Completely clueless about LORs

[psymedicus]

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Hi

I'm new to this forum and everyone seems fairly friendly so I'll jump in with some qns about LORs. I went to 3 different schools, finally got my degree while working full-time as a research assistant in a paeds lab.

1. Is there a minimum or maximum number of LORs?
2. How necessary is a lukewarm and impersonal letter from a science lecturer?
3. I had a high school mentor (sociology prof) who's been like an advisor for almost 10yrs. Should I ask her for a letter?
4. My degree-granting university doesn't have a pre-med committee and the others say I was a student for too short a period. If that's the case, do I send LORs directly to the medical school? If the letters are all signed, how will the adcom know whether they came from me or the writer? I don't want to bother my boss etc with lots of envelopes and deadlines.

Thanks!

 

[calliMD]

Hi

I'm new to this forum and everyone seems fairly friendly so I'll jump in with some qns about LORs. I went to 3 different schools, finally got my degree while working full-time as a research assistant in a paeds lab.

1. Is there a minimum or maximum number of LORs?
2. How necessary is a lukewarm and impersonal letter from a science lecturer?
3. I had a high school mentor (sociology prof) who's been like an advisor for almost 10yrs. Should I ask her for a letter?
4. My degree-granting university doesn't have a pre-med committee and the others say I was a student for too short a period. If that's the case, do I send LORs directly to the medical school? If the letters are all signed, how will the adcom know whether they came from me or the writer? I don't want to bother my boss etc with lots of envelopes and deadlines.

Thanks!

1. This varies by school. You should be able to look up information regarding the required # of LOR on each school's website.

2. Obviously a lukewarm letter isn't going to look that great. Ideally you'll be able to obtain letters from professors who know you well and would be able to go into detail about why you'd be a good candidate for medical school. If you're at your wits end and honestly didn't form any kind of close relationships with any of your teachers, then I would ask a professor whose class you performed well in if he/she would mind writing a letter for you. Then be sure to set up a time to meet him/her beforehand to discuss your background and your future goals so that the letter will have more substance to it than "X was in my class and got an A". Most medical schools will want a letter from a science professor and sometimes a humanities professor so this is probably your best bet. Unfortunately it's just something that can't be avoided.

3. I'd first get strong letters from science professors and work/research supervisors and a humanities professor, if possible. Then if you want an extra letter or two as "padding", get one from your mentor. Don't count on his/her letter to comprise the 'bulk' of your LORs, if that makes sense, because schools are going to first want to look at letters from recent teachers and contacts.

4. Try using www.interfolio.com - just set up an account with them and have your writers send their letters to interfolio. Then when the time comes for you to mail out letters to schools, you can do so through interfolio. It's safe and a lot of medical school applicants use it.

Hope that helps.
Calli