I hate students that suck up to professors just to get recommendation letters. they waste their own time by pointlessly asking questions they know the answers to and more importantly, the time of other students who actually need to go to office hours!

I really find it ridiculous when a PhD who has done basic science research for his/her whole life presumes to tell me, on the basis of some interactions in a lecture hall and an office, that “I know this student has everything it takes to be an outstanding physician” blah blah blah. That letter-writer has never been a physician, not for one second. He/she has never had to stay cool under pressure and act effectively when the guy with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest is wheeled into the ER and loses vital signs. He/she has never had to sit across from a person and tell them they have HIV, or multiple sclerosis, or their prostate cancer is back and now it’s in their brain. AND furthermore that letter-writer has never seen the applicant in a clinical setting. For that reason, I tend to feel that while the letters from basic science professors and research mentors is pretty much standard required fare, I don’t put a whole lot of stock into most of them.