Hi guys,
so I am almost done with the first summer session of Chem I, and doing pretty well in the class so far (4.0 and crossing my fingers…) 
I wanted to ask my professor to for a letter of recommendation and was wondering the best way to go about it? She knows me and who I am as I have been to her office hours quite a few many times asking questions, and she also knows that I am doing well in the class. However, I only had the class with her for six weeks now (as it is a short summer session,) and wondering if it would be awkward to ask her for a recommendation letter.
I just hate the idea of having to ask anyone for a recommendation (it just seems kind of self-boasting.) How do I go about this? Should I just ask if they wouldn’t mind filling out one letter and turning it to the advisor? How can I tell if they are really going to write a good letter? Any advice?
Thanks!!
Most professors are used to writing recommendation letters for students. I had one of my letters written by my a professor who was teaching my summer class. At the time I also thought that it might be a little bit weird, b/c he only knew me so short, but we talked a good amount of time and I was confident that he could write me a good letter.
How to approach her? Don’t ask ‘if they wouldn’t mind filling out one letter and turning it to the advisor’. You have to ask if they are write you a STRONG LETTER. As ‘weird’ and ‘vain’ as is sounds, this is the way to go. You have to be assertive and you have to make sure that you’ll get the best letter from her. I would assume that if she’s not willing to write you a letter, or doesn’t think it will be strong, she’ll find an excuse of some sort. Another thing I would suggest, if she agrees, have you resume/ CV and some sort of personal statement ready for her - so that she can ‘personalize’ the letter a little bit more.
And finally don’t ask her to hand it to you advisor. Provide a stamped and addressed envelope, so that she can mail it when she’s done. I would also tell her a very definite deadline the letter should be sent - this will keep her on schedule.
Can’t think about anything else.
Hope it helps,
K.
Any chance that she is also teaching Chem 2 in the fall and you taking her class again? The chances for a strong LOR would be even more possible because she will have known you longer. I’m actually planning on doing that my self with my organic chemistry professor. I figure after 2 semesters he will have seen more evidence to support a good strong letter.
I totally agree with Kasia about providing the envelope (remember to address it) and stamp. The more steps that you can take care of, the more of a chance you’ll get your letter quicker. Remember, you will not be the only student asking for a LOR. You may already have advantages that your classmates don’t have, which may be the 4.0, also your soughting her out during her office hours. I always find it so amazing how the profs will be available to students, but only a few will actually go see them. It’s such a great opportunity to have 1:1 when you may need a little help with a concept.
I’m in the same situation. . .
Kasia, your response was helpful, but I’m still confused about what you do with the letter in the ~10 months between the end of summer semester 2009 and May 2010 when amcas would start accepting letters for 2011 apps.
Maybe this is why the O.P. was asking about sending it to the advisor? Will advisors compile your letters and hold them?
- AliJ Said:
Kasia, your response was helpful, but I'm still confused about what you do with the letter in the ~10 months between the end of summer semester 2009 and May 2010 when amcas would start accepting letters for 2011 apps.
Maybe this is why the O.P. was asking about sending it to the advisor? Will advisors compile your letters and hold them?
If you have a premed advisor that will forward any letters, check with them. If not, consider opening a Interfolio account. It costs nothing to the professor, and they can actually submit online if they are computer saavy...if not, it can probably be mailed in. Interfolio will then just hold onto the letters until they need to be submitted to the medical schools you are applying.
I can't recall how much it costs (not too much), but you can probably check out the website. www.interfolio.com.
I had all my letters forwarded to my pre-med advisor. I met with him before I asked anybody to forward the letters, so he had my file started and he knew that the letters would be coming during the following year.
I also forgot to mention that you should void your rights to see the letter. My pre-med advisor provided me with necessary forms. You just sing this form and hand it to your letter-writer together with your CV and other stuff.
- madkasia Said:
I also forgot to mention that you should void your rights to see the letter. My pre-med advisor provided me with necessary forms. You just sing this form and hand it to your letter-writer together with your CV and other stuff.
I asked for LOR from my English Professor for scholarships. Lovely letter. I made the mistake of not providing background info about myself. He emailed me and actually asked. In turn, the letter was personalized and perfect. I recommend being prepared with background info. I know I will be in the future.
If you ask your chem I prof for a letter of recommendation now, I would keep in touch with her in the intervening time before you graduate. The best letters of recommendation are from profs who are also mentors. She could then write an updated letter when you apply to med school (if you’d like) showing that she has known you personally as well as academically, and for a long period of time. It is also best to give the prof a copy of your personal statement, even if it is a very rough draft, so that she has some idea of the image you want to project of yourself.
Thanks for the help guys!! Just a follow up question though, madkasia, you mentioned that it’s better to provide a stamped, addressed envelop with the letter?
However like Kriss17 mentioned, I have a premedical advisor who collects all letters of recommendation, and the way he said it works is that I sign and leave the LOR papers with the prof who then turns it into the advisor. Unfortuantely I don’t know the advisor’s mailing address to put on an envelope, is it simply better to have the prof mail the letter to myself and I turn it in to my pre-med advisor?? Or should I obtain the pre-med advisor’s address so the prof can send it directly in a stamped envelope I provide??
Also, you mentioned to also provide the prof a copy of my resume/CV and personal statement. I have a professional resume which details my current and past Engineering work (I work full time Electrical/Computer Engineering,) would it be ok to provide this along with a personal statement letter and description of my motivation into going into medicine? It just seems awkward to provide a resume regarding my Engineering work experience to her since it may not relate to her.
Would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!!
Have the letters sent directly to whomever is collecting them. As to the form voiding your right to review the letter, this is something you will see now and again when you apply for residency programs.
The thought is that the letters are apt to be more genuine and accurate than if you are going to read them. They feel that if your writer knows you will see them, he might not include things that he would if you did not see them.
- skysurf Said:
However like Kriss17 mentioned, I have a premedical advisor who collects all letters of recommendation, and the way he said it works is that I sign and leave the LOR papers with the prof who then turns it into the advisor. Unfortuantely I don't know the advisor's mailing address to put on an envelope, is it simply better to have the prof mail the letter to myself and I turn it in to my pre-med advisor?? Or should I obtain the pre-med advisor's address so the prof can send it directly in a stamped envelope I provide??
Also, you mentioned to also provide the prof a copy of my resume/CV and personal statement. I have a professional resume which details my current and past Engineering work (I work full time Electrical/Computer Engineering,) would it be ok to provide this along with a personal statement letter and description of my motivation into going into medicine? It just seems awkward to provide a resume regarding my Engineering work experience to her since it may not relate to her.
Would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!!
Hi skysurf,
I would just contact your advisor and get his address. Chances are this professor may have already done a LOR for another student and may be able to give you some ideas as well.
As Krisss said, ask your advisor for the mailing address and provide it to the person that will be writing your letter.
I also provided my advisor with the names of all the people that were writing the letters for me, and I followed up on it periodically. It was easier to e-mail my advisor and ask if all the letters were in, than e-mailing/ contacting each person separately.
Now answering Skysurf question about resume.
My resume was not really ‘medical’ either. Its main purpose is to give your writer some extra information about you, so that they can ‘personalize’ your letter. If you feel that it’s really not relevant, just provide them with you personal statement. Another way to go about it, is just asking them if they want your resume/ statement or if there is any way you can help them, or if they need any extra information.
I really don’t have too much experience with asking people for letters of recommendation. I’ve only done it once. If anybody has some other suggestion, please pitch in.
Kasia
Thanks for the reply guys!!
Also, I had one more question: Is it a good idea to/Can I ask my Chemistry Lab TA for a recommendation letter as well, or normally should you only ask your lecture profs for recommendation letters??
The reason why I am asking is that I worked directly with my Chem Lab TA during the experiments and asked a lot of questions, and she helped me quite a bit. She is just finishing her PhD next week.
So is it a good idea to ask her for a strong recommendation letter as well, or should I only ask my profs for the recommendations?
Would appreciate your feedback. Thanks!!
When it comes to requesting recommendation letters, the key is to select the right professors and to make the burden as light as possible for them. As others have mentioned, makes sure this is a professor from whom you received A grades and with whom you had some sort of relationship. The more positive classes you take with the professor, the better. Do be sure to ask them if they would be willing to write you a strong recommendation letter. I would never ask a survey-course summer school prof. for a recommendation after only that brief encounter. Note also that adjunct and visiting professors are not usually paid to do recommendations, and they may not return to your school after even a single semester! It also helps if you have some kind of personal work experience with the professor, though I don’t think that is strictly necessary (e.g., TA-ing, lab assisting, independent research, etc.).
As for the burden, I think others have mentioned some good ideas: Briefly outline your goal, what is needed in the rec. letter, and supply your prof. with a summary resume/cv as well as any other relevant info (but don’t give them old term papers, etc unless they ask). Definitely note a clear deadline for the rec. and make sure the prof. can finish by that time. Lastly, NEVER make the prof. do anything more than write the rec. and put it in an envelope. Provide any envelopes pre-addressed with postage. Also, it is better to send sealed letters to a pre-med advisor than to have the rec. sent to yourself but I’ve heard some MS applicants have to self-manage their applications. In that case, you’d have little choice, I suppose.
A (semi) personal example of how to really get a great recommendation: My partner is a psychology professor and he made a positive impression on a student (let’s say “Dmitry”) in Intro to Psych who subsequently signed up to take his other classes every year. After 4 years, Dmitry had taken every single class in the psych major with my partner, and had signed up for his independent research project during which they got to know each other well. By the time he graduated, Dmitry was able to ask my partner for a recommendation, providing him with all the needed info in one nicely organized package. My partner wrote Dmitry’s rec. so strongly that he was admitted straight away to 2 med schools, despite having some family troubles which resulted in a less than stellar GPA and middling MCATs. Dmitry is now completing his urology residency in Manhattan and is already receiving lots of job offers to do just what he loves every single day.
As to the last poster, I think it would be ok to ask your TA for a rec., especially if she is finishing her PhD very soon. However, her title is a bit of a problem and if the school requires title/experience information on recommendations, you won’t get a lot of points for getting one from a TA which is about as low as one can go on the academic totem pole. If you have professorial options, you may be better served by obtaining rec.s from them, IMHO.
Thanks for the reply.
I like your example of Dmitry, however I feel it’s virtually impossible for me to follow that example since I am also currently working full-time Engineering while taking these post-bacc courses. Also, Since I am only taking about 7 courses for only 1.5 years, the chances of me taking another class with the same professor are really null. And to add to that, both the profs I have had in my first two classes have been Visiting Professors, although they do teach at this university every semester.
Nevertheless, I guess my only option is to try and ask my current chem professor for a recommendation, and hope the six weeks of ‘relationship-building’ was enough to get a strong letter from her.
Does anyone know how important are recommendation letters if you do have an excellent Post-Bacc GPA >3.9 and a very good MCAT score?? It just feels like med schools should be judging me more on the work on my courses and grades, then me trying to sell myself to profs…
We must be premed school twins or something. I will only have 5 post bacc classes and two will have been online. I will likely have the same instructor for ochem 1 & 2, so I will have 2 instructors to get letters from and one will be a summer-session adjunct. great.
The school I plan to apply to said they would rather see a meaningful letter from someone who has known you a long time than a trite letter from a professor who doesn’t know you, so they are fine with letters from pastors, bosses, etc. Unfortunately for me, I will not be sharing my big plans with my work (also in engineering) until after I get accepted, so no letters there. The school recommends 7 letters even though they only require 3. What a headache. . .
Basically, they told me they really want to get “a sense of who you are.” I don’t think the high GPA and MCAT would help us there, but I am also attending every pre-med function they have, and will try to write a very personal Personal Statement so they feel like they know me.
Skysurf,
Depending on the type of engineering work you do and how much mentoring you get, you might find that your engineering co-workers with advanced degrees and engineering managers with advanced degrees are another great source of science recommendation letters. As explained to me from a med school admissions committee member, an applicant who was an engineer supplemented his generic science professor recommendations with a couple of recommendations from his boss and co-workers. They all lauded him on how hard he worked, how he put in all those long hours into projects, et cetera. But what really tipped the scales for him were the engineers’ statements that he picked-up new technology very quickly and had great potential for graduate school in comparison to other graduate students they had taught when they were in graduate school. And, yes, he was offered an acceptance after the first round of discussions.
Skysurf!
Recommendation letters are important!!!
They are very important! There are going to be many qualified applicants with 4.0 and 35+ MCAT. They have to somehow decide between them. And this is when the letters and PS come to play!
You might have awesome grades and MCAT and poor letters and not get an interview. You might have average academic performance and awesome recommendation, and get in!
Also, I had my hospice volunteer coordinator write me a letter. He’d never written a letter like that before, so I had to explain to him what the purpose of the letter is and what it should contain, and I even provided him with a sample letter. I don’t know what he wrote, b/c I voided my rights to see the letter, but I remember that my pre-med advisor who got this letter commented on how good it was. So it’s OK if you want to supplement your portfolio with other letters on top of these written by you professors.
AliJ, you are right that we must be premed twins!!! I am also in a situtation where unable to tell my co-works in Engineering at work about my medical school plans, figures… :D.
Thanks for the help guys, I will plan on trying to get as much and as well recommendations from my profs as I can, and also try to get a few personal recs and just hope that with good grades, good MCAT score, and actual honesty in my personal statement works out well.
Thanks again!!
Best of luck, skysurf (and everyone else as well)!