<p>I am a high school counselor in the Midwest. I guide students through the college application process and I work in a big, public school. I am also new this year and starting this year, I will write recommendations for my students. One of my students has told me that he has a strong interest in medicine and we talked about the possibility of incorporating this interest of his into my recommendation for him. As I work in a very big school and this is my first year, I unfortunately haven’t had the chance to really get to know many of my kids, and he is one of them. So my question is, besides what I already know about this student and the parts that I plan to write about, do you have any suggestions for what I could possibly say in order to get the message across that he has the qualities to become a possible future physician? Any key phrases or key words or even sentences that show this would be great. This is my first time using cc and I thank you all for you input.</p>
<p>Desirable qualities in a physician include a) the ability to assimilate a large amount of factual and technical information (mostly biology and chemistry) b) the ability to critically reason to evaluate and utilize said information for problem solving and c) the empathy and compassion to devote his/her life work to dealing with illness and death. So if you can honestly state the student has these qualities, do so.</p>
<p>I hope the student has given you a resume so that you have some specifics to go on. You might also ask him what in his background/personality would apply to the wonderful characteristics drb has listed.</p>
<p>I’m in the corporate world and I won’t provide a recommendation unless I know the person and their accomplishments and character that would be relevant to the job. To do so would be to put my reputation at risk and perhaps help the company to hire someone unsuitable which would be bad for both the employer and the employee.</p>
<p>If you know the student well enough, you should be able to write the recommendation from the heart. You shouldn’t need to ask someone else for boilerplate.</p>