Letter of Rec Choice Help

[LordDerpulus]

Hello SDN,

I have a predicament regarding my letters of rec. I plan on applying for med school in 2024 and am currently working on gathering LORs. Out of the ones I've secured, I'm most confident in strong letters from my PI, the one from my supervisor at my EMT job, and the one from my creative writing class professor. I have also secured a letter that I don't believe will be as good from an upper division biology professor that will be a generic LordDerpulus scored an A, was Xth percentile of the class, a few personal details woven in, emphasis that my success in his class means he is confident in my success in med school, etc etc.

I need one more science letter of rec and I need your help in deciding which to pursue/ask.

I have a professor in an upper division biology lab I'm currently taking that I've formed quite a good relationship with so far that I believe could write a potentially strong LOR (I have not yet asked). However, I arrived to lab late one day, which resulted in a monstrous penalty of 8% off my total grade. I am now highly likely to receive a B or B+ (An A- is technically possible but I'd have to walk on water), and am worried she will not agree to write a strong letter of rec because of this grade. I could try to contest the decision or try to convince her to reduce the weight of the penalty but I'm not confident. Fortunately, it's still quite early in the quarter and I still have two more exams and several assignments ahead of me. If I do well on those exams, it might not be a problem in spite of a B+, but I'm not sure.

Alternatively, I could ask an Ochem professor. I had taken her class and also TA'd for her in a separate Ochem lab class, but she doesn't know me that well (I know, sounds insane, I can explain). I didn't build a strong relationship with her when I took her Ochem class but I still scored very well. This, in addition to my strong performance in ochem lab, in turn qualified me to sign up as a TA for Ochem lab class; however, the school doesn't allow undergraduates to TA for chemistry classes, so there's a special program where an undergraduate and graduate TA work together to teach the Ochem lab class. The issue is, she doesn't know me well from that either, since only the graduate TAs meet with her directly while undergraduate TAs meet with the chemistry department head. Now, I have already asked this professor if she would be willing to write a letter of recommendation and she said yes. However, she said she'd only be able to comment on the basics of my performance in her lecture class, but that she'd also work with the graduate TA partner I worked with in the lab to comment on my performance as a TA in her lab class. The really messed up part about all this is that she asked me to email her after our conversation to hash out more details, and then straight up ghosted me for the entire summer (Yes, I sent multiple follow up emails). I found her class schedule and intercepted her between classes to ask her about this, where she again reiterated that she is willing to write a letter and to email her again, but then I got ghosted for a second time (multiple follow ups again)! I've asked the graduate TA to email her yesterday to see if he has any luck but I'm actually going to go insane. (Yes I had the correct email, I checked when I met her in person)

I'm thinking I most likely won't have enough time to build up another relationship and ask another professor for a letter, as I have been burned and rejected before from asking professors after the winter quarter in March 2023, citing that they were busy with too many letters even though I was asking for a letter more than a year in advance.....

Bash me all you want. I'm sorely regretting not building better relationships with my professors earlier in my academic career, but now that that ship has sailed and these two are my best next two potential letter writers, what do you all think I should do?

For additional context, my GPA is 3.97, MCAT is 521, and I go to a really big Californian public school.

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[Muq]

This seems like a tough situation, because I wouldn't recommend getting a letter from a professor of a class in which you did not score high. The second professor seems tough to work with too. However, I do think you have plenty of time to build relationships with other professors, so you may want to start doing that with some science professors. Meeting often with a professor you've taken recently or are currently taking will work, even if it is twice a month during their office hours.

 

[LordDerpulus]

This seems like a tough situation, because I wouldn't recommend getting a letter from a professor of a class in which you did not score high. The second professor seems tough to work with too. However, I do think you have plenty of time to build relationships with other professors, so you may want to start doing that with some science professors. Meeting often with a professor you've taken recently or are currently taking will work, even if it is twice a month during their office hours.

See the issue is the school I'm at operates on a quarter system. The only other stem professor I'm taking this quarter has her office hours smack in the middle of my lab session so that's impossible to attend. This means my next opportunity to ask for a letter of rec from a science professor will be in the winter quarter from January to the end of March, which is starting to get a bit dangerously close.

Obviously, that's not to say I won't try but it worries me. I think my strategy for the next quarter may involve picking up as many science lab classes (less lecture as class sizes regularly go above 100 for a lot of science lectures, even in upper division) as I can and straight up asking them at the start of the quarter if they have enough room for me if I were to hypothetically do well and ask for a letter.

I've also sent out a ton of requests by email to all my previous science professors whose classes I scored well in to at least have something generic for a backup, but I'm not hopeful.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Yeah you don't want letters from either of those people.

Look, next time you're in a science class: sit in the front row, neve be late, always participate and smile. Go to office hours to "help you understand the material" even if you already know it. Ask this professor for career advice (don't overdo it, but a couple dispersed questions).

I know the above sounds wildly neurotic, but you gotta do what you gotta do at this point. Going to class in undergrad never even remotely helped me, but I went and played Mr. Eagle Scout because I knew I would need letters from these people.

If that science class is in the spring, well then you better be on your best behavior. Sorry bro, that might not be what you want to hear, but it is what it is.

Your bio professor you were late to class is an acceptable-ish alternative, hopefully she wouldn't mention you being late. But I would really use that as a last resort.

 

[eigen]

FWIW, as a science professor... grades are rarely what makes for a good letter, much less a strong one. I have students with As that I can't write a strong letter, and students with Bs that I can write a very strong letter for.

Your transcript shows your grades. Choose letter writers based on the competencies they've seen you display and can speak to beyond grades.

 

[LordDerpulus]

Both of you, thank you. I think I will continue pursuing the letter from my bio lab professor, as I think we have a good relationship. I'm typically the only one or maybe one of two people at her office hours and I always stay late after what lecture sessions we have outside of the lab. I'll just have to ask her if she can write me a particularly strong and positive letter of rec in spite of my likely grade, as I know anything negative on a LOR can be absolutely ruinous.

However, I will also continue trying to get a better letter from the winter (Jan-Mar) quarter. Do you think it'll look bad or disingenuous if I ask outright at the start of lab what a professor's policy on letters of rec is, if they could hypothetically write me one if I perform well in the class, and if they have enough room or time for it? The drop without a W deadline for lab classes is before the second class, so ideally I'd like to know so I can drop immediately and search for a backup.

 

[eigen]

Yes, that would come across quite badly to me and would likely sour things you tried to do after that, because I'd be wondering if you were just checking boxes to try to get a good letter or if what you were displaying was your actual character.

Remember that for faculty letters are us putting our reputations behind your recommendation. The letter I can write is only as strong as the evidence you give me: namely, showing me how you live up to the competencies you want me to write about in your letter.

The best advice I can think for applicants is to go through the AAMC core competencies- the Anatomy of an Applicant workbook can be quite useful- and think for each competency where in your application are you showing it and how. Then think what parts you have someone who could write a letter to attest to based on what you've shown them in the time you've worked with them.

Applicants seem to view letters as transactional: from the other side of the request, they aren't.