Do Letter Writers Know to Upload on Letterhead
Past: Rob Humbracht
The topic on which I become the most questions every application cycle is letters of recommendation. The following FAQ represents every question I've received over the past few years.
Have a question that we haven't answered here? Please submit a comment, Facebook post , or Twitter message and we will:
- reply to you personally, and
- add the question to this article so that information technology becomes the most comprehensive FAQ it can be.
Enjoy!
LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION FAQ
- Introduction
- How many letters are required by med schools?
- What'due south a commission letter?
- Should I get a committee letter?
- How many med schools crave two letters? Three? Four? Five?
- Which two schools crave v letters?
- What'southward the maximum number of letters I tin can send?
- What's the ideal set of messages?
- Why professors who gave you lot a form?
- What qualifies every bit a science professor?
- What qualifies as not-science?
- Other than professors, who else can write me a letter of rec?
- What messages are bad to get?
- Do I have to have a letter from my major?
- What makes one letter improve than another?
- Practise I become to encounter my letters of recommendation?
- When are letters of recommendation due?
- When should I ask for letters?
- Can I submit additional letters once I have applied?
- How do I overcome my feet well-nigh asking for a letter of rec?
- How should I ask for a letter of the alphabet?
- What are some tips for requesting letters of recommendation?
- What if my alphabetic character writer asks me communication for what to say and how to say it?
- Where exercise I find sample letters of recommendation?
- How should I get to know my professors?
- Do my letters take to be signed and put on official letterhead?
- What if one of my letter writers disappears?
INTRODUCTION
The dominion of pollex for messages of recommendation: Go the All-time Set of Letters You Can.
It will exist tempting to get lost in the nuances and details of how many messages to get, which people to choose, and what each med school's requirements are. When in doubt, refer back to our rule of thumb, and remember that your chances will be helped the most by getting messages from people who back up you wholeheartedly, who know you personally, and who can write the all-time letters on your behalf.
HOW MANY LETTERS ARE REQUIRED BY MED SCHOOLS?
It depends on the school. US medical schools typically require ii or three messages of recommendation, but some crave equally many as 5.
Typically, y'all'll need the following messages of recommendation:
- Option 1 - A committee letter, or
- Option 2 - Three individual letters, two messages from science faculty and ane boosted letter
WHAT'S A Commission Letter?
A commission letter, or composite alphabetic character, is written by the pre-med advising office of your college or university. Non every college offers such a letter, and a quick glance at your career services website should respond whether your school does.
SHOULD I GET A Committee Letter of the alphabet?
If you lot have the option, and so yes, you probably should. Recollect of the committee alphabetic character as Yelp. Certain, you might attempt a eating house that has no reviews, but you'd probably exist more interested in eating at a restaurant with four.v stars.
So that analogy isn't perfect, but I think you get the point: it'south meliorate to get a committee letter of the alphabet if yous can. If you don't, med schools might wonder whether there'south something you lot're trying to hide or whether you were told by the committee that they didn't retrieve you lot were a strong candidate.
There are dozens of exceptions to this dominion:
- Some colleges don't offering committee letters to non-science majors
- Some colleges don't offering committee messages to alums
- Some colleges have several boosted hoops yous have to leap through that may make you ineligible to get a commission letter
The takeaway: Become a commission letter if you can, but information technology won't ruin your chances if you lot tin can't.
HOW MANY MED SCHOOLS REQUIRE Ii LETTERS? THREE? 4? V?
Nosotros researched how many letters were required at each medical school and then put the results into a histogram. The chart beneath shows how many schools require at least 0, i, ii... letters of recommendation.
WHICH Ii SCHOOLS Require V Letters?
University of Fundamental Florida and University of S Florida.
Here's what those five look like for UCF:
https://med.ucf.edu/administrative-offices/student-diplomacy/admissions/admissions-procedure/letters-of-recommendation/
For traditional applicants (applicants who take no more than one twelvemonth off before starting medical school), UCF requests:
- "three private faculty letters - two letters from basic science faculty, and one from a non-science faculty member, or i Pre-Med/Pre-Professional Composite Committee Letter
- two grapheme letters - these messages should be from those who tin can tell united states of america about "who" you are. Authors may be those who have been your supervisor, friend, neighbor, someone y'all have volunteered with or shadowed, someone from an organization or society that you belong to, clergy, etc. 1 of these 2 letters may be from an academic peer."
To encompass your bases, programme to ask for at least three and probably at least four letters of recommendation.
WHAT'S THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF LETTERS I CAN SEND?
Generally, it's not advisable to send more than v. The goal is to have the overall quality of your messages be as high as possible.
Imagine that you were giving a alphabetic character class for the quality of each letter of recommendation yous are sending to medical schools. The grade is based on how well the letter writer knows you, with an A beingness "close personal friend," and F beingness "doesn't know my proper name."
Yous might accept letter grades that look like the following:
Science Alphabetic character 1 A-
Science Alphabetic character 2 B+
Non-Science professor A-
Other ane A
Other ii B
Other 3 B-
Other four C
You should pick the set of letters with the highest overall grade betoken average. In this case, your all-time bet is to option the first four letters of the set. Those 4 messages give an boilerplate of an A-. By including each boosted alphabetic character, y'all bring downward the average of the set and substantially waste the time of your awarding reader, who now has to wade through a much larger pile of crappy letters.
Simply of course, if you're curious what's the maximum that all medical schools volition take, we researched that too and came up with the following histogram:
Fifty-fifty though some medical schools will take up to 13 letters, well-nigh cutting you off after 6 or seven letters, and some will take merely 3!
WHAT'Due south THE Ideal Prepare OF LETTERS?
Let's outline the "utopian" ready of letters for medical school. I call it utopian, considering while it is ideal, most applicants don't actually reach the post-obit set of messages:
- Science Professor who gave you a grade
- Science Professor who gave you a course
- Non-scientific discipline Professor who gave yous a class
- Other i
- Other 2
WHY PROFESSORS WHO GAVE You A Class?
Messages of recommendation should annotate on your academic abilities, then professors who have given y'all a course are better able to do that.
WHAT QUALIFIES As A Scientific discipline PROFESSOR?
Virtually med schools prefer biological science, chemical science, or physics, simply they probably won't disqualify yous if y'all submit a letter from a discipline such as engineering science, environmental scientific discipline, or kinesiology. While it is ideal to have messages from the bones sciences, see the Rule of Pollex above: become the best set of letters you can.
WHAT QUALIFIES Every bit Not-Science?
Whatsoever discipline outside of biology, chemical science, or physics.
OTHER THAN PROFESSORS, WHO ELSE Tin can WRITE ME A LETTER OF REC?
The most common are:
- Doctors you shadowed
- Chief investigators (or whomever yous did research with)
- Kinesthesia advisors of clubs
- Another health care professional (a dentist, a nurse, etc.) who can comment on your abilities to work with patients
WHAT LETTERS ARE BAD TO GET?
Apparently, anyone who isn't positively glowing about your application will hurt yous. Ever hear the expression, "Damned by faint praise?" That applies to letters of recommendation for med schoolhouse.
Some messages won't be given a lot of weight:
- Letters from family members
- Messages from clergy
- Messages from "family unit friends" - if they don't know yous specifically in a professional setting
- Messages from instruction assistants - information technology's not that they hurt your application, but they volition not suffice for the scientific discipline letters required by virtually medical schools.
Practice I Accept TO HAVE A Alphabetic character FROM MY MAJOR?
No. Some med schools (a minority of all schools) request 1. In other words, get 1 if you lot tin can, but don't sweat information technology if y'all don't.
WHAT MAKES One Alphabetic character BETTER THAN Another?
Bank check out "How to Write Your Own Letter of Recommendation"
DO I GET TO SEE MY LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION?
No. You should waive your correct to read your letters. If med schools run across that you haven't waived your right, they won't believe a discussion written in the alphabetic character.
If your alphabetic character author knows you're going to read the letter, he or she simply will not put anything substantial in that letter. It's like asking your boyfriend whether that wearing apparel makes yous look fat; pretty much the just response you'll get will exist "of form not." (whether or not that's true, the gamble of saying otherwise is worse than the reward of being true).
WHEN ARE Letters OF RECOMMENDATION DUE?
Letters of recommendation are typically not due until you submit your secondary application, which at the primeval would be July of the twelvemonth you apply.
The vast majority of med schools do non read letters of recommendation until every other part of your application has been submitted. That means they volition not read your letters until they receive:
- Your main awarding
- Your secondary application
- Your payment for both principal and secondary
- Any pending MCAT scores that you lot may take
Even for schools that screen before sending secondaries, they rarely read letters of rec to determine who gets a secondary. Whether you get a secondary is typically based on your GPA and MCAT as well equally a read of the chief application, excluding letters of recommendation.
WHEN SHOULD I ASK FOR Letters?
You want to give the letter of the alphabet writer at least two weeks and preferably more. It's not uncommon for a letter author to take 2 to three months to write your letter. If y'all're applying in June, we recommend asking for messages no later than May 1.
If you have a pre-med committee, then you may need to asking letters much sooner.
Tin can I SUBMIT ADDITIONAL LETTERS ONCE I Take APPLIED?
Yes! Messages of recommendation is one of three sections of the AMCAS that can be modified after y'all hit submit (the others: your school list and your contact information). You lot just log back into your awarding and asking additional letters.
HOW DO I OVERCOME MY ANXIETY Virtually Asking FOR A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION?
I've written an entire mail on why it feels so bad-mannered to ask for a letter of the alphabet of rec:
http://www.savvypremed.com/savvy-pre-med/2014/7/27/why-does-information technology-feel-so-awkward-to-enquire-for-a-alphabetic character-of-recommendation
It doesn't seem like it should be and so intimidating to ask a professor for a letter of the alphabet of recommendation, just it is. Worries race through our minds:
"What if he doesn't recall me?"
"She has more of import things to do."
"What volition I exercise if he says no?"
While it tin feel uncomfortable to enquire for a alphabetic character of rec, call back that you're not the starting time person to ask this professor. Professors are used to this process, and they've seen all manner of requests - rude, abrasive, meek, inconversable - they're expecting y'all (and many of your classmates) to request a letter.
2d, yous're non request for much. Most letters of recommendation - even the good ones - follow a template, and letters take maybe 45 minutes to creepo out. You're asking for a solid favor, but it'south non that much of a time commitment.
HOW SHOULD I ASK FOR A Alphabetic character?
First off, be sure to ask for the letter of the alphabet in person if possible. If that'south not possible, try to adapt a telephone telephone call. Because yous don't get to read the letter, you desire to evaluate the enthusiasm of the letter author to help determine how good this letter volition be. The best clues are the not-verbal ones you tin get only by asking for a letter of the alphabet in person.
Steps:
- Send an email asking to encounter to hash out your application to medical school. Nothing too complicated, just inquire to drop by office hours or invite the professor to coffee. Don't inquire for the alphabetic character in the e-mail, considering you lot'd like to inquire in person (but if the professor responds by wondering whether you lot desire a letter, then by all means brand your intentions clear).
- At the coming together, enquire for a strong letter of recommendation. Asking for a strong alphabetic character does several things that are beneficial for y'all:
- It allows the professor to say no (and trust me, you'd rather her say no than get a bad letter)
- It allows the professor to respond to the word "strong," by either affirming that the letter will indeed be stiff or that she cannot write yous a strong letter. Either fashion, this provides more information as yous try to evaluate the strength of your letters.
- After the professor agrees, ask "What can I give you to help you write that letter?" Listen carefully to what the professor says. Follow upward with any the professor requests as soon as you lot can. Information technology'southward easy for the professor to lose rail that he agreed to write you a letter, so you want to follow up with the requested materials shortly to go along the momentum going on your letter of recommendation.
WHAT ARE SOME TIPS FOR REQUESTING Messages OF RECOMMENDATION?
These are excellent: http://world wide web.usnews.com/education/blogs/medical-school-admissions-md/2015/04/xiv/7-tips-for-nailing-medical-school-messages-of-recommendation
WHAT IF MY Letter WRITER ASKS ME ADVICE FOR WHAT TO SAY AND HOW TO SAY IT?
Send them this: http://www.aamc.org/download/349990/data/lettersguidelinesbrochure.pdf
WHERE Practice I Find SAMPLE LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION?
http://depts.washington.edu/gowwami/AWARE/documents2012/CarolTeitzLORsamples.pdf
HOW SHOULD I Go TO KNOW MY PROFESSORS?
A lot of the students we work with go to huge inquiry universities, where their smallest scientific discipline class has 50 people in it. In this surround it's on you, the pupil, to get to know your professors.
Here are some tips from former students nosotros've worked with virtually how to exist proactive in getting to know their professors:
- Get to office hours when no one else will exist there - week ane, right after mid-term exam
- Go to office hours with something outside of the grade to talk about professor'southward enquiry, ask about prof's family and background, how grade cloth applies to one of your other interests
- Accept the same professor for more than one form
- Practise research with a professor - either in the professor's lab or on contained project
- Become a teaching assistant for that professor
DO MY LETTERS HAVE TO BE SIGNED AND PUT ON OFFICIAL LETTERHEAD?
Some med schools require it. This past bicycle, Boston University notified one of our students that one of her letters was not on official letterhead, and then she had to contact the letter author to re-submit the alphabetic character. Information technology wasn't a huge deal, and no other schools she applied to notified her of the issue. You should tell your letter writers to put the letters on letterhead, only information technology probably won't matter much if they don't.
WHAT IF ONE OF MY Letter WRITERS DISAPPEARS?
It happens every year to several of our students: they ask for a letter of recommendation, the professor says "yes," and he stops returning phone calls and emails. The students are stuck without a critical letter (unremarkably, information technology's a science professor who disappears).
You lot tin can't aid whether this happens to you, but yous tin exercise the post-obit to help mitigate the damage:
- Ask for a backup alphabetic character in example one of your letters of recommendation does not come through. You can receive up to 10 letters of recommendation in AMCAS and pick and choose which ones you lot forrad to medical schools later. Information technology's much better to have too many letters than too few.
- Ask for letters of recommendation early.March is ideal. If a professor disappears subsequently asking for a letter early, you however take enough of time to observe another professor to ask.
SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS!
Will It BE LOOKED Down UPON TO NOT INCLUDE Letters WRITTEN BY Scientific discipline Kinesthesia?
Question:
I'grand a non-trad bidder who is applying 5 years out of college. Volition it exist looked down upon to non include letters written by science faculty? They would be replaced past MDs that I work with in the ER.
If you've been out of school for five years, your professors are unlikely to remember yous. Information technology seems pointless to ask for those letters, since not only would those letters be average at all-time, but you're a completely different person.Surely medical schools will cut you some slack, yep?
- Robert M.
Respond:
Not really. If you've been out of the classroom for five years, medical schools want you to go back to school and have classes (this is good advice for anyone who hasn't taken a science course in 3 years or more). It doesn't matter where yous take these classes as long equally they are in-person, and these courses are the perfect opportunity to inquire for an additional scientific discipline alphabetic character.
And remember, if you tin can't go back and go two letters of rec, see the words of wisdom at the top of this post: get the best gear up of letters yous can.
- Rob Humbracht - Medical School Admissions Advisor
ISN'T IT COMMON TO Ship THE SAME Letter OF REC TO MULTIPLE SCHOOLS USING INTERFOLIO?
Question:
Hello, under your link "How to Write Your Own Letter of the alphabet of Recommendation", y'all say to be specific regarding who information technology is. Isn't it common to have the same letter transport to 10+ schools using Interfolio? Even if it wasn't, wouldn't it be hard to ask your recommender to write a different letter of the alphabet for each school?
- plantat3q via Reddit
Answer:
Good grab! That particular applies to most graduate school application processes, but not to medical schoolhouse. Although it's technically possible to upload letters aimed at specific schools, a) information technology's rare, and b) schools definitely don't expect it. Every bit a event, it'due south not recommended. We've updated the original web log post to right it.
- Rob Humbracht - Medical School Admissions Advisor
ARE You INTERESTED IN VOLUNTEER WORK FROM HIGH SCHOOL?
Question:
Are you interested in volunteer work from high schoolhouse? I ask because I've been volunteering since I was thirteen and was curious whether or not that would fit in an awarding
- mathnerdm via Reddit
Answer:
The fashion I have ever looked at experiences from high schoolhouse is that they set the trend for the activities you've pursued more recently. In other words, if you've been volunteering since you lot're 13, it shows that y'all have consistently embodied the spirit of giving back that med schools are looking for.
- Rob Humbracht - Medical School Admissions Advisor
WHAT Type OF CLINICAL VOLUNTEERING STANDS OUT THE About TO Yous?
Question:
What type of clinical volunteering stands out the most to you lot? (ie. volunteering in an ER, shadowing GP, etc...)
- mathnerdm via Reddit
Answer:
As for the best clinical volunteering, I would fence that no one blazon is the best. You need to establish two things virtually your application: a) yous know what doctors actually practice (either by shadowing different doctors or by working with them in a medical context), and b) yous are able to connect with people from a different background. Many types of clinical volunteering can show these traits, so you lot're looking for experiences that requite you hands-on experience and memorable stories to tell!
- Rob Humbracht - Medical School Admissions Counselor
HOW DO YOU Run into UNCONVENTIONAL LETTERS OF REC?
Question:
I am a RN applying for med school this app wheel. How practise yous see unconventional letters of rec? I have a patient that is a PA/NP that I have had the pleasure of caring for for the terminal ii years and experience that she tin can really attest to my dedication to medicine and my character. All the same, I'm not too sure if I should make the gamble. Thank you!
- ayeeff via Reddit
Answer:
I'm non certain I see how it'due south a hazard. If you provide the letter, the schools tin simply disregard it. I think it sounds like the letter writer knows you well and tin provide context nearly the kind of intendance provider y'all would exist. The only caveat would exist in the rest of your application to make a critical distinction behind why you lot desire to undergo all of the stress and debt to get a physician instead of pursuing the path already available to you.
- Rob Humbracht - Medical School Admissions Advisor
Source: https://www.savvypremed.com/blog/every-question-you-have-about-letters-of-recommendation-for-medical-school-1