Do PI Letters Generally Fulfill the Science LOR Requirement?

[asdfhhadsf234]

I got credit for two semesters of lab work. Can a PI letter satisfy the science LOR requirement? If it makes a difference, I'm going through my school's prehealth committee and submitting that letter but considering they just attach our LORs to their letter I'm afraid schools won't recognize my letter.

Is there an easy way to figure this out?

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[2jz]

Is your pi a science professor and did you conduct science based research?

 

[asdfhhadsf234]

Is your pi a science professor and did you conduct science based research?

Yes to both

 

[2jz]

Not sure why they wouldn't qualify then. I used my pi as a science letter.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

If it's a professor of psychology it may not count. My research was in neuroscience, but my professor was technically in the dept of psych, so his letters did not fulfill the "science" professor requirement.

 

[asdfhhadsf234]

If it's a professor of psychology it may not count. My research was in neuroscience, but my professor was technically in the dept of psych, so his letters did not fulfill the "science" professor requirement.

Mine is genetics, which is its own department under biology. How did you find out it didn't count?

Not sure why they wouldn't qualify then. I used my pi as a science letter.

I'm moreso just nervous that I'll submit it, find out it doesn't count, and at that point I'm graduated and its too late.

 

[BluntForceTrauma]

Mine is genetics, which is its own department under biology. How did you find out it didn't count?


I'm moreso just nervous that I'll submit it, find out it doesn't count, and at that point I'm graduated and its too late.

Friend who had to wait a whole cycle because his applications were all denied due to insufficient letters of rec.

 

[wwdentist]

You would have to email each school individually to see where they stand on it. My friend and I were both told by schools that a PI would not count as a letter from a science professor. Both of us did research for two semesters for credit in biology labs.

 

[artist2022]

I think a letter from a PI would count if you took a lecture-based course for a grade with them. Even though you might've gotten a grade for each of those two semesters of research lab work, I think schools want LORs from professors who have taught you in a lecture course for it to count as a science LOR (this is why letters from lab TAs don't count, even though they did teach you the lab portion). Otherwise, it would perhaps count as a supervisor/"employer" LOR, if that makes sense.

 

[wwdentist]

I think a letter from a PI would count if you took a lecture-based course for a grade with them. Even though you might've gotten a grade for each of those two semesters of research lab work, I think schools want LORs from professors who have taught you in a lecture course for it to count as a science LOR (this is why letters from lab TAs don't count, even though they did teach you the lab portion). Otherwise, it would perhaps count as a supervisor/"employer" LOR, if that makes sense.

Exactly - I used my PI as a letter from a supervisor

 

[asdfhhadsf234]

I think a letter from a PI would count if you took a lecture-based course for a grade with them. Even though you might've gotten a grade for each of those two semesters of research lab work, I think schools want LORs from professors who have taught you in a lecture course for it to count as a science LOR (this is why letters from lab TAs don't count, even though they did teach you the lab portion). Otherwise, it would perhaps count as a supervisor/"employer" LOR, if that makes sense.

This does make sense. I clearly have to email schools I apply to, but I'm curious if the fact that this fulfills the requirement for a science professor for my prehealth committee, which in turn writes the letter that most schools seem to prefer over individual letters, makes a difference. I understand schools get sent the letters you submit to the prehealth committee as part of their committee letter, but since I'm fulfilling the requirement for DS LORs by getting a letter from the committee itself, would it matter that the requirements for the committee letter differ from that of the school I'm applying to?

 

[artist2022]

... would it matter that the requirements for the committee letter differ from that of the school I'm applying to?

I think not.