Does a Bio-prof Advisor who never taught me count as non-science LOR?

[TurtBro]

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Hey guys,

My advisor who is one of my letter-writers is a biology professor. However, I have not taken any classes under him and he only knows me in a personal capacity. I'm concerned that this will not count as a non-science faculty LOR. My health professions committee has accepted his letter and will send it out, but I'm still feeling anxious that it may be rejected. I checked with LOR requirements on MSAR and most schools simply state that they only need the committee's letter packet, so I should be okay?

I'm going to email the schools I'm applying to, but should I hold off on sending primaries until I get a response from all of them?

This is my first post on SDN, so forgive me if this is in the wrong section.

 

[LizzyM]

Med schools will accept letter packets from pre-med application committees. Full stop. You submit that and you are covered.

If you didn't have that coverage, I would not count a biology professor, regardless of the way you know one another, as a non-science letter. With a non-scirence letter, the adcom is generally trying to get at how you handle non-science writing assignments, class discussions, critical thinking in the humanities or social sciences. There have been other writers such as music professors and sports coaches who often write about leadership, teamwork, perserverance, etc. on a team or in a performance group. Often these are attributes that science professors have not had the same opportunities to observe.

 

[LondonVibes]

Hey guys,

My advisor who is one of my letter-writers is a biology professor. However, I have not taken any classes under him and he only knows me in a personal capacity. I'm concerned that this will not count as a non-science faculty LOR. My health professions committee has accepted his letter and will send it out, but I'm still feeling anxious that it may be rejected. I checked with LOR requirements on MSAR and most schools simply state that they only need the committee's letter packet, so I should be okay?

I'm going to email the schools I'm applying to, but should I hold off on sending primaries until I get a response from all of them?

This is my first post on SDN, so forgive me if this is in the wrong section.

If you have a committee letter, you’re good. Some (almost exclusively DO schools) may want an MD/DO letter on top of that, but no more professor letters are needed (unless required by the committee itself).

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

If you have a committee letter, you’re good. Some (almost exclusively DO schools) may want an MD/DO letter on top of that, but no more professor letters are needed (unless required by the committee itself).

I believe lot of committee letters will have the letters from faculty attached.

 

[Goro]

Hey guys,

My advisor who is one of my letter-writers is a biology professor. However, I have not taken any classes under him and he only knows me in a personal capacity. I'm concerned that this will not count as a non-science faculty LOR. My health professions committee has accepted his letter and will send it out, but I'm still feeling anxious that it may be rejected. I checked with LOR requirements on MSAR and most schools simply state that they only need the committee's letter packet, so I should be okay?

I'm going to email the schools I'm applying to, but should I hold off on sending primaries until I get a response from all of them?

This is my first post on SDN, so forgive me if this is in the wrong section.

To follow up the wise LizzyM, submitting a Bio prof LOR as a nonscience LOR would lead to a rejection as screeners would wonder if you can't follow simple instructions or think that you're a special snowflake who thinks that the rules don't apply to them.,

 

[TurtBro]

For peace of mind, I reached out to one of my psychology professors last night and today I managed to secure a recommendation from her. Thank you all for the feedback.