importance of letters of rec???

[ktinahhhx]

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I'm planning to apply this coming fall, so I have been preparing to ask my professors for letters of rec.Take into consideration that I haven't been close to any of my professors before this quarter.

I went to my mol bio professor's OH 8 out of 10 weeks. Every time, there are about 15 people there so I get to ask maybe one question per OH. MAYBE. So there was no chance to talk to her one on one. Our class consists of about 300 students. When I asked her today for a letter of rec, she told me that she doesn't know me. and I said I went to all her OHs but because a lot of people are there, it was pretty much impossible to talk to her on a 'personal level'. That was the best I could do. Another guy was there asking for a letter of rec for dentistry but she said the same thing to him.

She said that she can write me one but it'll be really simple. ex: this person took mol bio with me. there were 300 people in the class. She got ___grade. She said it was nothing personal but it's because she doesn't know me. She said that she writes strong letters for people who have done projects/research with her. so basically at my school, it's impossible to get good letters unless i get a research/TA position which is really competitive.

I have another prof that i'm going to ask tomorrow. the class has also 300 people and i've talk to him about two-three times basically one on one so he might say the same things.

On the other hand, i'll have a strong letter of rec from my podiatrist.

So how important are letters and should i take my mol bio prof's? if not, i have no one else to ask (those two are my only bio profs this quarter) unless i wait another quarter which means i'll get my letters next feb give or take.

i'm also a junior and i really wanna go straight into podiatry school after graduating. please help!

 

[sorham]

personally i wouldn't worry to much about it. I was kind of in the same boat with large class sizes. I definitely wouldn't wait till next semester to get one, just get one from one of these two professors and move on. That being said make sure you have a good one from the podiatrist and maybe even get one from someone else that can speak to your character. I worked at the same place the entire time I was in school and had my manager write me a letter, which was great as he knew me very well. Make up for it in other areas, as long as you get a letter from a professor to check it off the to do list of things that need to complete your application you will be fine. Aren't there other professors though, what about your major, I know for the general bio and chem classes there were tons of people, but when I got to the upper level classes of my major the classes were smaller and I did get to know one professor fairly well. If not though like i said, i wouldn't wait till january to get your application in just to get this one good letter from a professor. Just my opinion. By the way one thing that might help is when you ask the professor for a letter give them a resume/personal statement. Let them know who you are in that personal statement or whatever you give them. Also offer to sit with them and have kind of an interview so they can ask you questions and get to know you more. Sometimes those things can help a lot.

 

[ktinahhhx]

personally i wouldn't worry to much about it. I was kind of in the same boat with large class sizes. I definitely wouldn't wait till next semester to get one, just get one from one of these two professors and move on. That being said make sure you have a good one from the podiatrist and maybe even get one from someone else that can speak to your character. I worked at the same place the entire time I was in school and had my manager write me a letter, which was great as he knew me very well. Make up for it in other areas, as long as you get a letter from a professor to check it off the to do list of things that need to complete your application you will be fine. Aren't there other professors though, what about your major, I know for the general bio and chem classes there were tons of people, but when I got to the upper level classes of my major the classes were smaller and I did get to know one professor fairly well. If not though like i said, i wouldn't wait till january to get your application in just to get this one good letter from a professor. Just my opinion. By the way one thing that might help is when you ask the professor for a letter give them a resume/personal statement. Let them know who you are in that personal statement or whatever you give them. Also offer to sit with them and have kind of an interview so they can ask you questions and get to know you more. Sometimes those things can help a lot.

thanks so much! unfortunately, UCSD is known for bio majors so all our upper div bio classes still have 300+ students with like 100 people waitlisted every quarter so our sizes don't get smaller. do you know if the admissions take the letters really into consideration?? i think i'll have a strong personal statement because of the things i had to go through in life (disabled family member, immigrant, low income family) so i'm hoping that will make up for it.

 

[bocajuniors]

thanks so much! unfortunately, UCSD is known for bio majors so all our upper div bio classes still have 300+ students with like 100 people waitlisted every quarter so our sizes don't get smaller. do you know if the admissions take the letters really into consideration?? i think i'll have a strong personal statement because of the things i had to go through in life (disabled family member, immigrant, low income family) so i'm hoping that will make up for it.

OP honestly they don't look at letters of rec in too much detail. basically they want to make sure you aren't a total creep and have some skill at speaking to professors. ask a professor from a smaller class if you have one. the podiatrist letter carries much more weight. but don't sweat it.

 

[bocajuniors]

I'm planning to apply this coming fall, so I have been preparing to ask my professors for letters of rec.Take into consideration that I haven't been close to any of my professors before this quarter.

I went to my mol bio professor's OH 8 out of 10 weeks. Every time, there are about 15 people there so I get to ask maybe one question per OH. MAYBE. So there was no chance to talk to her one on one. Our class consists of about 300 students. When I asked her today for a letter of rec, she told me that she doesn't know me. and I said I went to all her OHs but because a lot of people are there, it was pretty much impossible to talk to her on a 'personal level'. That was the best I could do. Another guy was there asking for a letter of rec for dentistry but she said the same thing to him.

She said that she can write me one but it'll be really simple. ex: this person took mol bio with me. there were 300 people in the class. She got ___grade. She said it was nothing personal but it's because she doesn't know me. She said that she writes strong letters for people who have done projects/research with her. so basically at my school, it's impossible to get good letters unless i get a research/TA position which is really competitive.

I have another prof that i'm going to ask tomorrow. the class has also 300 people and i've talk to him about two-three times basically one on one so he might say the same things.

On the other hand, i'll have a strong letter of rec from my podiatrist.

So how important are letters and should i take my mol bio prof's? if not, i have no one else to ask (those two are my only bio profs this quarter) unless i wait another quarter which means i'll get my letters next feb give or take.

i'm also a junior and i really wanna go straight into podiatry school after graduating. please help!

are there any other profs you can ask? they don't have to be biology. they can be just about anything but chem/bio/physics look better. maybe one from last semester or one from freshmen year.

 

[ktinahhhx]

are there any other profs you can ask? they don't have to be biology. they can be just about anything but chem/bio/physics look better. maybe one from last semester or one from freshmen year.

On both samuel merrit & western u websites, they want 2 letters from science professors. and unfortunately, i dont have anyone else to ask. sigh.

 

[josebiwasabi]

i got interview offers from 8 of the 9 schools with 3 letters of rec: 1 from a pod, 1 from my biochem prof, and 1 from the prof that instructed "gender in korean film and literature"

you definitely do not need 2 science profs. i chose my biochem prof because he was actually also my TA for my biochem lab section (lol weird, i know) so he knew me really well. i chose my gender studies prof for several reasons. 1) i was in a small class of 14 students so she definitely knew me. 2) the class was socratic seminar style so she was familiar with my ability to discuss things. and 3) i had to write a few 10 page papers for that course so she was familiar with my capabilities as a writer and communicator. i think those things enabled her to write a pretty decent LOR.

 

[ktinahhhx]

i can get one from a Korean Literature class that i took for three quarters with the same professor so she knew me pretty well.

Why do the sites say that they want two from science professors? is that just a preference then?

thanks for your input!

 

[RATM2010]

When in a big class, a teacher should have no prob writing a lor if you do it right. That means march right down and talk to her/him right before they start teaching on day 1. I was direct and told them that I want them to write my lette when this (1) not (3-4) class ends. I never had a prob with letters. Academic letters DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERSONAL. The letter can say...

I teach class X with 300 students. The average test average is 80. Student X consistently scored a 85 and is in the top half percent of the class. I feel student X has the academic abiliy to susceed in your program. Nuff Said...I think my medical biochem LOR went something like this.


Personal stuff are in letters from like a priest, coach, work supervisor,pod you shadowed, etc. Do not stress this part out. They do not really care about the letters, just that you have em. I was accepted before the schools even asked me about them. Now, the personal statement in the application is VERY IMPORTANT!

 

[RATM2010]

i can get one from a Korean Literature class that i took for three quarters with the same professor so she knew me pretty well.

Why do the sites say that they want two from science professors? is that just a preference then?

thanks for your input!

ACtually, is is 1 premed comittee letter or 2 science. Just their min requirement.

 

[MaxillofacialMN]

Ah, the joys of going to a small school where the biggest class I had was Intro Bio with 60 students. And then I had that prof for lab with 12 students!