If you’ll submit that all-important packet for the next step in your career next spring, you might not be thinking much about your recommendation letters this August. And, if that is indeed the case, pay close attention to this #ProTip: You should reconsider your strategy.

If you're premed, you have approximately 8 months until it's time to ask for letters from your professors (give or take a few weeks depending on your specific circumstances). But that doesn't mean that you have 7 1/2 months until you need to think about those letters.

If you haven’t given much thought to who is going to write letters on your behalf, and what they are going to write in those letters, make it a priority to do so at the beginning of this semester. No good comes from putting this off until April.

We’ll have several more posts on letters of evaluation and recommendation in the coming months. You can also search our website UndergradInTheLab.com for posts tagged “rec letters” or “letters of recommendation” in case you miss a few posts here and there.

And if you’re a couple of years away from THE letters, keep in mind that now is the time to build the professional relationships you need to secure the strongest letters possible. If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that most of the advice we give, and strategies we recommend, play double-duty: they help you to have a more meaningful college experience, and help you earn stronger evaluation letters.