Blog

By: Rob Humbracht

Let’s say you want to try a new restaurant. You’ve got the night off and you’re ready to enjoy yourself. You ask your friend for a recommendation. He spits out of the name of a nearby restaurant, but when you ask about the food, his response is, “I don’t know, I’ve never tried it.”

Would you eat at this restaurant? Maybe, maybe not. It’s difficult to recommend something you know nothing about, and the same goes for medical school. Your letters of recommendation should showcase your best side, and if your letter writer doesn’t know you well enough, they can’t say anything convincing about you.

A generic letter, that reads more like mad libs, is simply not going to cut it.

So what should you be aiming for with your letters of recommendation? Every year I find myself repeating the same lesson to my pre-meds: get the best set of letters you can.

To make this quick, literally, I fit my 20 best letter of recommendation tips into 90 seconds. I’m a little out of breath, but, that’s okay! You don’t have time to waste. Watch it now:

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I’m taking your letter of recommendation questions too. Post your question for a personal response and we’ll add it to our list of Every Question You Have About Letters of Recommendation for Medical School.