Reference Letters

Who should I ask to write me a reference letter?

Most of the medical schools in Canada require 3 reference letters. The importance of reference letters varies between schools. Some schools, like Toronto, will weigh references heavily, while others, like Saskatchewan, only use it as a flag. McGill does not take references at all. In addition, some schools like UBC, Saskatchewan, Calgary will ask for references according to the CanMEDS framework - Leadership, Advocacy, Collaboration, or Academic Professional, Community… etc. Other schools will simply ask for 3 letters that attest to your character and academic abilities.

Regardless of the school or the policy, the general recommendation is to have 2 academic and 1 community referee.

When picking your referees, make sure that you pick people who know you sufficiently well. Do not ask a professor to write you a letter simply because you got a good grade in their course. You have to be able to read between the lines here - most people do not write bad reference letters, so a mediocre or generic reference letter is a bad reference letter. A professor who vaguely remembers you may write you a generic letter. A volunteer coordinator you’ve only worked with a few times may write you a mediocre letter. In any case, this is an undesirable situation. If you are not sure - ASK! Ask your referee if they’d feel comfortable writing you a letter, and if they would write you a strong letter. Most professors will not agree if they feel like they don’t know you, or can’t speak positively of you. I had a very prominent clinician scientist (a CIHR director) decline to write me a supplementary letter - it’s a normal occurrence and it’s better to be refused beforehand than to find out afterwards that they wrote a terrible letter.   

Who you choose is up to you - most people end up asking a research supervisor, or a course instructor who knows you. Teaching assistants also get asked for letters a fair bit. Almost anyone is fair game, given that they are of a higher academic/community standing than you are (therefore not a peer). The more important thing is that they speak favorably of you. For my references, I asked my graduate supervisor, my undergraduate research supervisor, and a local pastor whom I’ve worked with for over a decade. How do I know I had strong references? I asked, and I either 1/ read it, 2/ drafted it, or 3/ been told it was exceptionally strong.