how old is too old for LOR??

[akanene]

---

Members do not see this ad.

in need of some advice about my letters of rec... ive always planned on applying to medical school, but knew that i wanted to take some time off after college to volunteer. anyway, so i got my letters of rec from 3 professors (2 science, 1 humanities) before i left college bc i knew it would be a pain in the a** afterwards and they wouldnt remember me as well, but at this point they are dated spring/summer 2002 and I'm planning on applying for this application cycle this summer. My pre-med advisor told me they would "probably" be ok (he is a vague man and a lot of times a dick, so gave me nothing when i asked what "probably" meant), since im updating them with my boss from last year and another prof that i keep in touch with that i worked with. I have kept in touch with my humanities prof, so i could probably get her to update it, but she is extremely busy and out of the country, so not sure if she would hold up the app or not, but ive tried contacting the other profs to no avail. my question is should i try asking every school that im considering applying to if its ok or just go as is with the 2 recent reqs since i will have the accompanied letter from my college committee?? any relevant experience or advice would be very much appreciated. thanks!

 

[dr.z]

I applied in 1999/2000 cycle. Since then I am pursuing Ph.D, and I reapplied during 2004/2005 cycle. I had 3 letters from previous profs re-written with 1 new one from my mentor. Since my school had a pre-med advisor, she wrote the new committee letter. In the same packet, she did send the ones that was written in 1999 which I could not get an update for.

 

[i77ac]

in need of some advice about my letters of rec... ive always planned on applying to medical school, but knew that i wanted to take some time off after college to volunteer. anyway, so i got my letters of rec from 3 professors (2 science, 1 humanities) before i left college bc i knew it would be a pain in the a** afterwards and they wouldnt remember me as well, but at this point they are dated spring/summer 2002 and I'm planning on applying for this application cycle this summer. My pre-med advisor told me they would "probably" be ok (he is a vague man and a lot of times a dick, so gave me nothing when i asked what "probably" meant), since im updating them with my boss from last year and another prof that i keep in touch with that i worked with. I have kept in touch with my humanities prof, so i could probably get her to update it, but she is extremely busy and out of the country, so not sure if she would hold up the app or not, but ive tried contacting the other profs to no avail. my question is should i try asking every school that im considering applying to if its ok or just go as is with the 2 recent reqs since i will have the accompanied letter from my college committee?? any relevant experience or advice would be very much appreciated. thanks!

I have have gone through this personally myself, and can offer some advise. I too, took 3 years off after college, but I did receive my 3 LOR's while in college, dated 2002. Applied last summer in 2004, had no trouble whatsoever with acceptances. Granted, I did have 1 additional letter dated 2004 from my employer. So I think if you can get one updated, recent LOR, you'll be fine.

Seriously, don't ask your same professors from undergrad to write your LOR again. It is definately not necessary, and it might actually annoy them which would not be a good thing for your LOR... Go with what you have, just try to get additional one from the volunteering/work you will take on.

 

[tinkerbelle]

i applied to med school this year and i used two LORs from like 2001 i think

It should be ok as long as you have some recent recs. Plus, you have a committee letter and that's recent right?

 

[akanene]

thanks for the advice everyone... yeah my pre-med advisor will be send in a recent letter, so i was thinking i should be fine, but have no idea if there are any cut-offs for certain schools.. but the thought of writing to each school and asking sounds painful and im not sure i could do anyhthing about it anyway... anyone out there had a bad experience with this during an interview or with a particular school not accepting old LORs??