advice please

[ac47]

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i've been caught in a predicament concerning my lors. i had 2 of my grad school profs that were supposed to write lors for me and they are missing in action. i've moved to texas and my grad school was in indiana so i'm not around to personally look for them. i didn't have a premed advisor or committee, i pretty much did everything by myself so i never really got to know the premed profs very well (my fault). i have one good lor from a d.o. that i knew very well during school, but i really don't have another option. the only prof i got to know at all during school was my ochem prof, but that was just in lab for 2 semesters. should i ask him for a lor even though he doesn't really know me that well? i know this type of question has probably been asked, i'm just compaining a little. its just frustrating knowing that everything on my part is in and these lors are slowing the whole process down. i could ask my boss, a pt, if he could write a lor but the schools ask for science profs. any advice is appreciated, thanks.

ac

 

[Qafas]

I suggest picking up the phone and speaking with the professors who are still around. The Ochem prof. might be the best choice from what you have written. In my experience, most profs. are willing to write LORs; the trouble is that if they don't know you well the letters will not seem that great. If I were you, I would ask them if you could send them your personal statement, or even the whole application; it will help them understand you and your situation better, and make their letter a bit more reflective.
Whatever else you do, please make sure that you call them. I would advise strongly against firing off an email to initiate contact; emails are very impersonal and are likely to get lost in their mailboxes.

Good Luck!

 

[Plinko]

The letters of rec from all of my professors were very general. They only talked about the professors' perspective of the level of difficulty of the class and where I measured up in relation to my classmates. In short, the professor would say the the class average was a B- and this student received a B+. Because most premed classes have hundreds of students, and most of them want a lor, it is impossible for most professors to sit down and write a personal letter. I think what's most important is that you fulfill the lor requirements set forth by the schools you will be applying to, and the rest of your application--MCAT, GPA, interview--will be the bulk of the criteria used by the addcomms to determine your merits for acceptance. The schools will most likely look more closely at your DO letter and interviews to get a better idea of who you are as a person. My lors, save for my DO letter, were all pretty much form letters, and I still received multiple acceptances. I wouldn't fret too much. It is not that big of a deal so long as you can get the prescibed number of professors from your premed classes to do you the favor of sending off something that speaks of your performance in their class. Chances are they have a form letter they wrote for everyone else in the class still on file in their hard drive somewhere that they'll insert your name into, sign, and then mail.

 

[DrInW8ing]

ac47,

I agree with Qafas. Contact your ochem prof. Gettting your LORs is the most frustrating process especially if you guided yourself through school. Accept this responsibility with the attitude that you will obtain your LORs no matter what steps are required.

I had the same problem as you. I had to go back to a prof that I had 9yrs ago. However, I did have an abundance of contact hours with him during the time that I had taken his class. This worked for me.

Just keep in mind that this is a stepping stone towards medical school. It will not be the only time you will feel somewhat humiliated.


Good luck 🙂

 

[ac47]

thanks for your responses, they have all been helpful. i'll suck it up and get lor from the profs that don't know me that well. good idea about sending my personal statement and resume, i'll definitely you that.

thanks again,

ac