UOP letter of rec issue!

[Stroszeck]

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I got letters of rec a while ago (it took WEEKS to get from really busy instructors) and a pharmacist who I had a very close relationship with and who lives about 400 miles away from me now. I JUST found out that UOP requires some official UOP form where letters need to be filled out on.

The school I went to has a LETTER SERVICE that doesn't even allow students to see the letters, so it's kind of a surprise that this is happening. What's the deal? It's almost impossible to get letters from those high caliber people again and I don't wanna give them some crappy generic stuff. What can I do, is there someone I can call to be to let me use the letters my school is keeping under wraps?

 

[J00kie33]

Yea I was wondering about this too.

My school also has a letters of rec service and Ive found that almost every pharm school has a custom form to be filled out. Most of them say to just fill out the questioneer/recommendation form by a couple sources but dont need the traditional "letter". Can you add the traditional letter even if they dont ask for it?...will this help or hurt you?

 

[rxgal8]

Yea I was wondering about this too.

My school also has a letters of rec service and Ive found that almost every pharm school has a custom form to be filled out. Most of them say to just fill out the questioneer/recommendation form by a couple sources but dont need the traditional "letter". Can you add the traditional letter even if they dont ask for it?...will this help or hurt you?

IMHO:
In addition to completing the school's form, you can always get the professor/pharmacist to attach a letter with it. It might actually help because that way the school will get to learn more about you. Besides if the school doesn't want a letter attached, they just won't read it (no big deal).

 

[rxgal8]

I got letters of rec a while ago (it took WEEKS to get from really busy instructors) and a pharmacist who I had a very close relationship with and who lives about 400 miles away from me now. I JUST found out that UOP requires some official UOP form where letters need to be filled out on.

The school I went to has a LETTER SERVICE that doesn't even allow students to see the letters, so it's kind of a surprise that this is happening. What's the deal? It's almost impossible to get letters from those high caliber people again and I don't wanna give them some crappy generic stuff. What can I do, is there someone I can call to be to let me use the letters my school is keeping under wraps?

For UOP, I think you have to use their form (I had to last year). I got my professor and pharmacist to fill out the form and then attach a letter to the form.
As long as your professor still remembers you, you should send him/her the form. The form doesn't really take much time to fill out so hopefully, the professor won't mind. Goodluck!

 

[J00kie33]

Thats a pain in the butt if you want to apply to 20-30 schools, and each school has their own evaluation/letter of rec form. No professor or pharmacist would want to fill all those out.

 

[Glycerin]

Thats a pain in the butt if you want to apply to 20-30 schools, and each school has their own evaluation/letter of rec form. No professor or pharmacist would want to fill all those out.

But it's a reality for many schools. My recommenders had no qualms about filling out the necessary forms I needed. However, I gave the forms to them in June and requested them by August, so they had plenty of time in which to complete them. I applied to 11 schools this cycle, and 10 of them had their own forms.

 

[cheekyD]

I had my own drama with UOP when I applied for fall 2005 admission. I completed my application well before the second tier deadline and requested my school's letter service to send the letters of recommendation they had on file (one from a professor and one from my pharmacist). A few weeks later, I received notice from UOP that the letters of rec had to be on their own form.

Calling UOP was pointless because they maintained their need to have these letters of rec on their own form. I even called up my school's letter service to see if there was anything they could do. According to them, UOP told them the same thing that I was told. The letter service even suggested to me that they would have a meeting to discuss whether or not they could cut and paste my letter writer's responses on the letter service form onto UOP's form. But following the meeting, they realized it wouldn't be appropriate. Geez, all of this just to avoid asking my letter writers to re-write their letter onto the UOP form.

In the end, I ended up asking my professor and pharmacist to re-write their letters onto the UOP form. But all the time I wasted trying to get around the letter of rec requirement hindered my application process. I barely made the third tier deadline. To my knowledge, there's no getting around the form requirement, so just ask your letter writers to re-write it. Most professors keep a copy of their letters anyway. If UOP is a school you truly want to attend, then this is something that just has to be done. Good luck folks.