Advisor LOR

[jdido09]

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When getting an LOR from an advisor, does it really matter if it is your "pre-health" advisor? I have three advisors, and I am definitely closest with my Neuroscience one for my major. My pre-health advisor probably gets hundreds of LOR requests a year anyways. So does it matter which one I ask? Or just go with who knows me best?

Obviously if the pre-health advisor's would be valued more, I'd put in more effort to go see her and get her to know me.

 

[jdido09]

Anyone?

 

[rHinO1]

This is just my personal opinion but a LOR from any advisor is kind of useless, unless it is like a committee letter where they rank you relative to other applicants coming out of your school. Most advisors can only say "he came in with a lot of good questions, seems like a nice guy, blah blah blah."

Schools seem to want committee letters, letters from professors, and your PI if you do research.

 

[Longshanks]

If your pre-med advisor writes a committee letter or evaluation letter, then you'll need to go through him as if your school provides this service and you choose not to use it, it can be a potential red flag for med schools.

In general terms for LORs, get them from those who know you well, know your work and ethic, and can write a strong recommendation.

 

[FirefighterDoc]

What if youve had a class with your adviser, then would it be more relevant?

 

[jdido09]

Just to make sure I am understanding the whole committee process... is the committee letter simply a collaboration of all of your letters from professors, PIs, etc.? Does the committee itself write a letter?

Thanks!

 

[Practitioner]

At my alma mater the process is like this:

You request LORs from whoever you want sent to prehealth adviser.
Have two interviews with faculty members (not necessarily health or even science related, so these are general interviews that cover more your character than academic background)
Pre-health adviser writes a committee letter that summarizes you as an applicant from an academic, personal, and professional background drawing on your letters and interviews for reference.

The committee letter is sent out with the individual LOR letters. So the prehealth adviser can't be asked to be an LOR writer since he writes up the committee letter (which sort of serves the same objective, only his letter might be more informed).

non-trad/reapplicants/alumni have a slightly different process to a similar end.