How to Get a good Letter of Recommendation - Doing College and Beyond Newsletter

How to Get a Good Letter of Recommendation

Whether you are a student or an employed professional, chances are you will need someone to write a letter of recommendation for you to advance your career goals. A good letter of reference can make you stand out in a pool of candidates and be the finishing touch on a well-crafted application that lands you that dream job or gets you into that perfect graduate program. Here are some guidelines for how to get a strong letter of recommendation.

Letters of Evaluation (LOE) for Medical School

One of the most important and often least carefully considered components of the medical school application are letters of recommendation, called letters of evaluation (LOE). The AAMC provides guidelines for writing such a letter and these guidelines offer critical insight about whom to ask and when. Choose individuals who know you very well over a long period of time and can speak to your personal characteristics. Your grades and test scores are available on the application, so this info is unnecessary to include, unless the recommender needs to do so to provide important context.

General Guidelines for LOR:

Graduate School (MA, MS, PhD)
Graduate programs generally require two or three letters of recommendation. At least one should be from current or past professors or others in an academic role relevant to the program. The other letter or letters can be from employers, senior colleagues, or academics from other disciplines.

MBA
MBA programs require two or three letters of recommendation. They should come from people who have supervised you in the workplace and evaluated your performance. Business schools are more interested in knowing if you can succeed in the workplace than they are about your academic record in college.

Law School
Many law schools require two letters of recommendation but accept up to four. Law schools prefer letters of recommendation from academics. If you have been in the workforce for some time, consider submitting two academic letters and two professional letters.

Medical School
Medical programs require a minimum of four letters of recommendation but accept up to six. Two should be from science or engineering faculty members, one from a humanities or social sciences faculty member, and one to three from a job or internship supervisor, research PI, or mentor/coach.