Letters of recommendation are an undeniably important part of any medical school application. These letters act as testimonials that support your readiness to begin a medical education, highlighting those attributes and accomplishments that make you particularly suited to a career as a physician.
Like it was when you applied to college, selecting who will write your recommendation letters and ensuring that they capture your whole person is crucial to your success as an applicant. As you gather supporting materials for the upcoming medical school application cycle, be sure to follow these steps.
Read: [Med School Recommendation Letters That Helped Applicants.]
Determine the features that you would like to see highlighted in your recommendation letters. When selecting writers for your letters of recommendation, it is important to be strategic.
While it may be tempting to reach out only to professors in whose classes you performed exceptionally well, doing so may lead to letters that only capture your academic strengths. Medical schools are interested in who you are as a person as well as whether or not a career in medicine suits you.
Before selecting your writers, ask yourself what you want programs to know about you. Reflect on your personal essay and any experiences you highlight in your application. What qualities are you emphasizing?
After identifying the attributes that are important to include in your application, select writers who you believe are most familiar with these strengths and will be able to best attest to them.
Read: [7 Tips for Nailing Medical School Letters of Recommendation.]
Provide your writers with reference materials. Laboratory supervisors, professors and work supervisors all see students and employees rotate in and out.
For this reason, your recommendation writers might need a reminder about the finer details of your interests and attributes, especially if several years have elapsed since your interactions with these individuals.
Be ready with a resume that emphasizes experiences that are most important to your medical school application and consider providing a short list of strengths that you believe you demonstrated in the environment in which you knew your letter writer.
In addition, providing a copy of your personal statement for medical school or a writing sample can help writers understand the direction you are taking in your application.
Balance the type of recommender you choose. It is likely that each of your letter writers knows you in a very specific capacity. Because of this specificity, be mindful of who you choose to write your letters.
Read: [4 People to Tap for Strong Medical School Recommendations.]
It might not be best to ask two of your science professors, for example, as they might have similar perspectives on how you perform and would produce somewhat redundant letters for admissions committees.
Balance the type of recommender you choose by considering which of your strengths that writer would be likely to highlight.
For example, you might ask one science professor, one humanities professor and a supervisor from a volunteer position to capture your academic interests and abilities as well as how you function in a team environment.
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How to Get the Best Medical School Recommendation Letters originally appeared on usnews.com
