How bad is it to have mediocre science LORs?

[bashir]

---

Members do not see this ad.

OK, so I graduated with English and political science degrees from a small liberal arts college, and after working for a year, decided to try for med school. I'm taking the prerequisites at my local university right now and plan to apply this cycle. The problem is that I haven't gotten to know any of my science professors over the past year. I could make excuses about huge lecture classes, but I recognize that ultimately this is my fault. My question is, just how bad is this? I mean, I have a couple of science professors I can ask for letters. I think they will remember me by virtue of me being one of the top students in the class, but they don't know me much at all so I can't imagine what they would actually write in a letter of recommendation.

On the other hand, I have half a dozen humanities professors and one former employer who I feel confident would write me great recommendation letters. Can that make up for lousy science letters to some extent, or am I pretty much screwed?

 

[AdmiralChz]

Try going and chatting with just one of your science professors, most are surprisingly approachable. I only really had one science LOR myself, and had no problems since I had other decent LORs. But you really should have at least one, as many schools ask specifically for them.

 

[bashir]

I wasn't so much worried about not being able to get science LORs (though I'm not looking forward to asking professors I barely know), but rather I was concerned about the fact that they will inevitably be lackluster. Apparently no one wants to reassure me that this isn't the end of the world. 🙁

 

[BlueElmo]

I wasn't so much worried about not being able to get science LORs (though I'm not looking forward to asking professors I barely know), but rather I was concerned about the fact that they will inevitably be lackluster. Apparently no one wants to reassure me that this isn't the end of the world. 🙁

Um, you want a good to stellar LORs, especially from science professors. How would you know they will be lackluster? If you go talk to them, I'm sure they will assure you they will write you at least a decent letter.

 

[AdmiralChz]

We all have had to do it - go to office hours and chat it up with your prof! It's not just enough to do well in his/her class... you need to show that you're not just a pre-med robot!