You should next seek one or more outside
reviewers to read and frankly criticize
your essay. This may come from an able senior
premed student, an English professor at
your school, a young physician, or your
premedical advisor. Since the essay is yours,
you have the final decision of how much to
revise your draft essay. You should realize
that the more people you ask, the more pressure
for revision there will be. Thus, a rea-
sonable cutoff point is desirable; that is, when
you are satisfied that your essay presents
an honest image of you in the best possible
light. When you reach that point, have your
essay typed neatly and accurately and make sure
it stays within the allotted one page.
There is no "ideal" essay; the samples of
conventional and unconventional essays
shown on pages 104 and 106 are designed only to
give you an insight into what other
premeds have written. If your essay "sells" you
as a potential attractive candidate, you
have done your job. Appendix C contains sample
essays that will be very helpful.
RECOMMENDATIONS
______________________________________________
Letters of recommendation can have a
significant impact if they describe you in realis-
tic, 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, motiva-
tion, personality, reliability), the
communication will be effective. If your recommenda-
tion 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 rec-
ommendation 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 impres-
sion 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 confer-
ences, 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 obvi-
ously 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 confi-
dent 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 let-
ter 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.
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