you know and what questions you ask would be good too. Good luck!

 

[mshake]

If you have them ready, send your writers the first draft of your personal statement and a copy of your CV/resume so they can have a little more information about you.

 

[lee9786]

If you have them ready, send your writers the first draft of your personal statement and a copy of your CV/resume so they can have a little more information about you.

great idea! Thanks a bunch!

 

[lee9786]

If you have them ready, send your writers the first draft of your personal statement and a copy of your CV/resume so they can have a little more information about you.

Does anybody know the limit on how many words the personal statement can have?

 

[PharmDan2]

Lol, all 3 of my Letters of recommendation came from PTs that I had known for about a week each. I volunteer at 3 separate places for about 20 hours each and asked if they would be kind enough to write them. I barely knew anything about them but they were glad to write the LORs. I got in to the school I applied at too.

 

[truthseeker]

its too bad that you don't know your recommenders better. i always try to know them or I won't write them. If I do write one for someone I don't know very well, it isn't going to be a great letter and the admissions committee will see that. PharmDan, you probably had a pretty good academic resume to back up thin LORs. If an applicant has less impressive GPA/GRE/experience it is much more important, IMHO, to have solid letters not just so-so letters.

 

[PharmDan2]

In my program the LOR are more or less just a formality. I probably had the top GPA/GRE scores in my class, but I chose to do PT just months before applying - so having a relationship with the recommenders was out of the question. In fact, after just about a week with them they asked me if there was any reason why I wanted to keep shadowing because they said that I saw all there was to see already. When it came to recommendation letters, my program had a set document that the recommenders had to fill out - which was just a questionairre. The school never would have known if I knew them for a week, or for my entire life. Guess each school is different?