Anyone else annoyed by Northwestern's letter of rec form...

Last year I had all my letters sent in before I realized Northwestern (and Yale as well) had an additional LOR form. I had my writers quickly fill them out and send them to Northwestern, not attached to their respective letters that the program had already received. If I remember correctly, I think one of my writers didn't even do it, and it wasn't an issue at all. Don't let it stress you... Northwestern is an awesome place!

last year with mayo, i didnt fill out the extra recommender form, and I got an email, saying that I needed to. I told them I couldnt get it to them by the deadline, so I'd have to withdraw my app. They actually extended the deadline for me. Very nice program director/ admissions office people. Interviewees actually get to eat at her house!

sorry, but I think it's ridiculous that some schools do this. They know we're applying to a dozen schools, most of which don't require extra things. AMCAS was supposed to streamline and standardize the system... I guess that didn't happen 100%

Yea pitt has something like that but at least its online so the recommender can just fill it out.

One of my recommenders actually got annoyed at Pitt's form because it forced him to distinguish between top 2% and top 1%... he was like wtf? and wrote them an angry email.

What forms?

It wasn't a rating sheet like mayo's right?

I'm very certain I did not send in any forms with my virtualevals to northwestern and they still marked me as complete.

Northwestern says that if your school already has a similar form, that's fine too. so for LSU's premed committee, we have an evaluation form and all my recommenders had to fill it out and send it with their eval to the committee. that should be enough for the schools that ask for their own forms, so if you did that for your school you should be fine too

Quick LOR question...nothing to do the forms though...A lot of schools say they want 2 LORs specifically addressing research potential. I have only worked in 1 lab for 12 months, full time. Do I need to have a professor address my research potential too? Does anyone have any suggestions? Much appreciated!

Neuronix you probably want to address this in the stickies since it's asked pretty frequently. Applicants who only worked in one lab can do one of several things to get pass the two letters requirement:

1, explain your situation to the school. You won't be the only loyal dog out there, and many schools will be understanding and waive the requirement for the second letter.

2, if the school is adamant about it, and you happen to have a honor thesis adviser or someone else who guided you through your undergraduate research, ask them to write a letter for you.

3, if you don't have a faculty outside of your lab that has knowledge of your research experiences, then you'll probably have to resort to another person in your lab, like a postdoc that you worked closely with. They are lower on the academic hierarchy and their letter will weigh less, but you just want to fulfill your requirement right?