10. What about letters of recommendation?

The Pre-Health Professions Advising Office offers a service to help you compile and send your letters of recommendation. You may open a file in January of the year in which you intend to apply. Your letters will be collected in this file. As you receive your secondary applications, you notify us that you are ready to have recommendation letters sent out and to which schools. If you do not apply that year or are not accepted and plan to reapply another year, you must open a new file each time you will be completing an application. Generally, letters written on your behalf should be sent or brought in by the letter writers to our office between January 1 and June 30 of the year in which you apply.

When do I need to start thinking about recommendations?

NOW. A letter of recommendation is written based on the relationship and experience you have shared with the letter writer. A helpful letter will include examples of why you are recommended for a career in your chosen health profession; it will be based on what the writer knows about you, how you compare to other students/workers and explain why you will be an asset to that profession.

The more specific your writers can be about these items, the more meaningful your letters will be. So, you need to start thinking about what kinds of people you have or need to establish relationships with and what experiences you have already started or need to seek out to find these people.

You want your letters to illustrate the personality characteristics that the admissions committee is looking for in a successful candidate. Can your letter writer address your high level of motivation? Your reliability and level of responsibility (dutifulness)? Your willingness to take that extra step to help a patient (altruism)?

How many letters of recommendation should I have?

We recommend that you try to have 5-6 letters; two should be from science instructors, one from a non-science instructor and one to three from health care professionals/professors/supervisors in clinical and/or in research experience settings.