Question: I have a question regarding my letter of recommendation. My friend (who's also a pharmacist that I am working with right now. I've known him for about 10 years now, he tutored me English when I first moved to the U.S. and he was actually the person that influenced me and encouraged me to go into pharmacy...) is writing a letter of recommendation for me, but I know that many schools won't accept references from a friend. Should I ask him to submit his reference as a pharmacist and not mention that he's a friend of mine?
Answer: Unequivocally, the answer to your question is YES. He can list himself under a number of categories that would probably work, but I under no circumstance would I tell you to have him write your LOR as a "friend".
The key point here is to make sure that he understands his reference should be written from the standpoint of whatever relationship he chooses. If he selects "pharmacist", he should be writing about your promise as a pharmacist and the qualities that would make you a good pharmacist - not about knowing you and your family since you were a kid, etc.
The committees that I have been a part of take a very negative approach to applicants who use friends and family to write their letters of recommendation.. I have seen applications with letters of recommendation from parents, siblings, and friends from summer jobs. Please realize you are applying for a spot in a competitive professional school and you want to do everything you can to show the committee that you are prepared for that step. You indicated that you have worked with this pharmacist, so he should have no trouble documenting your abilities, work ethic, and interpersonal communication skilss.
For those readers of the blog who have a pharmacist "friend" that you might consider asking for an LOR, if you haven't done this already, get yourself into their pharmacy workplace and shadow for a day or a week just so the reviewer can say that you did so. That way, at a minimum, you have some experience to show on your application and it would make the relationship mentor-student rather than friends alone.
If anyone has additional questions about letters of recommendation, please let us know.
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4 comments:
It depends on the job but the professional referral is by far more important.
Thanks for answering this question. I was interested in hearing an answer to it as well. I love learning about the insights of an admission process.
I've found this pharmacist letter of recommendation sample really helpful and suggest taking a look at it for those who need help with a recommendation letter.
Tip that I find helpful is to read out loud your writing! Helps with spotting mistakes and awkward-sounding sentences!
Dear author, thank you so much for your useful information in this article, as I have found many interesting tips for me. Because when there is a task to write a pharmacist letter of recommendation sample, it is not so easy to find some helpful tips which I have found here. And also I would like to add that in the second paragraph of your article you say about the sentences which begin from the word “that” and I also have met such ones earlier, but have never paid attention to them. So thank you for all your information once more.
Writing the professional pharmacist recommendation letter is very important for your application process. If you can make the strong application paper you will increase your chances to be accepted to the chosen program. It can be good to use different samples that can give you an idea of how to write such letters of recommendation. It is also necessary to learn the main requirements related to such type of papers. It is very essential to keep the correct format and style of your paper. If you can do everything correctly your application will be accepted by the admission committee members.
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