How to do Letters of Rec's?

[eddie269]

OK, I am confused about getting letters of rec's now. I always thought we ask a professor and have them write out a real letter and sign it, etc. Then we send them to the schools. But as I gather up what each school wants, I find out that some of them have short evaluation forms that take place of a real letter. Now, does that mean that when a school askes for a letter of rec, they don't ALWAYS mean they want a REAL letter? and they just want that forms filled out?

and do most schools use the Pharmcas form? For example, on UOP's website, they keep mentioning they require us to use the formed provided to be evaulated. BUT I CAN'T FIND THE FORM ON uop's! SITE!! so do I just print out pharmcas's form? And did the pharmcas eval. form just turned into the "official" LOR/eval. form and no one told me?

I finally had enough balls to ask my professor and TA to write me a LOR and they said yes. now I am trying to cater to every school's wants but I am so confused.

Any info. let me know! thanks

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[moobymaster]

PharmCAS doesn't have a recommendation section or form as far as I know. You need to check with each school to see what they require. Unfortunately this means that if you apply to 5 schools you might end up having to get 5 separate sets of letters/forms filled out. My only experience is with UF and they said that they won't accept anything other than the form they use...I imagine that most schools are the same way so I wouldn't send them anything but exactly what they want.

 

[eddie269]

OK, I apologize for that mistake. Pharmcas does not have its own form. I have like 5 windows open while doing research and I think I clicked on a eval form from a specific school but I thought it was off pharmcas's website.

So basically if a school has its own forms, you use those. Otherwise, you need to have real letters correct?

 

[moobymaster]

Yep. And check out who you need them from because each school is different.

 

[Leah27]

Personally, I can't belive how hard it is to apply to Pharmacy school. It is seriously easier to apply to medical school... they have no silly "letter forms" for recommendations, and their pre-reqs all are basically the same! (gasp, imagine that!) I really belive that pharmacy schools need to get thier act together and form some sort of consensus of pre-reqs, or have some leniency (why can't 8 laboratory credits in neuroscience and genetics substitute for 1 microbio lab credit?) Also, as far as letters of recommendation go... what if i don't get in this year? I can't be sending professors silly forms (UOP's was the silliest by the way!) to fill out? I feel bad enough asking them to keep a general recommendation letter on file for me (or use interfolio for 40 bucks). I feel like since I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life since birth (or at least 8th grade).. I'm out of luck! I think letters of recommendation are way over rated... reference phone numbers would surfice and save me a lot of heartache. I HATE asking professors for letters of rec.. it makes me feel like i'm beggnig for help.. I hate asking other people for help! I feel getting into pharmacy school is something i should do on my own merit... not dependent on how well my advisor can bulls***! Wow, what a rant...sorry... my only advice is that getting letter of rec will be the biggest pain in the butt that you imagine it will be.. especially if you apply to schools with "forms".

 

[tanyas]

I think one of the unfortunate downfalls of PharmCAS is that it does not provide a centralized recommendation form. I applied to four schools and each school wanted different things, however I believe my employer wrote one letter and attached it to every form.

 

[moobymaster]

I hope that's going to work. The people at UF said they don't even bother to look at recommendations unless it's their filled out form. I can see their point because then they can evaluate all recommendations equally, but it can be a pain in the ass.

They don't use recommendations for med school? That's surprising.

 

[Leah27]

I ment that they don't use forms.. they only require letters... written by recommenders on their own letterheads...not silly forms with silly questions

 

[eddie269]

I know this is a pain. I just emailed my TA who is going to write my LOR (with prof. co-sign of course) all of my personal info. Now I gotta email him back saying "oh yeah, I forgot, I have 6 diff. eval. forms for you to fill out too."

For a second, I seriously thought Pharmcas did have their own "universal" form. You would think if someone made up a Universal application (such as pharmcas) someone could AT LEAST do one for LOR forms.

 

[ucdbiochem]

sorry to say this. pharmcas is nothing but a scam. they just wanna suck up more money from poor students.
plus, pharmcas doesn't really simplify the application process but the opposite. back then, if u apply to 10 schools, u would fill 10 forms. now, not only u do pharmas, but also 10 secondaries, which are basically the old application forms that the schools have. AND you pay more $ coz you pay pharmcas for each school that you apply and more $ when u turn in the darn secondary. so is this a scam or what??

 

[hugstugs99]

I agree ucdbiochem! between pharmcas and supplemental applications applicants end up having to shell out a heck of a lot of money!! and yes with pharmcas it makes the application process even more complicated! gosh who came up with system??!?!

 

[Leah27]

Question: Did PharmCas mess up anyone eles's essay? Because I put it in there fine.. then a couple weeks later they changed it aand it ended up with all ???? in place of periods and stuff... did that happen to anyone eles? I am seriously considering some sort of legal action or something if I don't get in anywhere.. because it's like I flushed 400 bucks down the toilet.

 

[Spyris]

Question: Did PharmCas mess up anyone eles's essay? Because I put it in there fine.. then a couple weeks later they changed it aand it ended up with all ???? in place of periods and stuff... did that happen to anyone eles? I am seriously considering some sort of legal action or something if I don't get in anywhere.. because it's like I flushed 400 bucks down the toilet.

Actually yes. Mine did that as well, however, I went back and changed all the ???? because I reread my essay and saw those ?s. I bet you typed yours out in word then just copied and pasted right? Well, since pharmcas is new, they haven't worked out that bug yet and so all the periods, apostrophies turned into ???s when you do a copy and paste. Call them up and see if you can re-submit or something.

 

[Longhorn23]

totally agree with Leah. Lors are such a pain. If I don't get in this year I got to bug somebody else next year to write me Lors. And to make it even more outrageous they want personalized letters from profs. My profs can't even remember our names with 200 students in each class they teach.

 

[moobymaster]

I called PharmCAS about the statement formatting back around December. They said not to worry about how it looks on the web because when they send it to the schools it gets reformatted correctly. I just might have to believe them, because it looked like an idiot wrote it but I got in anyway.

 

[OpticDean]

If you happen to have to reapply to pharm school a second time, does that mean you have to get Rec. Letters ALL over again?

 

[Spyris]

If you happen to have to reapply to pharm school a second time, does that mean you have to get Rec. Letters ALL over again?

No, you just need one new letter of recommendation. It's recommended that you do something that year you are off and get the letter of rec from your supervisor to show that you've been doing something "special." ie- more research or more volunteer time at a pharmacy, etc. Schools keep your letters of rec for one year, so if you are going to reapply, you'll have to do it the following year.

 

[shal]

If you happen to have to reapply to pharm school a second time, does that mean you have to get Rec. Letters ALL over again?

I think it all depends on which school you apply to. You can contact the school and find out what they prefer.

 

[OpticDean]

Ok, that makes sense, thanks guys