UCSF letter of rec question

[PolarBear21]

Sorry for this possibly stupid question, but I'm confused about sending letters of rec to pharmcas and then to UCSF which wants you to send it directly to them. Say both of my professors writing the letters agree on writing it through pharmcas e-direct where they submit it write there. Do I then also ask them to send it directly to UCSF.

In general i'm just not really sure what the protocol is, do I give my professors envelopes with the stamps and adresses on them?

Thanks for any help

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[RachGator]

This is the letter I gave to my professors (because San Fran's was due so early). With the Pharmcas recs and the recs from non-Pharmcas schools, I put each in a seperate manilla envelope and put similar instructions to these with a due date of AT LEAST a week before the letter had to be mailed. Hope this helps. Be really on top of UCSF's deadlines. They want thing there by the date, not just postmarked. They didn't even want to make a hurricane exception! (We had a nasty hurricane two weeks before the rec was due and nothing was open or operational.)

My letter on my letter head (WITH CONTACT INFO):

Hi, and thank you so much for doing this for me.

Here is the recommendation for the University of California at San Francisco School of Pharmacy. I am applying for the Doctor of Pharmacy program. If you could please fill out the form, mark the appropriate boxes, attach a letter of recommendation (mentioned in Section E4), and please place the form and letter in a school letterhead envelope with your signature across the envelope seal, I will call and pick it up later in the week. I have to have everything ready to mail by (2 weeks before date due).
Most of these forms are very similar so, if you make a copy of your form and letter, they can basically be used again to make filling in the 3 (this is how many other rec letters I needed) other recommendation forms easy. I believe some of you may even have already written a previous letter for me. I am also including two copies in case you need another copy.

Once again, I can’t express how much that it means to me that you are willing to do this. Thanks!

Signature
XXXX

 

[fidelio]

Well I asked UCSF about that.

They said that PharmCAS recommendation letters are ok, but they actually prefer the ones sent to UCSF.

I ended up having my professors write recommendation letters both ways.

Though I also heard that professors HATE doing electronic recommendations.

 

[cheesygal]

When I went to their supp. app. workshop, they said that form E was optional (but recommended) if you submit your letters through pharmcas. I even called admissions to make sure it was ok. Basically, a good letter is a good letter, regardless of how it's submitted. I decided to opt out of getting the form E filled out and I still got an interview.

 

[PolarBear21]

Thanks for the response guys. I'm trying to sort this all out before August 1st because I'm trying to turn in my app early for USC and UOP.