Requesting a letter from your scientific mentor
This letter will be much longer and more detailed than the other letters because the nature of your relationship is much longer and deeper than the other clinical letters.
Here are general tips for letter writing for your scientific mentor:
1. Explain your relationship with the applicant:
- . How long have you known the applicant?
- . In what capacity have you interacted (e.g., faculty, premedical advisor, supervisor)?
- . Are your observations of the applicant direct or indirect?
2. Explain your role and summary of mentoring responsibilities, i.e. how many trainees have you supervised so far.
3. Describe the dissertation project of your student
- . What was the central question?
- . What was learned?
- . How was this disseminated (papers, presentations)? Awards/recognition?
- . How this can be contextualized within the field and how it could potentially impact human health and disease?
4. Describe behaviors you have observed directly when describing your student. Consider:
- . The situation or context of the behaviors.
- . The actual behaviors you observed.
- . Any consequences of the behaviors.
5. Consider including unique contributions that an applicant would bring to an incoming class, including:
- . Obstacles that your student had to overcome and how those obstacles have led to new learning and growth.
- . Contributions that your student would bring to a program’s diversity, broadly defined (e.g., background, attributes, experiences).
6. Other information that selection committees find comparison information helpful
- . If you make comparisons, be sure to provide context. Include information about:
- The comparison group (e.g., students or trainees mentored in your laboratory)
- Your rationale for the comparison.
7. Be aware of gender bias.
It’s very common that letters include gendered language unintentionally. A study by Trix and Psenka (2003) noted that:
- Men were described as “successful” and “accomplished” and letters for male applicants contained more repetitions of superlatives such as “outstanding” or “exceptional.”
- Women were described as “nurturing” and “compassionate” and letters for female applicants often include doubt raisers, statements like: “It appears that her health and personal life are stable.”
- Letters for female applicants were shorter, lacked basic components like the relationship of the writer with the applicant or comments about achievements, while letters for male applicants were more aligned with job requirements.
- Check your biases. You can copy and paste your letter into a Gender Bias Calculator.