Applying to Medical School

Letters of recommendation can have a significant impact if they describe you in realistic, qualitative terms (and when they rank you with respect to others applying from your class). When the letter writers discuss not your quantitative achievements (midterm and final or course grades), but you as a person (in terms of your innate potential, motivation, personality, reliability), the communication will be effective. If your recommendation profile makes you stand out as a potential quality medical student and physician, your admission chances will be significantly enhanced and the possibility of your being invited for an interview will be strengthened. If, on the other hand, your letters of recommendation are bland or noncommittal, your chances of getting an interview will not be helped.

It is your responsibility to see that recommendations in your behalf are sent to the medical schools. You can strengthen the quality of your recommendations by making sure that your health professions advisor gets to know you and has a favorable impression of you. In addition, you will be called upon to submit faculty evaluations to the health professions committee or to send out separate letters of recommendation. It is clearly advantageous to ensure that these individuals really know you. This can best be achieved by asking appropriate questions during recitation periods, at personal conferences, or better still, in the course of doing a research or independent study project. All this requires appropriate initiative on your part, which can pay rewarding dividends at the time you apply to medical school.

Letters from prestigious professors, as reflected by their academic rank, are obviously more impressive and effective than those from teaching assistants or faculty instructors. It is not advisable to ask for a recommendation unless you are fairly confident that the individual knows you well enough and is known to follow through on such requests. Otherwise you may end up with a perfunctory recommendation and such a letter may even be late in coming. Therefore, you should tactfully ask the people from whom you are requesting letters if they feel that they are in a position to write about you in a manner that will help your admission chances.

It is also appropriate to arrange to have letters of recommendation sent in your behalf (to your school committee or directly to the medical schools) by a hospital staff member where you have worked (in a volunteer or paid capacity), or other employers, or by faculty members who have known you well as the result of working for them on a special project; these letters can supplement your committee's recommendation. Letters from clergy, family physicians, relatives, friends, or alumni (unless the latter know you exceedingly well) are not only ineffective but may be self-defeating. Such letters leave the clear impression that you have weak credentials that need such unsolicited outside support to merit attention.

In order to arrange that a committee recommendation be sent out in your behalf, your advisory office may require that you complete forms comparable to an AMCAS application and be interviewed by your premedical advisor and/or advisory committee. These proceedings can serve as a “trial run” in preparation for the actual application process. It is therefore advantageous for you to prepare, early in your upper junior semester, a short statement incorporating autobiographical highlights, an outline of your personal attributes, relevant information about your exposure to medicine, and a brief discussion of your motives for selecting a medical career. This statement should be given to professors from whom you have requested recommendations at the time you request them, in order to facilitate their task; it can also be used in completing forms requested by your committee and later by AMCAS.

Bottom Line

Premedical Advisor: Office Recommendations: Bear in mind the following, regarding recommendations:

• • Have your premedical office set up a file for holding your incoming letters of recommendation.
• • Aim to secure by the end of your junior year letters from at least three science and two social science faculty and, if possible, two from project supervisors.
• • Request letters from individuals as soon as the course has been completed so that their impression of you is fresh.
• • Periodically check with the premedical office to determine if the letters you requested have been received.
• • Provide stamped self-addressed envelopes to nonfaculty members who are writing on your behalf so as to expedite matters.
• • To allow letter writers the option of freely expressing themselves, you should sign a waiver relinquishing your right of review.
• • It is essential that you secure a letter of recommendation from your premedical advisor or committee. An evaluation from such a source carries special weight, and failure to receive one implies a strong caution signal about you.
• • Provide an opportunity for those who will write on your behalf to get to know you relative to your intellectual potential, personal attributes, and character.
• • Provide potential letter writers with a brief résumé of your background and achievements so they will have source material to use when preparing their letters.

Faculty recommendations. Faculty are more than teachers: they also serve as subject advisors. Getting them to know you is valuable both in the short and long run.

• • If you feel you are not keeping up with the class, seek advice early on from the course professor to determine where the problem(s) lies.
• • Prepare for your meeting with your professor so that you can present your problems in a clear and concise manner.
• • Make an appointment to see your professor in advance and arrive on time.
• • Try to be specific in describing a particular problem and indicate how you are attempting to resolve it.
• • Professors who get to know you and with whom you develop a positive relationship may be good sources to provide recommendations for you at a later date.
• • Remember, however, that in most cases, your premedical advisor should be your primary source of information and guidance.