It is common for health professional programs to ask you for letters of recommendation. Below are some general guidelines on how to organize and request recommendation letters.

Guidelines for Requesting

General Rationale For Letter: The letter of recommendation is an important part of an overall package (including things such as GPA, MCAT scores, etc.) that is used to judge a student’s potential success in a particular health professions school. It should contain substantive comments about the student’s class performance as well as point out the personal attributes that would enhance their ability to succeed. As such, it should be requested from professors or other individuals who know the student well, and who can write a strong, specific, and positive letter. As a general rule, it is recommended that you seek one letter from a biology professor, one letter from a chemistry professor, one letter from a professor of a humanities or social science class, and one letter from someone who has supervised your volunteer, research, or work experience.

Timeline: Be sure to make the request in plenty of time to allow busy professors and others adequate time to prepare a good recommendation. Make the request three to four weeks ahead of the due date. Letters of recommendation are usually gathered and organized in your last year of college.

Basic Request: State exactly what the recommendation is for –admission to what school, program, semester, etc.; scholarship or award—which particular one, and its criteria (is it academic, financial need, career based, etc.?).

Information Requested: If there are guidelines for the recommendation, include them in the request. For example, sometimes it is requested that leadership qualities be addressed, or special skills, or suitability for specific tasks, etc.

Name, Student ID Number, Address, Phone Number, Email Address. Include these in your request in case the person providing the recommendation needs to contact you for information.

Relationship to Person Writing the Recommendation: State how you knew the person from whom you request the recommendation—instructor in a course? Club advisor? Mentor? for how long.  Give the course title, semester and year, or club name and purpose, years involved, offices held, projects accomplished, etc. It is a good idea to give a short biographical essay to the person writing the letter of recommendation.

Give the deadline for the receipt of the recommendation: Be precise—it must be postmarked by   or received by            , etc. Sometimes it is important to indicate the penalty for missing the deadline—e.g., “scholarship will be lost if not received by 12 noon on __ date”.

Give all special instructions for forwarding the recom- mendation: For example— mail to you to enclose in your application, upload it to a link provided, put in a sealed, signed envelope, then give to you, mail to the school, etc. You must give this to the person writing the recommendation, with specific instructions for its use.

Courtesy: Generally, it’s not useful to enclose envelopes, since these recommendations are usually done on professional stationery. It’s a good idea to send a thank you note just before the deadline, as a gentle reminder to a busy professor, or to make a similar courtesy email.

Follow Up: It is always your responsibility to contact the school or place of business, etc., to ensure that your recommendation has been received.

Records: Often, as in applying to health professions schools, you will have multiple requests and applications, etc. Make a special file for each school, with copies of everything sent, and with checklists for requests, deadlines, letters received, etc. Organization of these materials is critical.