Anyone have Lor's from Alumni?

[Harbindoc]

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Hey there!

I am applying in June and was wondering if having lor's from alumni (who are obivously now MD's) would help one gain admission. I know it can't hurt, but I work with a group of doctor's that know me well and are alumni from some of the schools I am applying to. I was thinking of bypassing 1 LOR from a prof to get an LOR from the alumni of said school. Does anyone think this is a good idea? Or would the prof letter be better? Sorry if this post is a little jumbled, I have a raging hangover 🙄

 

[LetMeInPlease]

I don't think it makes that much difference if your LOR is from an alumni unless the person is really well-known and respected by the admissions committee and stuff. I had the same situation as you, I worked with doctors and one of them wrote my letter of recommendation to my top choice. She was not only an alumnus of the school, but she was also a former professor there AND she used to be on the admissions committee. I saw the recommmendation and it was good, but I was waitlisted anyway.

So, I think getting a recommendation from an alumni won't hurt you at all (as long as the person really knows you and will write a good rec.) but I don't know that it will help any more than any other kind of recommendation. At least that's how it worked in my case.

 

[sophRI]

I agree... couldn't hurt, but don't count on it to help you.
I had a great letter from not just an alum, but a distinguished alum - who spoke at a bunch of their events, was administrator of the local hospital, etc - and still got waitlisted. At first I thought I was doomed, but I ended up getting into a better school so maybe they just didn't pay much attention to it? That being said, the more recs you get into your file, the better.

 

[Doc Ivy]

IMHO I would use the LOR from the professor that knows you--it will have a lot more meat and potatoes if you know what I mean
then if you get waitlisted at this school and need to bring out the extra ammunition, get the LOR from the MD alumni---which may end up to be little more than icing on the cake---hope that helps🙂