Who to get a letter of recommendation from?

[mylongestyeahboyever]

It's my first year of college and I go to a big state school. I strongly dislike the environment, but I've decided to go ahead and finish my pre-reqs here before applying to a nursing program. There's a private school not too far away that really appeals to me. So far I have a 4.0 in all my pre-reqs which is good because this school requires a 3.6 minimum. I also recently found out they have a new application cycle for transfer applicants and I'll have all the required pre-reqs done in time. The only issue is, I finished my CNA course about a month ago, passed the state exams two weeks ago, and just started volunteering last week (I applied in October). I plan on applying to jobs soon.

I'm looking for advice on what to do about the LOR portion of my application. I expected to get some hands-on experience in my volunteer position earlier on. I just finished my CNA so I feel like a weak applicant. And although I did very well in my classes, there was minimal interaction with my professors (classes of 100+ people). Two of my professors this quarter were nurse practitioners so I felt like I had the opportunity to get to know them, but I didn't take it. My CNA instructor is another option, he watched me during clinicals but it feels strange to ask him.

Part of me says I shouldn't be applying due to the LOR alone, but at the same time, I really want to get started soon.

[Devon Rex, ADN, BSN]

Hello,

Letters of recommendations can be from former employers or teachers. If you have a 4.0 GPA from high school, I'm sure any of those teachers would be happy to draft you a LOR. Also, do not feel strange about asking you CNA instructor... they know it's part of the process and should be happy to give you one.

Cheers!

[mitcheml98]

I got both of mine from coworkers (and I've only lived here/worked here about 6 months) and I got accepted into school. They don't base everything on just the LOR, essay, GPA, scores, etc. They look at everything as a whole! So just make sure you do good at everything else and you'll be fine! I'm sure your CNA instructor would be more than happy too as well. You could ask previous or current co-workers. Even if your class sizes are large at your school, you could still ask your professors/NP's if you were in good standing in the class. They notice more than you think also!!

Best of luck to you!

[tickledlemur]

Hi there!

I have definitely been in this situation and yes it can be very awkward to ask a professor for a letter of recommendation if you don't know them very well, but they are are certainly used to this and it is part of their job to write letters.

Before I decided to go to nursing school, I applied to 10+ grad programs so I asked for a lot of letters! I usually would send an email saying "Hi, I was in X class with you, I received X grade, would you feel comfortable writing me a recommendation letter for X?" Offer to send your CV so that they get a better sense of you as a whole person, and include any volunteer work or extracurricular activities on that. Sometimes they will want to meet with you to discuss it, other times they will just ask where they need to submit it. The worst a professor could say is "no", and then you move on to the next one :)

I think especially if your professors were NPs and you express an interest in going into nursing, they would be happy to write you recommendations if you did well in their classes.

Best of luck!

[mylongestyeahboyever]

Thank you all for the replies!

I've decided to definitely ask my CNA instructor because he can better attest to the nursing side of my abilities. I'm also going to use another letter from a professor; I took a class three quarters ago that was fairly small and I did really well!