Letter of Recommedation from 2 Science Professors, but I rarely talked to them.

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

PreMade

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Aug 5, 2014
Messages
93
Reaction score
14
I have two professors I want to ask for LOR and I'm sure they would write them for me with good intentions, but I think I went to their office hours like maybe 1 or 2 times and I don't even know if they remember me since it has been some time.

What do you think is the best way to ask them? I'm thinking about going to them during office hours and give them my information (name, course attended date, etc...) and letter on why I want to pursue medicine and my background (modified personal statement). Should I give them my transcript and resume?

How heavily do you think adcoms weigh the letter of recommendation from science professors? Do they understand that there's 300 + students and getting to know the professor is not the easiest thing?

Also, do they care about class rank in that course? I got an A in the class but I know my class rank is not high as a lot of students got an A (I did bad on one exam which lowered my rank significantly), do you think they would look at this heavily?
 
Try to contact them, you don't have anything to lose. I'd recommend emailing them first, if they don't respond, call their offices. The professors don't have to know you well in order to give you a LOR. They already know your performance by looking at your exam scores, homeworks, ...etc. However, they might ask for your personal statement, a resume, or both. Some of them actually interview students.
 
TBH that sounds like a weak letter, I would try to only get LOR from people that know you well
 
If I were you, I'd try to find other letter writers that you have a stronger relationship with. At most, they could say you were a good student and that maybe you were nice during their class. Two tepid letters will only hurt your app.
 
If you have a letter service, just get the letters and hold them. However, they will be weak because your professors don't know much about you as a person. You would be surprise how students are able to get a good or stellar letter of recommendation in a class of 300+. The largest reason why they are good is because they see their professors 1-2 times a week, or they do research with them after taking their classes. Class rank can help, but if the professor doesn't know you well enough, it won't be a stellar letter.
 
Thank you for the replies, but the reason I asked is because I don't have any more classes to take and I'm not going to take classes for the sake of getting LOR.

There's nothing I can do at this point but try to talk to them and I'm sure they will write me one, but I know it won't be a great letter.

I was just asking for ideas.
 
Top