Are two Science LOR absolutely necessary?!

[imanooblar]

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[mdbound1987]

It is a requirement for pretty much every school, so yes you will need at least 2.

 

[moxche]

That happened to me too. I asked a professor whose class I took ( I was by no means one of the best students, I also never went to office hours) and he accepted. He set up a meeting with me to talk about my life/goals/etc. I gave him copies of my personal statement, trasncript, and resume. I've never seen the letter, but I assume he just talks about my performance in class and then fills the rest with the other material he got from our chat or the materials I provided him.

 

[bball]

You could possibly get away with it if you substituted one of those letters with a research PI.

 

[marele86]

Don't feel bad, I was in the same situation as you last year - I took 6 of my science classes with the same science prof, so while he was able to write me a really strong letter, I couldn't get a second one. (Like you, I didn't go to office hours so I didn't know any of the professors for my other classes.) It just never occurred to me that it would hold me back until I started looking at secondary requirements.

The bad news is that if you don't get a second one it will limit the schools you can apply to. I wish I was on my other computer so I could give you the list of schools that don't require 2 letters, but off the top of my head, you can still apply to

- UVA, Columbia, SUNY Buffalo, Tufts, Dartmouth, Cornell, and a handful of state schools (Arizona is becoming more OOS-friendly, the others are mostly in-state only so it depends on where you are).

This is obviously not a long enough list for a strong application season. Can it be done? Yes, I'll be going to Columbia next year and I met a few people on the interview trail who were in the same situation (we bonded over the fact that we were interviewing at all the same schools, haha). But is it smart to take the risk? No, not really.

If you can get a generic letter that indicates the letter-writer doesn't know you that well, I think that's the way to go. Your letter won't be a strength, and may hurt you a little - but as long as it's not negative or implying negative things ("so-and-so would be a passable candidate for med school, I suppose he/she would probably do fine there." would be bad, for example), it will still give you more shots at acceptances because you can apply to so many more schools.

 

[brandnew1]

I know I shouldn't even be asking this, but my science LOR are very very weak since I didn't consider medical school until recently and rarely visited my professors.

All the professors I have emailed told me that they wouldn't be able to write me the strong letter of recommendation I'm asking for. As of now, I can get one science LOR but do I need two? Is it better to have 1 okay one.. then 1 okay one and 1 very very generic one.

Also, what kind of things do professors usually write for science letters? I'm assuming most students just take the class, do well, and occasionally visit office hours. I can't see how professors can write much more than your performance in the class and maybe your occasional visits to their office hours. I'm just wondering because most of my classes are 300+ studnets, and the times I did visit hours, I would be there with 10 other people so I just wanted to know how a lot of people got close to their professor besides doing further research in their class. Thanks for reading this.

Feel free to bash me about not getting science letters or visiting professors enough. I feel bad enough as it is and am seriously freaking out. HELP!!

I would strongly recommend getting that second science LOR, even if it is extremely generic. Stop by office hours for every science prof you've had and ask them if they can write you one.

I did not really stop by office hours much for the science LORs that I received earlier, so I tried making amends for it by stopping by frequently during the letter writing process. Get to know them a bit, ask a few polite questions, etc... Most were more than happy to write me one and I'd imagine that they're fairly strong. Make sure to drop off a copy of your resume, transcript and maybe even personal statement so they can include some personal things about you, and keep the letter from being too generic.

If you can't get that 2nd letter, some schools will let you pass off a LOR from a research PI. And if that doesn't work, do as marele86 says and look up schools that ask for only one science LOR.

Best of luck.

 

[swannster]

I am in the same boat...I called a few of the schools that require 2 science LORs and really the "requirement" isn't that stringent at most.

I explained my situation (go to UW, psych major, 500 people in my science classes with 2-3 professors over a 10 week period, impossible to get to know them). Colorado, Drexel, Emory, and Loyola said it was fine. Creighton, however, did no budge.... so I suggest just calling the schools to see.

 

[TFS]

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[bravofleet4]

a doctor who does research works too. it doesn't have to be someone you took a science class from.

that's not really true at all. the vast majority will ask that this person be at least a member of the faculty (a P.I. could count possibly) and many will also ask that this person be someone who you took a class with and got a grade from (so a P.I. wouldn't count)

 

[KTDseven77]

i think most schools recognize the difficulty of getting meaningful letters from profs teaching 200 person intro science lectures, especially for non-science majors. i applied with 5 letters--one science, one science prof i TA'd for, one humanities, my research PI (social science), and a community doc i shadowed, and my season was decently successful. I didn't have any schools ask for additional letters, even a couple schools that "required" 2 science letters. that being said, it is obviously best to get 2 strong science letters if possible.

 

[steelblue89]

I'm in a similar situation, this makes me feel better. I have a PI letter though to substitute for the 2nd science letter.

 

[AriGoldForPres]

Same boat here. I called a bunch of schools and some said that the requirement was strict, and others said that you could substitute P.I. letters instead.

Anyone have like a list from people who applied previously and like what the reqs are? Some schools aren't even clear!

 

[sshashid87]

You had to take labs didn't you? In a lab of 20 you had to have some sort of conversation with the lab TA. Ask the TA if she would be willing to write a letter for you, and see if the professor would be willing to sign off on it. I was about to do this, and then my professor told me to just write my own letter and she and the TA would edit/add to it so it would be as strong as possible. I know a lot of teachers may not be as open to this, but you'd be surprised at how many professors actually don't mind helping you out.

If you do this, talk to your TA first, and sort of ease into the conversation about having the professor sign off on it. You'll more likely than not end up with a great LOR if you worked well in lab and didn't annoy the TA too much. Good luck...

 

[imanooblar]

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[biojunky]

I tried going to pretty much every single office hours and although the prof agreed to write a letter, I highly doubt it will be very meaningful. So I don't think even that is too helpful.

I'm kinda in the same boat. A list of schools who are accepting one science LOR and one research (science) LOR would be helpful! I think I've seen it somewhere in the forum...

 

[Snarkalark]

i'm going through the same ordeal as some of the people here. how do you all recommend we approach semi-unknown science professors who don't post their office hours?

 

[Strawberries]

Sorry to bump this thread but I had a question about the science letters; do they have to be specifically from a BCPM course? Or can it be from one of the other categories (I'm thinking of natural/physical sciences)..
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[deleted357625]

Well you can submit up to 5 if I'm correct, so if you did any shadowing that can def help you out, the physicians can provide strong LOR's