Preprofessional Studies

Letter of Evaluation

Letters of recommendation, or, more correctly, letters of evaluation, are requested for every professional school an applicant wishes to enter. These letters are very important to the application process and it is up to the student to put their best foot forward in such letters. Below are some thoughts an applicant should think about when asking people to write letters in their behalf. Admittedly, there are no set rules regarding content, length, or anything else. The thoughts below are just offered for guidance.

The letter of evaluation has been used by Dr. Stabler for many years. In fact, professional schools have altered their letters of evaluation to be more similar to this letter. The form of the letter originally was put together by the Central Association of Advisors for the Health Professions. The letter of evaluation should be given to the person the student wishes a letter of evaluation from. The completed letter should be sent to Dr. Stabler for inclusion in the applicant's file. The applicant's file, when completed, will then be sent to all schools applied to. Dr. Stabler's address is given in the top paragraph of the .

Thoughts:

When an undergraduate professor, or some other person, is being considered to be asked to write a letter of evaluation for the applicant to professional school, the question of "how well does this person know me" should be considered very carefully. The professional schools look at all letters received very carefully, for the most part. However, for some professors, the idea of writing a letter becomes "how fast can it get done?" In this case, the letter becomes a short, one paragraph letter that basically states the applicant is a wonderful person who will do very well in the professional school program. In all honesty, these letters are either not looked at and/or given little credence. Therefore, the applicant should do some homework on the person they are requesting the letter from.

Does the person REALLY know the applicant? Was the applicant one of 300 in class or one of ten?

Did the applicant ever interact with the professor? Or did the applicant try to stay out of the way?

Can the person who will be doing the letter write at least one full page about the applicant or will they be pushed to do more than one sentence?

The applicant should sit down with the person they are requesting a letter from and ask these questions. The applicant should remember that the better the letter is written, the better the admissions committee will look at their application.

Lastly, be sure to sign the waiver at the top of the letter of evaluation form. This tells the professional school that you want a complete, honest evaluation of yourself. Not signing it sends messages to the professional schools that you have something to hide.

Letter of Evaluation Form

Dr. Timothy A. Stabler
Department of Biology
Indiana University Northwest
Gary, Indiana 46408
Phone: (219) 980-6718
Fax: (219) 980-7125 e-mail: tstabler@iun.edu

Preprofessional Health Care List of Choices

http://www.iun.edu/~stabler/preprof/eval.htm
Comments: Tim Stabler