letters of reference...what gives?

[Guest bcdentalgirl]

This question would apply to medschool as well as dental so I am putting out here. My question is, how are reference letters evaluated? What makes one applicant's references better than the next? In most cases, an applicant would have pretty good references since they are the ones that handpicked them. If Joe Blow has a reference from an MD going on about how fabulous he is, who cares. The guy could be a friend of the family. What if Jane Blow (no relation) also has a reference from the same MD? Are they compared? Or are they taken at face value?

Of course, the reason I ask is that I'm over-analyzing my own situation, but humor me.

[Guest peachy]

I can't answer your question, but I thought it was really interesting that at the omen grand rounds talk about medical admissions at mcmaster, they mentioned in passing that reference letters are not really useful in the admissions process:

cre.med.utoronto.ca/omen/...struct.htm

[Guest not rex morgan]

From personal experience, pick a referree who is willing to write alot about you. In other words, fill up the entire box. You may have someone who thinks highly of you, but unless they substantiate their glowing regards, these affirmations are not taken as highly as if they were expanded upon. So if you know a famous periodontal surgeon, who kind of knows you and generally thinks you are good, and someone who knows you well and will write tons, go with the latter.

[Guest therealcrackers]

WEstern looks to see if you have the letters and that's about it. Reference letters play a MUCH bigger role for grad school and for residency than they do at Western (as far as I can tell). The best letter you can get is probably from a doc who knows you quite well---they will be able to assess your qualities vis-a-vis med school. If they're a family friend, great. If they aren't, good on you for getting a great letter from them, but the admissions committees likely aren't going to appreciate the difference beyond the fact they aren't a family member. But the more they know you, the better. Some people in my undergraduate program hooked up with the most famous prof in the department hoping that would make their letter stand out. Except the student was a prick, the prof saw through it, and gave him a letter that pretty much sealed his fate...

[Guest Carolyn]

I think reference letters have more of an impact if they are bad -- i.e. a good one doesn't help a heck of alot but if they are bad, THEN they have a reason to pick someone else over you! With thousands of strong applicants, you just don't want one that will stand out the wrong way!

 

I usually ask my referee if they would feel comfortable writing a supportive letter of reference -- Then I feel I give them an out. I have heard of people getting answers like: "I think you should ask someone else" i.e. I don't think you want my true opinion of you! That would be a pretty hard thing to hear but hey I'd prefer to hear it than to find out my referee wrote something bad about me!

[Guest summervirus]

At the UofA, both reference letters combined are weighted only 5%, which is remarkably lower than most other schools.

 

One of the older students that served on admissions told me it's because the admissions committee decided that pretty much anyone can get two good references. The reference letter component is only there just to screen out the few applicants that have poor references...

[Guest aneliz]

Reference letters don't play a big role at western....I don't think that they are ever read...unless there is a good reason to in a specific situation or maybe as a tie-breaker. Realistically 99.9% of people are going to have references that look pretty much the same as each other....you have selected people that you think will give you a good reference (and hopefully asked them if they will) so unless you are a horrible judge of character or they out-right lied to you and are having fun sabotaging your application...you can pretty much be assured that your references are decent. I really don't think that any of the schools really have the time to go through all of the references from everybody's applications and figure out if they are a big-shot prof, MD, family friend, neighbour, yada, yada. And as for comparing all of the references written by the same referee for different applicants....that's a logistical nightmare that is not going happen. If they have some concerns about you and read your references and find that they were written by your kindergarten teacher (based on what you were like as a 5 y.o.), the garbage collector on your street and your mom....that would be a problem....but if they were written by your boss, a prof that knows you well and a volunteer supervisor but not an MD, that isn't a problem....references should be from three people that know you well, that can make an objective assesment of you and will do a good job. Don't worry about the "status" of the referee....because references don't matter much and the names and positions of the referees matter less....