Another lor question

[KyoPhan]

I have 2 questions concerning LOR.

1) Right now I'm in the process of asking for my 2nd LOR for science. I asked my ochem from community college with my gmail if he could write me one. He wrote me a reccommendation for scholarship before, and I'm pretty sure he would remember me. However, I attended his class about 4 years ago. Is that too long ago? Also, he has not responded to my email. I don't know if he didn't see it or is ignoring it(Been about 2 weeks without reply). Should I try meeting him in his office hours? I can also try a UC teacher, but I don't really know any others that well; however I did well in most of my classes.

2) There's many different LOR requirement for each school. Right now, I signed up for UCI's LOR service. However, they do not allow you to select which ones you want to send to each school(They send to all schools as a package). I can get a letter from my volunteer advisor, and probably from my spanish teacher. However, I cannot give them an address to send it to, since the aadas thing doesn't open till June 4th. What do people usually do in this situation? Do they ask the writers now, and then give them the address after June 4th? I want to complete my application asap.

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[AwesomeTeeth]

I have 2 questions concerning LOR.

1) Right now I'm in the process of asking for my 2nd LOR for science. I asked my ochem from community college with my gmail if he could write me one. He wrote me a reccommendation for scholarship before, and I'm pretty sure he would remember me. However, I attended his class about 4 years ago. Is that too long ago? Also, he has not responded to my email. I don't know if he didn't see it or is ignoring it(Been about 2 weeks without reply). Should I try meeting him in his office hours? I can also try a UC teacher, but I don't really know any others that well; however I did well in most of my classes.

2) There's many different LOR requirement for each school. Right now, I signed up for UCI's LOR service. However, they do not allow you to select which ones you want to send to each school(They send to all schools as a package). I can get a letter from my volunteer advisor, and probably from my spanish teacher. However, I cannot give them an address to send it to, since the aadas thing doesn't open till June 4th. What do people usually do in this situation? Do they ask the writers now, and then give them the address after June 4th? I want to complete my application asap.

1. If he knows you well enough, then sure. Four years ago isn't too long. Just make sure he still remembers you and can write a good letter. You should meet at his office hours just to make sure he actually got the email. Don't be shy, make it happen. A UC teacher would be better in my opinion, but if they don't know you then don't bother.

2. You need one from a dentist. That's the one that most places really want and care most about. Some places require 2 science letters as well. Your spanish teacher and volunteer coordinator are nice but I wouldn't use them as my main ones. Most people ask their letter writers now. It takes time to write the letters if they're good ones. Why don't you have them send it to the UCI letter service right now when they're done? Then send it out to AADSAS on June 4th.

I wouldn't bother with choosing different letters for each school. 1 dentist + 2 science professors + volunteer coordinator or spanish teacher should be fine for everywhere.

 

[KyoPhan]

Thx a lot for the reply.

I'm really confused as to if the schools take only a certain amount of LORs. As an example. I went to UCSF's site, which state
".You must also send to AADSAS three letters of recommendation. One letter..."
from: http://dentistry.ucsf.edu/admissions/dentistry-dds/application-procedures

Does that mean they only take 3? If that's the case, then I'm worried about sending in a 5 letter package to them because I'm not sure if they will bother sorting through it.
.

 

[yellowishbluish]

you can send a max of 4 to aadsas

there's no choosing which letters go to which schools

each school will see all 4 letters, and they may or may not read the extraneous one if they only require 3

you should ask your writers asap, then come june 4th you sign them up with their emails, and they'll be emailed a link to upload the letters

some profs take a while, 1 of mine took 2 months

 

[KyoPhan]

I will try asking my ochem prof next week in person.

I think I got really confused because I was reading around and thought people were getting like 5 individual letters. But they probably get it condensed to 1 committee letter. UCI's service is just collecting it as individuals, so I think I'll stick to just 2 science, and a dentist. (Possibly volunteer)

Final question. You said
"each school will see all 4 letters, and they may or may not read the extraneous one if they only require 3"
If possible, I want to just send all 4 letters to all the schools, since I can't really control which goes where. Is there any negative effects to sending 4 if they only say 3. Should I be worried that they might ignore the application just for not following direction?

Thanks a lot guys.