Letter of Rec from Years Ago?

[banana_phone]

Hello All!

Little background info: I am a 24-year-old currently taking pre-reqs at the University of Minnesota/Northwestern Health Science University. I attended Chapman University from 2008-2010, before transferring to and graduating from the University of Oregon with a B.S. in Elementary Ed. I started Masters in Ed. program but discontinued to pursue career in medicine. Plan to take MCAT Spring 2016 and apply that June.

My question is: I have a very strong letter of recommendation from a professor at Chapman, but as I was an Education major there, she cannot really speak to my potential as a physician. She speaks to my ability as a student and character, among other things. It's an outstanding letter and I would love to include it in my application...but will it work? She was my professor in 2009 -- still remembers me, calling me one of the best students she's ever had. I plan to get science recs from my Organic Chem professor and likely my Microbiology professor, too.

As I will have taken the course with this professor ~7 years before applying to medical school, will this letter still be appropriate?

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[hopefuldoc97239]

have her write a new letter.

 

[banana_phone]

have her write a new letter.

A completely new one? It's an amazing letter that took her a long time to write, and the class was a long time ago. Can I not use the already written one if she re-dates and signs?

 

[mspeedwagon]

She should definitely write a new one. What med schools care about is your potential as a physician. If the letter isn't an assessment of your potential as a physician it's worthless. Here are the guidelines: https://www.aamc.org/download/349990/data/lettersguidelinesbrochure.pdf

A completely new one? It's an amazing letter that took her a long time to write, and the class was a long time ago. Can I not use the already written one if she re-dates and signs?

 

[banana_phone]

She should definitely write a new one. What med schools care about is your potential as a physician. If the letter isn't an assessment of your potential as a physician it's worthless.

I may be completely confused. I thought character references were also useful? Or maybe my understanding of character references is what is off..I didn't realize the character references were meant to directly asses my potential as a physician. I thought they were more meant to give a general assessment of me as a person? Is this incorrect?

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

she might be able to use parts of her original letter in writing a new letter, but you need a current letter.

the letter should:

1. be dated within the last year
2. be addressed (generically) to an admissions committee
3. describe your potential to be a great physician

character does count, but if she is saying "this student will make a great elementary teacher" then that doesn't answer the question of what kind of physician you would make. i mean, i know people who would make great teachers but not great physicians, don't you?

 

[mspeedwagon]

Yes, it's incorrect. No one really cares about your character is isolation (you're a good, hard working person, that excels... blah, blah... that can be said for [almost] anyone). The link above is directly from AAMC. Number on the list of things they thought were important was: "Provide an accurate assessment of the applicant’s suitability for medical school rather than advocate for the applicant."

Ideally the letter should address personality traits and things you've done that make you great for medical school. I gave a copy of my (draft) personal statement and my resume to all my writers along with a few bullets highlighting things I did in their class that made me particularly good for med school. I don't know what did or did not make it into my letters, but seeing that I got about ten interviews this past season (with a mediocre MCAT score), I'd highly recommend this strategy.

I may be completely confused. I thought character references were also useful? Or maybe my understanding of character references is what is off..I didn't realize the character references were meant to directly asses my potential as a physician. I thought they were more meant to give a general assessment of me as a person? Is this incorrect?