Letter of Rec Question/Help

[BBQ7]

So here's the situation:

My school does committee letters, the writer and I know each other very well, and this letter will be no problem. However, in order to get the CL, you have to submit 3 LORS from science profs, 1 from non science, 1 from a Dr., and 1 wild card. As a non-science major, my only science classes are HUGE lectures with very impersonal relationships with profs. As a result, one of the profs I had to ask simply told me "I won't be able to say much beyond you getting an A in the class," although he agreed to do it simply to meet my undergrad's requirement. I'm under the impression that this is going to hurt me more than it's going to help, because my school sends the committee letter as well as the other 6 letters appended (seems like overkill, but not up to me!).

I guess my question is, do schools REALLY emphasize the committee letter if it is sent (i.e. might ignore the generic, blah one)? I just don't know how much one mediocre letter would hurt me if it is in a packet with 6 other better letters, one being the committee letter. May try to ask the committee to make an exception and just get rid of that letter before sending to AMCAS, since I'd still have enough other science prof LORs.

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[thatwouldbeanarchy]

If you have any science profs who know you better, I would definitely ask them first. If not, you could try providing a prof with a copy of your CV and/or a brief description of your background, your preparation for med school, your interests in medicine, etc. and see if they'd be willing to include these things in a letter. Some, like the professor you mentioned, may not be willing to and will instead want to stick to what they know firsthand about you, which may only be that you got an A in their class. I don't know that a mediocre letter like this would HURT your application (assuming the prof isn't going to say anything bad about you) but it won't help much either. Med schools already know your grades; they don't need a letter restating them.

You need science LORs so there's really no way around this. Are there any science profs who you visited during office hours? Profs who you TA'd for? Rack your brain a bit and see if there are any science profs who are more likely to remember you than others. If you're really forced to get LORs from profs who don't know you well, at least make sure your other LORs are super super solid.