Letters of recommendation (LORs)

Letters of Recommendations (LORs), are required because Dental schools want to know about you from someone’s else’s point of view. Especially someone who has been your prof, research supervisor, or a supervisor in one of your extracurricular or volunteering activities. The point is to see how you perform and carry yourself under different circumstances. Thus, LORs open a “window” into your character strengths, attitude and your communication skills- to name a few. A great LOR is one that the writer shares a personal story about you that is specific to you and what you have done, or how you have performed under her/his supervision. Therefore, it is always a very good idea to build rapport with as many profs as possible during your undergraduate years. Ask questions during the classes, go to the office hours and have intelligent and well-thought out questions to ask. This way, later on, when you ask for a LOR, your prof will have personal experiences of interacting with you and can provide a unique story about you. Now, this is what makes a LOR great as opposed to a “generic” one. A generic LOR, on the other hand, is the one that the writer does not really know much about you except what is in your CV and your University transcripts. So, all the LOR writer can use a source for ideas to write you letter are dry factual information. Thus, the writer will be limited to saying that you are a good student, have good grades and an extensive CV.