How do I solve my recommendation letter situation?

[ShidaM]

I graduated last summer, and between my lack of discipline and dealing with mental health issues I neglected to ask professors for rec letters until this past January.
I'm in a situation where I've only had 2 professors agree to write me letters, one science and one non-science. I asked an initial group of professors in January but only had two accept to write me letters. I've gotten a rejection and radio silence from the rest. Is it even worth applying this cycle with these letters?

I already graduated and live several hours away from my university and work full time so I doubt I'll be able to go meet my professors in person. I guess I could take a local community college course this summer and apply this year or take it later and apply next year. But wouldn't it look weird to adcoms that I have a letter from a prof who taught a course I decided to take a year after I graduated? My gpa is a 3.88 so I'm not sure if it would be worth me doing a postbacc or masters to meet more professors who can write me good letters.

Other than email my professors again, what should I do?

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[Fluidity of Movement]

I graduated last summer, and between my lack of discipline and dealing with mental health issues I neglected to ask professors for rec letters until this past January.
I'm in a situation where I've only had 2 professors agree to write me letters, one science and one non-science. I asked an initial group of professors in January but only had two accept to write me letters. I've gotten a rejection and radio silence from the rest. Is it even worth applying this cycle with these letters?

I already graduated and live several hours away from my university and work full time so I doubt I'll be able to go meet my professors in person. I guess I could take a local community college course this summer and apply this year or take it later and apply next year. But wouldn't it look weird to adcoms that I have a letter from a prof who taught a course I decided to take a year after I graduated? My gpa is a 3.88 so I'm not sure if it would be worth me doing a postbacc or masters to meet more professors who can write me good letters.

One year isn't very long. If they are someone who can write you a strong letter then it shouldn't be an issue. There are ways to contact the professors if you can't get an email. However, the ideas you came up with are significantly more difficult than driving a few hours. You have to have letters, so you will have to figure out a way to make the time if you can't get a hold of them (which you should).

If you think they aren't going to write strong letters, then that is a different situation. Which from your post is starting to sound like the situation, in which case you should wait for one of our experts to respond.

 

[ShidaM]

One year isn't very long. If they are someone who can write you a strong letter then it shouldn't be an issue. There are ways to contact the professors if you can't get an email. However, the ideas you came up with are significantly more difficult than driving a few hours. You have to have letters, so you will have to figure out a way to make the time if you can't get a hold of them (which you should).

If you think they aren't going to write strong letters, then that is a different situation. Which from your post is starting to sound like the situation, in which case you should wait for one of our experts to respond.

Yeah, I could drive a few hours and (hopefully) get permission from work to go do this, but the other issue is the quality of the letters. My non-science professor could write me a decent one as I took two classes with him and they were small so we interacted a lot. The science letter I have is from a professor who's class I took completely online during COVID but I met with before getting the letter. I only did 3 years of school, and most of that was during COVID, so I don't have great connections with professors that I met in person, so the quality of the third letter (should I get it) does worry me to some degree. I know a mediocre letter isn't great, but at least I would be able to apply with it.

 

[toetalent]

I graduated last summer, and between my lack of discipline and dealing with mental health issues I neglected to ask professors for rec letters until this past January.
I'm in a situation where I've only had 2 professors agree to write me letters, one science and one non-science. I asked an initial group of professors in January but only had two accept to write me letters. I've gotten a rejection and radio silence from the rest. Is it even worth applying this cycle with these letters?

I already graduated and live several hours away from my university and work full time so I doubt I'll be able to go meet my professors in person. I guess I could take a local community college course this summer and apply this year or take it later and apply next year. But wouldn't it look weird to adcoms that I have a letter from a prof who taught a course I decided to take a year after I graduated? My gpa is a 3.88 so I'm not sure if it would be worth me doing a postbacc or masters to meet more professors who can write me good letters.

Other than email my professors again, what should I do?

the backrooms​

After all, you should need the Professor's letters of recommendation. This is the recognition of your results when studying at the school. This helps a lot when participating in the selection process. why not do. Do your best to get the best help suitable for your expertise

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

Yeah, I could drive a few hours and (hopefully) get permission from work to go do this, but the other issue is the quality of the letters. My non-science professor could write me a decent one as I took two classes with him and they were small so we interacted a lot.

I hope I'm not coming off too imposing since I know nothing about your life or situation, but as a non-trad I've held a lot of different jobs, and at some point you just have to do what needs to be done. If you need a personal / sick / car problem day then take one. We are talking about your medical career after all and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed salary.

Still, your main question seems unanswered and hopefully one of our professional advisors will be around to answer today.

How many letters do you have / can reasonably as of now? Perhaps one from work or a mentor maybe?

 

[LizzyM]

Given that you will have been working (full-time?) for at least a year, I do think that you could substitute a letter from your boss. Call the schools on your target list and ask if that is acceptable. They are often willing to go that route when someone has been out of school awhile and employed as a professional.

 

[ShidaM]

I hope I'm not coming off too imposing since I know nothing about your life or situation, but as a non-trad I've held a lot of different jobs, and at some point you just have to do what needs to be done. If you need a personal / sick / car problem day then take one. We are talking about your medical career after all and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed salary.

Still, your main question seems unanswered and hopefully one of our professional advisors will be around to answer today.

How many letters do you have / can reasonably as of now? Perhaps one from work or a mentor maybe?

I have two, one from a science professor, and one from a non-science professor. Unfortunately I don't think a letter from a mentor or work will help. The schools websites I've looked at seem to be pretty clear about needing at least 2 science professor letters (or 3 total sometimes).

 

[ShidaM]

Given that you will have been working (full-time?) for at least a year, I do think that you could substitute a letter from your boss. Call the schools on your target list and ask if that is acceptable. They are often willing to go that route when someone has been out of school awhile and employed as a professional.

Thanks for your reply. I graduated less than a year ago and unfortunately, I don't have as much work experience as one would expect. I spent the first few months after graduating finding a job that I did part time for 3 months before switching to the one I have now. I'm still new here so I don't have someone who could write me a letter. Maybe I would be better off applying a year from now after all?

 

[LizzyM]

Thanks for your reply. I graduated less than a year ago and unfortunately, I don't have as much work experience as one would expect. I spent the first few months after graduating finding a job that I did part time for 3 months before switching to the one I have now. I'm still new here so I don't have someone who could write me a letter. Maybe I would be better off applying a year from now after all?

Yes, postpone until your application is the best it can be.

 

[ShidaM]

Yes, postpone until your application is the best it can be.

Yeah, apart from the LORs my application isn't the best presentation of who I am... college was a rough couple of years for me so I wasn't able to put my best foot forward.

What do you think would be more advisable, to get letters from work after working for a year or to take some more science classes and try to foster relationships with new professors and get good recommendations from them? My work is is in the clinical data realm, so I'm not sure that it's something that is advantageous to my application. I guess I could try to find a more clinical role, but that would take some time. Even if I decide to hold off for a year, I'm not sure which approach would be better.

 

[LizzyM]

You may be best served by posting in the What Are My Chances subforum and asking for advice there regarding which path to take.

 

[ShidaM]

You may be best served by posting in the What Are My Chances subforum and asking for advice there regarding which path to take.

Got it, I'll upload that later today. Thanks for your help.

 

[chilly_md]

Got it, I'll upload that later today. Thanks for your help.

I see you had a WAMC post from some months back. Reply back to that thread with an updated set of hours. You were projecting your scribe work till May and it sounds like you quit a few months into the position. A low number of clinical hours and non-clinical volunteering suggests you should wait a year and spend time on those.

 

[ShidaM]

I see you had a WAMC post from some months back. Reply back to that thread with an updated set of hours. You were projecting your scribe work till May and it sounds like you quit a few months into the position. A low number of clinical hours and non-clinical volunteering suggests you should wait a year and spend time on those.

Yeah, I just posted an update on that. It reeks of desperation so I really hope someone can help. Another year is probably the way to go, but I don't know how I should go about fixing this issue over the year.