Things to include in LORs

[yumyumtoasty]

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Hey everyone! 🙂

This may sound like a stupid question, but what should a LOR include? I want to give my evaluators a sheet with some information about me so they'll know what to include in my letters. So far, I have the following:

- classes I took with them (semester and year) and grade received
- list of honors/awards received while in undergrad
- previous dental experience (i.e. shadowing hours, volunteer work, work experience)
- non-dental work experience

How detailed should I be on this sheet? I don't want to send them a novel about my life, but I want them to have enough information to include (especially since I graduated 4 years ago and didn't stay in touch with my science professors because I didn't think I'd ever apply to any sort of graduate program; I took my science courses as part of my chemistry minor). Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

PS: can you get letters from different professors that taught the same subject (i.e. two LORs from a chemistry professor)?

Best of luck to everyone!!

 

[Carbohydrates]

1. Those are all good information to have. But why don't you just give them your resume? Wouldn't that have everything.
2. Yes, you can have two chemistry profs write 2 different LORs. But there are only 4 slots on AADSAS for LORs, and some schools require specific letters (like 1 bio, 1 chem, 1 dentist, 1 non-school, bla bla) so just making sure that you have the right letter.

 

[yumyumtoasty]

1. Those are all good information to have. But why don't you just give them your resume? Wouldn't that have everything.
2. Yes, you can have two chemistry profs write 2 different LORs. But there are only 4 slots on AADSAS for LORs, and some schools require specific letters (like 1 bio, 1 chem, 1 dentist, 1 non-school, bla bla) so just making sure that you have the right letter.

Good point about the resume! I'll do that.
Regarding LORs, I know that some of the schools that I'm applying to require 2 LORs from science professors and others require 3. How would I know if they're requiring letters from professors of a specific subject?

Thanks for replying!

 

[Carbohydrates]

Good point about the resume! I'll do that.
Regarding LORs, I know that some of the schools that I'm applying to require 2 LORs from science professors and others require 3. How would I know if they're requiring letters from professors of a specific subject?

Thanks for replying!

If they don't specify on the school website, I guess any science would work. You can always call the school to ask to make sure too.
But the letters are usually from a Bio, a Chem, or a Physics profs.

 

[yumyumtoasty]

If they don't specify on the school website, I guess any science would work. You can always call the school to ask to make sure too.
But the letters are usually from a Bio, a Chem, or a Physics profs.

Just called all of the schools that I'm applying to (thanks for the advice!). All of them said that it doesn't matter who writes the letter as long as they are the lecture professor.

Do you (or anyone else) thinks it's a bad idea to ask for a LOR from a professor that you received a B+ from? I took chemistry and physics with the same professors. In their first course I received a B+, but in their second course I received an A.

 

[SrJulio]

In my opinion, you should not ask any profs to write you a letter unless you have a professional relationship with them. It does not matter what grades you receive in that class. Say you are in a 500-student-lecture, the letter you get will probably be very generic, only containing what grade you received and how hard the class was (that's what the transcript does). Now if the prof was your lab PI, or you always went to his/her office hours to chat, that's a different story.

Know your people so that they will write you a STRONG letter.

 

[JLT223]

In my opinion, you should not ask any profs to write you a letter unless you have a professional relationship with them.

Agreed.

 

[yumyumtoasty]

In my opinion, you should not ask any profs to write you a letter unless you have a professional relationship with them. It does not matter what grades you receive in that class. Say you are in a 500-student-lecture, the letter you get will probably be very generic, only containing what grade you received and how hard the class was (that's what the transcript does). Now if the prof was your lab PI, or you always went to his/her office hours to chat, that's a different story.

Know your people so that they will write you a STRONG letter.

Thanks for the advice. I'm just worried about LORs because I hear different advice from different people (i.e. some people say only get letters from classes that you got As in, others say pick profs that know you well). I definitely don't want generic letters.

 

[DC206R]

I agree that you should get letters from classes that you knew the prof a little. If you didn't speak much to the prof even though you got a 4.0, the letter will be generic.

 

[obscurlit]

Also, ask early. Sometimes the best teachers will reject writing a rec if they don't know you well enough, and it always takes s long time to get things done and processed in a timely manner without rudely rushing them. Try to keep backups in mind too - I had this one teacher that I interacted with, did well in his class, and everything, but he literally never replied my multiple emails, even to say no -_-

 

[yumyumtoasty]

Also, ask early. Sometimes the best teachers will reject writing a rec if they don't know you well enough, and it always takes s long time to get things done and processed in a timely manner without rudely rushing them. Try to keep backups in mind too - I had this one teacher that I interacted with, did well in his class, and everything, but he literally never replied my multiple emails, even to say no -_-

That sucks! I hope you have other professors to choose from. My college has only one science major so a lot of the professors teach multiple classes. Plus, I only did a minor in science so my list of professors to choose from is super small 🙁 I already had one professor reject my request, but my biochemistry/general chemistry 1 professor said yes! Two more to go....wish me luck.