Who wrote your eLoRs?

[turnandburn]

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I had a vet who I worked for, a vet that I shadowed, and an employer write mine. Is it better to have all vets, or have some academic advisors in the mix? 😕 Or does it really matter as long as they know you well?

 

[david594]

I had a vet who I worked for, a vet that I shadowed, and an employer write mine. Is it better to have all vets, or have some academic advisors in the mix? 😕 Or does it really matter as long as they know you well?

Most schools require at least one be from a vet and one from a professor or academic advisor.

 

[FlyOnTheWall]

I had a vet who I worked for, a vet that I shadowed, and an employer write mine. Is it better to have all vets, or have some academic advisors in the mix? 😕 Or does it really matter as long as they know you well?

Totally depends on you strengths/weaknesses. If your grades are borderline you should have an academic tell us no to worry. If your vet experience is below average or just observational you should have vets tell us you understand what being a vet is all about and how great you would be as a colleague.

3 things Adcoms want to know:
1) Can you handle the coursework
2) Do you understand what being a vet is all about
3) Are you an interesting person with a good attitude who can work hard.

 

[TongueFuCal]

I had 2 vets and a teacher write mine.

also had a vet and a celeb write for penn (both alum) and a businessperson for cornell all as supplements

 

[pupsforseeing]

i had one vet and 2 professors write mine. oh of the profs i just had for a couple classes, the other was my academic advisor, research advisor, and professor for 2 classes.

 

[Pomona2006]

1 vet
1 prof from recent science classes
1 prof from my previous field (who was a prof for many classes, thesis advisor, and someone I've kept in contact with)

As a non-trad, I thought it was important to give ad-coms an idea of my achievements, mostly research related, in my previous field (since I'm not that far out from undergrad, I figured such a recommendation wouldn't be "too old") I also thought it was important for ad-coms to hear from a more recent prof in the sciences who can testify to my accomplishments since changing fields. And I think the vet one speaks for itself 😉

 

[stick91]

1 vet whom I am currently shadowing and who has known me for pretty much my entire life
2 profs. One I had for a freshmen humanities course and biochem, did research under her for a summer, and did my senior thesis with. The other I had for intro bio 1st semester freshmen year and bio of cancer my senior year and I TAed intro bio labs for him for two semesters. (He also taught my dad in the very first year that he was a prof! Not that really counts for anything, I just think it's interesting : )

 

[ckgilabert]

I got one from a vet that i work with, my professor for animal science classes (and is my advisor), and a professor who has a DVM and i'm doing research under him. so i'm hoping they write great things about me.

 

[starlene45]

1 vet (small animal emergency)
1 professor (2nd semester gen chem & biochem, gave me A and A- grades)
1 former employer (professional equestrian)

I decided to go with my former employer because she has known me on both a personal and professional level for almost ten years now. Also she can speak about my equine experience as I have very limited "clinical" equine experience but a strong interest in the field (I rode professionally for several years & am considering equine sports medicine).

As a non-trad who didn't have any links to my undergrad professors, and didn't take any "hard" science as an undergrad, I picked the only professor I've had more than one class with as a postbac. Luckily it was for pretty challenging classes and she gave me good grades in them, she is also on the adcom of a pharmacy school, so I figured she'd know how to write a good letter.

As far as the vet goes-- I work emergency in a practice with about 5 different vets, not to mention those who work relief! On the advice of one of the vets who works with me, I picked for my LOR vet a UC Davis alum (IS school) who also happens to be the Dr I have worked the most shifts with, and who I knew had written LORs for other techs at that hospital. I was super nervous about asking him because I'm not as close with him as some of the other vets but he seemed really happy to do it, and has asked how applications are going a few times since then.

I know a couple of schools say you can submit more evals if you want but I am just exhausted and am going to leave it at those three!!

 

[ellehan]

1) Professor & Equine vet at OSU College of Vet Med (shadowed for 2 summers and have known since I was young)
2) Small animal vet
3) Chair of biology department at my school

 

[charismarl]

2 vets I worked for
1 professor who I had had for 2 classes and I TA'd his classes for 3 years
1 academic advisor (I think this was required but I thought it was wierd b/c I only met her once)

 

[pressmom]

Back in the day (feels like a long time ago now), I had to have 1 employer, 1 vet, and 1 academic person.

I ended up asking the vet who owned the clinic I worked for (employer), the other two vets who worked there (I felt like I couldn't ask just one of them), and a professor I had for several classes in undergrad (before I became pre-vet) to give a sense of my academic accomplishments.

 

[rachroo]

1 small animal vet I have worked for ~6 years
1 emergency vet I shadowed for ~3 months
1 physics professor who I had for a years worth of physics classes/labs

 

[Rusty27]

I'm submitting 4..

2 Vets
1 Employer/Researcher whose lab I worked in for a year
1 Professor from a recent animal science class I took and did well in

 

[dyachei]

I submitted 4 way back when
1 vet I worked for
1 researcher I worked for
1 from my high school biology teacher - she and I had a really good relationship and I ended up TAing for her AP Bio classes
1 professor at my undergrad institution - she also happened to be my advisor and a vet

 

[sambone]

I actually had to get 7 total, thanks to Cornell's requirements:

1 science prof (which he dictated to me as I typed it, then sent in for him. That was crazy!)
1 biomed researcher (PhD)
2 mixed animal vets (1 still hasn't submitted - and he asked me if he could contribute a rec! what gives?)
1 manager of a dairy farm

Plus 2 more to cornell.....whew!

 

[pupsforseeing]

I actually had to get 7 total, thanks to Cornell's requirements:

precisely why i never applied to cornell, haha. i think that requirement does an excellent job of weeding out the lazy people like me who are not motivated enough to get all those extra LORs for one school 🙂

 

[wildvet]

Lol, that was one of the reasons why I didn't apply to Cornell either. I have so much experience, it would be so difficult to keep track of all the LORs that I would have to get lol. They definitely have a good weed-out technique, that's for sure!

For LORs, I asked:

-A vet I've worked for (for about 2 years)
-My research professor (is a DVM, MS, PhD... I've worked with her for more than 1 year),
-An academic advisor. I didn't ask my assigned academic advisor because he doesn't know me that well, so I asked the advisor of the honors program at my college.

I figured that I would choose people that know me well, rather than choosing someone because of their credentials. It would have been nice to get some more DVMs or professors in there, but if they cannot write a strong letter for me, it would hurt more than it would help.

 

[Electrophile]

-2 vets (both alumni, one small animal, one mixed practice)
-my faculty adviser from grad school. He had me write my own letter of rec (he signed off on it, of course, and made suggestions). That was really surprisingly difficult!
-the foster coordinator at the humane society that I've volunteered/fostered with for several years

 

[Sherman01]

-2 vets (1 I worked with for a few years, and a vet I shadowed and had known for a long time)
-2 professors (1 I took a class from and then volunteered working with over 2 semesters and the summer, the other a club adivsor I worked with)

 

[VeganChick]

1 small animal emergency/critical care vet who is part-owner of the hospital in which I work
2 other vets in the hospital (both specialists who I interact with daily)
1 large animal vet I have been shadowing all summer
1 chemistry professor

 

[projekt]

I had my current (at the time) veterinarian employer, my previous employer, and a teacher/advisor in the biology department who I felt knew me best. I could have had the senior professor of biology and lecturer in comparative anatomy write me a recommendation, and he would gladly have done it, but I don't think it would have had that personal touch.

 

[sumstorm]

NC State requires 2 vets, and another school I am applying to requires at least one professor, so my primary eLORs are:

-current employer, small animal vet who hired me after I shadowed for a couple of months
-zoo vet where I worked as a curator with a contact (hands-on) exotics collection (he was not my supervisor overall, but was the terminal supervisor in animal care)
-professor who I TA'd for, Lab assisted, did my honors research under, set up a neuro lab with, and who is a great friend and wonderful mentor

Secondary:
-supervisor from when I was a fisheries observer, taking tissue samples from marine species and conducting necropsies on the occasional marine mammal
-a professor that I did an independent study in advanced writing concepts with, who ran the tutoring and education center at college, who was also my boss (tutor, group instructor) and a mentor

 

[IvyLynx]

canine rehab vet, FIV/HIV/general immunology researcher/vet, zoo and aquatic vet/professor

 

[philomycus]

3 things Adcoms want to know:
1) Can you handle the coursework
2) Do you understand what being a vet is all about
3) Are you an interesting person with a good attitude who can work hard.

Good post.

 

[Electrophile]

canine rehab vet, FIV/HIV/general immunology researcher/vet, zoo and aquatic vet/professor

I see you're from NC. Did you work with Dr. Jonn Sherman by chance? 😀

 

[IvyLynx]

^^ not I, said IvyLynx. You wouldn't happen to know a Dr. Kevin Jones, would you? I know there aren't many canine rehab practitioner-vets.