How to Choose the Right Evaluators for Your Letters of Recommendation

Of all the components in your dental school application, letters of recommendation might be the most underestimated. Applicants spend weeks agonizing over their personal statement and hours perfecting their experience entries — then ask for letters almost as an afterthought, from whoever seems most convenient.

That's a mistake. A well-chosen, well-briefed recommender can elevate your entire application. A generic letter from an impressive-sounding person can quietly sink it. Here's how to get this part right.

First, Know What AADSAS Actually Requires

Before you start thinking about who to ask, understand the baseline. AADSAS requires a minimum of three letters, with most programs expecting four. The standard composition that serves most applicants well is:

• At least one letter from a dentist you've shadowed or worked with meaningfully

• At least one letter from a science faculty member who can speak to your academic abilities

• One or two additional letters from other dentists, professors, employers, research supervisors, or mentors who know you in a different capacity

Some schools have specific requirements — a second science letter, a letter from a pre-health advisor, or letters from particular specialties. Research each program's requirements before you finalize your list.

Who to Ask: The Right Way to Think About It

Here's the single most important principle for choosing evaluators: pick the person who knows you best, not the person with the most impressive title.

A letter from a department chair who has interacted with you twice will not outperform a letter from an adjunct professor who watched you struggle through Organic Chemistry, come to office hours every week, and earn an A on the final. Admissions committees are looking for specific, credible insight into who you are — and that can only come from someone who actually has it.

With that principle in mind, here's how to evaluate each recommender category:

Your Dentist Recommender(s)

This letter carries significant weight, and for good reason — a dentist who has supervised you is uniquely positioned to speak to your clinical curiosity, your patient interactions, your manual dexterity, and your genuine interest in the profession.

The right dentist recommender is one you've spent meaningful time with — not someone you shadowed for 10 hours on two separate occasions two years ago. Ideally, this is a dentist who has seen you in action across multiple visits, knows your name without having to look it up, and has something specific to say about how you engaged with patients or approached clinical situations.

If you've shadowed multiple dentists, choose the one with whom you built the most genuine relationship — not the one with the most prestigious practice or the longest list of credentials.

Your Science Faculty Recommender

For this letter, think beyond who gave you your best grade. Think about who actually knows you.

Did you take a course where you visited a professor's office hours regularly? Did you work as a teaching assistant for a faculty member? Did you conduct undergraduate research under a professor's supervision? Those relationships produce far more valuable letters than "I earned an A in their 300-person lecture course and they vaguely remember my face."

If your academic record is strong but you don't have a close relationship with any science faculty, that's worth reflecting on — and worth addressing proactively if you have time before your application cycle.

Your Additional Recommender(s)

This is where you have the most flexibility — and the most opportunity to add dimension to your application. A strong additional letter might come from:

• A research supervisor who can speak to your intellectual curiosity and work ethic

• A community service supervisor who can speak to your commitment to serving others

• An employer or manager who can speak to your professionalism and reliability

• A second dentist who can offer a different clinical perspective than your primary dental recommender

The question to ask yourself: does this letter add something new to my application, or does it just repeat what another letter already covers? The best set of letters tells a multi-dimensional story. Each one should show admissions committees a different side of who you are.

How to Ask: Setting Your Recommenders Up to Succeed

Choosing the right people is only half the equation. How you ask — and what you give them — determines whether you get a good letter or a great one.

Ask Early

Give your recommenders at least 6–8 weeks, ideally more. Asking someone in late May to write a letter you need submitted by late June is not respectful of their time, and rushed letters tend to read like rushed letters. The best recommenders are often the busiest people — give them the runway to do this well.

Ask in Person When Possible

A face-to-face ask (or at minimum a phone or video call) signals that this matters to you. It also gives you the chance to read their response. If someone hesitates, hedges, or says something like "I'll do my best but I don't know you that well," that's important information. You want recommenders who respond with genuine enthusiasm — people who say "absolutely, I'd be glad to" without reservation.

If someone can't write you a strong letter, it's far better to know that before they submit something lukewarm than after.

Give Them Everything They Need

Don't hand your recommender a resume and wish them luck. Put together a brief packet that includes:

• A current resume or CV

• Your personal statement draft (or a summary of your "why dentistry" narrative)

• A list of the AADSAS core competencies being evaluated

• Specific experiences or moments you shared together that you'd love for them to highlight

• The submission deadline and instructions for the AADSAS portal

The more context you give them, the more specific and compelling their letter will be. You're not telling them what to write — you're making it easy for them to write something genuinely useful.

Follow Up — Graciously

Send a reminder about two weeks before the deadline, framed as a helpful check-in rather than a nudge. Something simple: "Just wanted to make sure you have everything you need and check whether any questions have come up." After they submit, send a genuine thank-you. These relationships matter beyond your application cycle.

A Note on the New Structured Evaluation

As of the 2026–27 cycle, AADSAS now requires recommenders to complete a structured evaluation alongside their narrative letter — rating you on ten core competencies using a scaled format. This makes recommender selection even more important than it used to be.

Someone who knows you well can rate you confidently and specifically. Someone who barely knows you will give you middling ratings across the board, regardless of how glowing their narrative letter sounds. The structured component has real weight — choose accordingly.

The Bottom Line

Your letters of recommendation are the only part of your application written by someone other than you. That makes them uniquely powerful — and uniquely important to get right.

Choose people who know you. Give them what they need to advocate for you specifically. Ask early, follow up graciously, and don't settle for a letter from someone impressive who can't actually speak to who you are.

The right recommenders don't just support your application. They make the case for you in a way no personal statement ever can.

Not sure if your recommender lineup is as strong as it could be? Let's talk it through. Choosing and briefing the right evaluators is one of the highest-leverage moves you can make in this process.