ACOM Letters of Rec Requirements are giving me a headache (2021-22 Future Applicant). Should I just not apply to them?

[darthhelmet123]

So here's the issue. My college does not have a pre-health comittee, so I must resort to letters of rec from professors. Most DO schools are very general about their letters of rec and just want something like "1-3 science professors that you had for any science courses/did research with".

However, ACOM (Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine) seems very strict for their letters of rec. They specifically want 2 science professors who taught you in the prereq science courses and/or a "recommened" upper-level biological science course, and in the letter of rec they have to say which specific course they taught you in.

Furthermore, they will not take letters from professors you did research with/taught a research course that you took. I have amazing letters of rec from a professor that I did biochemistry research with (my school lets you sign up for research as a class for credit hours) and a professor that I had an upper-level analytical chemistry course with. I could possibly ask my computational biology professor for a letter of rec as I have a nice relationship with him.

So basically, the only letter of rec that COULD work for ACOM from those 3 is one from my computational biology course since that is an advanced biological science course, as the other letters are from a research professor and from a class that isn't a prereq/isn't a "biological science" (advanced analytical chemistry). The reason I am stuck on applying to ACOM as one of my schools if you're wondering is becoming I am from the tri-state area of Florida/GA/AL from where they take half of their students along with a strong application and a genuine desire to become a PCP (aka I have a good chance of getting in). However, if their LOR's are that strict, I'll have to contact a freshmen/sophomore professor since I was a chemistry major and didn't really take any "advanced biological science" courses (I only took advanced chemistry courses save for the computational biology course that I am currently in). If I do that, I'll get probably a very general letter of rec from like my freshmen biology 1 professor for example rather than the ones I have now which are very strong/personal as I know these professors very well.

So the options are:
1. Do not apply at all to ACOM
2. Get a letter from my computational biology professor and then reach out to one of my freshmen/sophomore professors that I had for a prereq. course
3. Get a letter from my computational biology professor and just hope that they count the advanced analytical chemistry professor's letter as coming from a "recommended upper-level course" since they 100% will not count the one from my research professor.

Which of those options do you guys think I should do?

Sorry for the long post btw. Just wanted to make sure you all knew all the details so that you could answer the question to the best of your ability

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[deleted480308]

Ask them if what you have will work

 

[darthhelmet123]

Would they see it as a dumb question that could blackball me when they see my application in the future?

In other words, will they be like "this idiot couldn't read the simple prompts on the website about LOR's." or would they actually help me out?

 

[deleted936470]

Would they see it as a dumb question that could blackball me when they see my application in the future?

In other words, will they be like "this idiot couldn't read the simple prompts on the website about LOR's." or would they actually help me out?

Definitely not blackball. They'll help you out by saying yes or no to your request of receiving an exception. The one who reads your email is likely not going to ever weigh in on your chances of admission i.e. they are probably not sitting on the committee anyway.

 

[darthhelmet123]

Thank you so much! I will definitely reach out to them.