April 30, 2024 • 10 mins
Unlock the secrets to securing your future in medicine with our latest episode, where Dr. Jasmine Weiss lends her expertise on how to obtain the strongest letters of recommendation for your medical school application. With Dr. Weiss's guidance, you'll grasp not only the 'whos' and 'hows' but also the critical 'whys' of picking the right endorsers. We dissect the significance of each recommendation, ensuring that you approach the right mix of professors, mentors, and professionals who can vouch for both your academic prowess and your character. Dr. Weiss also navigates us through the finer points of the logistics, from what materials to hand your recommenders to gracefully handling the delicate situation where you might need to draft your own letter. This is a masterclass in making sure your application letters resonate with authenticity and personal connection.
Step into our mentorship clinic as we share strategies to build and maintain relationships with the very people who will champion your medical school ambitions. Dr. Weiss reveals the art of regular, meaningful communication with mentors, stressing the impact of keeping them informed with quarterly updates on your academic and personal growth. These relationships are not just fleeting contacts but long-term investments in your future—the difference between a generic endorsement and a compelling, detailed testimony to your potential. Be sure to tune in, join the conversation, and take away invaluable tips that will help you secure the golden tickets to your dream med school. Remember, it's not just about obtaining a letter; it's about crafting a narrative of excellence that admissions committees can't ignore.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you're preparing for your medical school
application and you're making achecklist and you realize you
need letters of recommendation.
And then you freeze because youhaven't talked to any faculty
about writing you a letter ofrecommendation.
So on today's episode, I'mgoing to give you some key
strategies to help make sure youget those letters of
(00:20):
recommendation for your medicalschool application.
First, I need you to follow uson YouTube at BlackMedConnect,
and let's jump right into theepisode.
Hello everyone, welcome back tothe Black Med Connect podcast.
(00:54):
I'm your host, dr Jasmine Weiss, and today we're going to talk
all about how to make sure youget those letters of
recommendation that you need foryour medical school application
.
So a few questions that I wantto first get out the way are how
many letters of recommendationdo you need Generally for the
medical school applicationprocess?
You'll need anywhere from fourto five letters of
recommendation.
(01:15):
You're gonna need two fromscience professors that you've
taken classes with, and you'lllikely need one from a professor
who's not a science professor.
Some schools don't require youto have a non-science letter of
recommendation, so that's one tojust keep, just in case you
need it.
And you can always go to theschool websites that you're
(01:37):
applying to, to see if that's arequirement for that specific
school.
The other letter ofrecommendation that you'll need
comes from someone who you mayhave had a research experience
with a faculty member or you'vedone an internship with.
It may even come from theperson you've shadowed with if
you've done any type of clinicalexperiences.
So that is your additionalletter of recommendation, and
(01:59):
sometimes you may actually needtwo of those.
So, again, you'll need anywherefrom three to four
recommendation letters, or threeto five recommendation letters,
depending on the schools you'llbe applying to.
So how do you go about actuallygetting these letters of
recommendation?
The first strategy I want youto use is to think about which
faculty members you've actuallyspent time with or actually
(02:23):
engaged with or interacted with.
Don't make the mistake of beinglike some students I know who
have only met with you one timeand you don't really know them
very well.
But boom, out pops an emailthat says hi, dr Weiss, can I
get a letter of recommendationfrom you?
If I can't be sure that you'regonna get a strong letter of
recommendation from you, Ipersonally probably wouldn't
(02:43):
write it for you.
So that leads me right into mynext tip.
Once you think about whichfaculty members you've engaged
with before and interacted with,you now need to ask them for
the letter of recommendation.
There's a few things you can do.
You can first just email themand ask them if they can meet
with you to discuss your plansof applying to medical school
(03:06):
and then, during the meeting,you can actually ask them if
they would be willing to writeyou a strong letter of
recommendation.
I can't emphasize enough theimportance of you asking for a
strong letter.
Don't just ask for a letterbecause you want to see how they
react to you.
If they say, oh yes, absolutelyI'll write you that letter, I'm
(03:27):
excited about it for you, Iknow you're going to do well,
then that's a letter that youactually can count on, being
written with lots of strongadjectives and really
highlighting you as a person.
If a person is like, well, I'mnot sure, I'm not sure that I
can be the person that's goingto write it for you,
automatically just say thank you, I appreciate it, but you
(03:49):
should know in the back of yourmind that you're not necessarily
going to use that particularletter of recommendation.
Again, you want to make surethat you stand out, so you want
people who are not just going towrite for you, but who are
going to be excited to shareabout who you are.
When medical schools are lookingat these letters, they are
(04:09):
evaluating the fact that theseare other people sharing their
experiences with you.
So they do hold a lot of weight.
Or there is some emphasis onthe letter of recommendation and
people take those words intoreally deep consideration
because they know these areindividuals who've gotten to
know you on a deeper level andthose people can really speak to
who you are and what you'retrying to accomplish level and
(04:30):
those people can really speak towho you are and what you're
trying to accomplish.
So make sure tip number twothat you ask for a strong letter
of recommendation from theindividuals that you are asking
for recommendations from.
The third tip I have for you isto make sure you ask them how
do they want to handle thelogistics around writing your
letter.
(04:51):
There are a few different waysthat faculty members and
individuals who are in charge ofresearch programs will approach
writing letters.
For some they'll say well, justgive me a copy of your CV and a
draft of your personalstatement and I'll draft a
letter for you.
Others will actually ask you towrite the letter of
recommendation and I've had thishappen to me before where
(05:14):
you're like how am I supposed towrite myself a letter of
recommendation?
It's not the easiest thing todo, but what I want you to do
when you go about writing thisletter on behalf of someone else
, I want you to think about theframework of letting that person
introduce themselves, sowriting a sentence about who
they are and the fact that theyare writing a letter on behalf
(05:36):
of your name right, insert yourname.
They're writing the letter onbehalf of you and they are
recommending you as a strongapplicant to medical school.
You can use language that'sreally positive and strong
adjectives as you are describingyourself, because you're really
highlighting to them, when theygo back to read the letter,
that this is the type of wordingthat you would hope to have in
(05:57):
the letter of recommendation.
So when you're writing it onbehalf of yourself, you can also
highlight three or four keyexperiences that you've had, how
you know the faculty member,and remember you're writing this
as if you are them.
Right, you're writing it as ifyou're the faculty member, so
you wanna make sure you includehow they know you, what some of
(06:17):
the strengths they may have seencoming from you and why they
think you'll be a greatcandidate for medical school.
Ultimately, this is just adraft and you'll be able to send
it back to the faculty member,and it does give them a nice
base so that they can go backand add on top of what you've
written.
So don't feel like this issomething that's totally out of
(06:38):
the ordinary.
This does happen whereindividuals ask you to write the
first draft of the letter ofrecommendation.
The next tip I have for you isto come up with the follow-up
plan to make sure you get yourletter of recommendation on time
.
Make sure you ask the facultymember or the person who is your
mentor how many weeks do youthink you need before you want
(07:01):
me to send you a brief reminderand you can say I don't want to
pester you, I just want to makesure you.
I know you're busy and you havea lot going, so I want to make
sure I help you to get theletter in on time.
I've had instances whereindividuals have not provided me
with the letter ofrecommendation I've asked for,
and so I want you to make sureyou really go back and ask the
(07:21):
questions about what's.
When do you want reminders orwhen should I expect the letter
back from you?
And you can even go as far tosay if they're submitting it on
their own.
You can let them know you'dlike the letter to be submitted
by a specific date and giveyourself an additional five days
, or tell them you know this isthe date for submission, even
(07:42):
though you know that you have afew more days before you
actually wanna submit yourapplication.
That way you have some buffertime.
I'll be honest I, as thefaculty member, as the mentor,
have been the person who hassubmitted it early for a student
and have also been the personwho submitted it the day of.
So it's not because we don'twant to submit a letter for you.
(08:03):
It may just be because we'vegotten really busy.
So I know I personallyappreciate those reminders and
it's really important to makesure you ask those individuals
if they want the reminders aswell.
So I've shared a few key tipswith you.
Number one make sure you chooseyour letter writers wisely.
Who have you built rapport with?
Are you making sure you get twoletter recommendations from
(08:26):
science faculty members and onefrom a non-science faculty
member?
Are you making sure you get anextracurricular letter, maybe
from a research mentor orsomebody who supported you in an
extracurricular activity.
Are you making sure to ask themfor a strong letter?
Don't forget, use that word andthey'll know why you're using
the word a strong letter ofrecommendation.
(08:47):
Forget, use that word andthey'll know why you're using
the word A strong letter ofrecommendation.
And then, have you figured outexactly how you're going to go
about approaching writing theletter?
Are they going to write it foryou or do they expect you to
draft the first draft?
And lastly, what are thelogistics around making sure you
actually get the letter whenyou need it?
Remember, faculty members areused to writing these letters,
so you're not bothering them,especially if you were a great
(09:11):
student or a great researchmentee.
They want to support you on thejourney, so be sure to go them
with emails as you go andthey'll know when you go back to
(09:31):
ask them for the letter.
They'll be able to say youstayed connected with them.
So that's a little bonus tip.
Make sure you identify letterwriters, even years in advance
if you need to, and stayconnected quarterly or every few
months, just so they can remainup to date.
So when it's time for them towrite the letter, they're ready
to do so.
I hope these tips were helpfulas you go about asking people
(09:51):
for letters of recommendation.
I know it feels a little bituncomfortable, but remember
mentors are looking to do it,and so always remember you can't
get there without the help ofothers, and so these letters are
just one of the tickets youneed to get into med school.
Don't forget to like, commentand subscribe, and I want you to
comment what strategies you'veused to get letters of
(10:14):
recommendation in the past.
Until next time, alwaysremember to dream without limits
.
So you're preparing for your medical school
application and you're making achecklist and you realize you
need letters of recommendation.
And then you freeze because youhaven't talked to any faculty
about writing you a letter ofrecommendation.
So on today's episode, I'mgoing to give you some key
strategies to help make sure youget those letters of
(00:20):
recommendation for your medicalschool application.
First, I need you to follow uson YouTube at BlackMedConnect,
and let's jump right into theepisode.
Hello everyone, welcome back tothe Black Med Connect podcast.
(00:54):
I'm your host, dr Jasmine Weiss, and today we're going to talk
all about how to make sure youget those letters of
recommendation that you need foryour medical school application
.
So a few questions that I wantto first get out the way are how
many letters of recommendationdo you need Generally for the
medical school applicationprocess?
You'll need anywhere from fourto five letters of
recommendation.
(01:15):
You're gonna need two fromscience professors that you've
taken classes with, and you'lllikely need one from a professor
who's not a science professor.
Some schools don't require youto have a non-science letter of
recommendation, so that's one tojust keep, just in case you
need it.
And you can always go to theschool websites that you're
(01:37):
applying to, to see if that's arequirement for that specific
school.
The other letter ofrecommendation that you'll need
comes from someone who you mayhave had a research experience
with a faculty member or you'vedone an internship with.
It may even come from theperson you've shadowed with if
you've done any type of clinicalexperiences.
So that is your additionalletter of recommendation, and
(01:59):
sometimes you may actually needtwo of those.
So, again, you'll need anywherefrom three to four
recommendation letters, or threeto five recommendation letters,
depending on the schools you'llbe applying to.
So how do you go about actuallygetting these letters of
recommendation?
The first strategy I want youto use is to think about which
faculty members you've actuallyspent time with or actually
(02:23):
engaged with or interacted with.
Don't make the mistake of beinglike some students I know who
have only met with you one timeand you don't really know them
very well.
But boom, out pops an emailthat says hi, dr Weiss, can I
get a letter of recommendationfrom you?
If I can't be sure that you'regonna get a strong letter of
recommendation from you, Ipersonally probably wouldn't
(02:43):
write it for you.
So that leads me right into mynext tip.
Once you think about whichfaculty members you've engaged
with before and interacted with,you now need to ask them for
the letter of recommendation.
There's a few things you can do.
You can first just email themand ask them if they can meet
with you to discuss your plansof applying to medical school
(03:06):
and then, during the meeting,you can actually ask them if
they would be willing to writeyou a strong letter of
recommendation.
I can't emphasize enough theimportance of you asking for a
strong letter.
Don't just ask for a letterbecause you want to see how they
react to you.
If they say, oh yes, absolutelyI'll write you that letter, I'm
(03:27):
excited about it for you, Iknow you're going to do well,
then that's a letter that youactually can count on, being
written with lots of strongadjectives and really
highlighting you as a person.
If a person is like, well, I'mnot sure, I'm not sure that I
can be the person that's goingto write it for you,
automatically just say thank you, I appreciate it, but you
(03:49):
should know in the back of yourmind that you're not necessarily
going to use that particularletter of recommendation.
Again, you want to make surethat you stand out, so you want
people who are not just going towrite for you, but who are
going to be excited to shareabout who you are.
When medical schools are lookingat these letters, they are
(04:09):
evaluating the fact that theseare other people sharing their
experiences with you.
So they do hold a lot of weight.
Or there is some emphasis onthe letter of recommendation and
people take those words intoreally deep consideration
because they know these areindividuals who've gotten to
know you on a deeper level andthose people can really speak to
who you are and what you'retrying to accomplish level and
(04:30):
those people can really speak towho you are and what you're
trying to accomplish.
So make sure tip number twothat you ask for a strong letter
of recommendation from theindividuals that you are asking
for recommendations from.
The third tip I have for you isto make sure you ask them how
do they want to handle thelogistics around writing your
letter.
(04:51):
There are a few different waysthat faculty members and
individuals who are in charge ofresearch programs will approach
writing letters.
For some they'll say well, justgive me a copy of your CV and a
draft of your personalstatement and I'll draft a
letter for you.
Others will actually ask you towrite the letter of
recommendation and I've had thishappen to me before where
(05:14):
you're like how am I supposed towrite myself a letter of
recommendation?
It's not the easiest thing todo, but what I want you to do
when you go about writing thisletter on behalf of someone else
, I want you to think about theframework of letting that person
introduce themselves, sowriting a sentence about who
they are and the fact that theyare writing a letter on behalf
(05:36):
of your name right, insert yourname.
They're writing the letter onbehalf of you and they are
recommending you as a strongapplicant to medical school.
You can use language that'sreally positive and strong
adjectives as you are describingyourself, because you're really
highlighting to them, when theygo back to read the letter,
that this is the type of wordingthat you would hope to have in
(05:57):
the letter of recommendation.
So when you're writing it onbehalf of yourself, you can also
highlight three or four keyexperiences that you've had, how
you know the faculty member,and remember you're writing this
as if you are them.
Right, you're writing it as ifyou're the faculty member, so
you wanna make sure you includehow they know you, what some of
(06:17):
the strengths they may have seencoming from you and why they
think you'll be a greatcandidate for medical school.
Ultimately, this is just adraft and you'll be able to send
it back to the faculty member,and it does give them a nice
base so that they can go backand add on top of what you've
written.
So don't feel like this issomething that's totally out of
(06:38):
the ordinary.
This does happen whereindividuals ask you to write the
first draft of the letter ofrecommendation.
The next tip I have for you isto come up with the follow-up
plan to make sure you get yourletter of recommendation on time
.
Make sure you ask the facultymember or the person who is your
mentor how many weeks do youthink you need before you want
(07:01):
me to send you a brief reminderand you can say I don't want to
pester you, I just want to makesure you.
I know you're busy and you havea lot going, so I want to make
sure I help you to get theletter in on time.
I've had instances whereindividuals have not provided me
with the letter ofrecommendation I've asked for,
and so I want you to make sureyou really go back and ask the
(07:21):
questions about what's.
When do you want reminders orwhen should I expect the letter
back from you?
And you can even go as far tosay if they're submitting it on
their own.
You can let them know you'dlike the letter to be submitted
by a specific date and giveyourself an additional five days
, or tell them you know this isthe date for submission, even
(07:42):
though you know that you have afew more days before you
actually wanna submit yourapplication.
That way you have some buffertime.
I'll be honest I, as thefaculty member, as the mentor,
have been the person who hassubmitted it early for a student
and have also been the personwho submitted it the day of.
So it's not because we don'twant to submit a letter for you.
(08:03):
It may just be because we'vegotten really busy.
So I know I personallyappreciate those reminders and
it's really important to makesure you ask those individuals
if they want the reminders aswell.
So I've shared a few key tipswith you.
Number one make sure you chooseyour letter writers wisely.
Who have you built rapport with?
Are you making sure you get twoletter recommendations from
(08:26):
science faculty members and onefrom a non-science faculty
member?
Are you making sure you get anextracurricular letter, maybe
from a research mentor orsomebody who supported you in an
extracurricular activity.
Are you making sure to ask themfor a strong letter?
Don't forget, use that word andthey'll know why you're using
the word a strong letter ofrecommendation.
(08:47):
Forget, use that word andthey'll know why you're using
the word A strong letter ofrecommendation.
And then, have you figured outexactly how you're going to go
about approaching writing theletter?
Are they going to write it foryou or do they expect you to
draft the first draft?
And lastly, what are thelogistics around making sure you
actually get the letter whenyou need it?
Remember, faculty members areused to writing these letters,
so you're not bothering them,especially if you were a great
(09:11):
student or a great researchmentee.
They want to support you on thejourney, so be sure to go them
with emails as you go andthey'll know when you go back to
(09:31):
ask them for the letter.
They'll be able to say youstayed connected with them.
So that's a little bonus tip.
Make sure you identify letterwriters, even years in advance
if you need to, and stayconnected quarterly or every few
months, just so they can remainup to date.
So when it's time for them towrite the letter, they're ready
to do so.
I hope these tips were helpfulas you go about asking people
(09:51):
for letters of recommendation.
I know it feels a little bituncomfortable, but remember
mentors are looking to do it,and so always remember you can't
get there without the help ofothers, and so these letters are
just one of the tickets youneed to get into med school.
Don't forget to like, commentand subscribe, and I want you to
comment what strategies you'veused to get letters of
(10:14):
recommendation in the past.
Until next time, alwaysremember to dream without limits
.
Popular Podcasts
United States of Kennedy
United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com