Letter of Recommendation Questions

[arsmoriendi]

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*PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE!*

I have requested letters of recommendation from a non-profit I am interning at. One individual is the case manager I support and the other is the department supervisor who oversees both of us. Both have agreed and said they could write strong letters. If I had to pick between the two, I'd probably send the case manager's letter since we work much more closely together. However, some schools explicitly ask for a supervisor's letter from an extracurricular. It may be splitting hairs, but would the case manager suffice or must it be the department supervisor?

Also, I am having issues with my second science letter recommender. The person I'd originally intended to ask was my research supervisor from undergrad. It's been several years back since I worked with him. There was never a guarantee that it would be a strong letter, but it sufficed to satisfy some schools' requirements. Anyway, the professor has recently been put on leave and investigated on charges of personal misconduct. I won't go into more details, but surely there's no way I should ask for a letter still, yes? Would it be a good idea to ask for a letter from another undergrad professor from a decade ago who likely doesn't remember much about me just to satisfy the letter requirement, or should I give up on applying to the schools that require it? My first science letter should be strong, so I'm wondering if it's worth it to try to check the box.

 

[LizzyM]

My understanding of the request for a supervisor's letter pertains to employers. The person you are "supporting" should be able to address your work ethic, professionalism, etc. I guess my other thought would be how many years of work experience each brings to the table and how often you see each of them (if it is daily vs. monthly, I'd go with the person you interact with more often unless they are very junior and the other can say something about 30 years of experience....)

I'd check the MSAR regarding what letters schools are expected from non-traditional students.

 

[arsmoriendi]

My understanding of the request for a supervisor's letter pertains to employers. The person you are "supporting" should be able to address your work ethic, professionalism, etc. I guess my other thought would be how many years of work experience each brings to the table and how often you see each of them (if it is daily vs. monthly, I'd go with the person you interact with more of,ten unless they are very junior and the other can say something about 30 years of experience....)

I'd check the MSAR regarding what letters schools are expected from non-traditional students.

Thanks for the feedback! I am leaning towards the supervisor.

I should've mentioned a few more details. The internship is a year-ish long position. At this point, I am functioning more like an assistant case manager than an intern. It feels like a part-time job, so I thought perhaps it might count under 'employment'. While it is not a paid internship officially, I do receive a stipend from my degree program for it. It's a weird gray area.

Thankfully the schools that specifically require 2 science letters seem to be fewer these days. I plan to write to them and see if the req can be waived. Since posting, I've written to the chair of that department for advice.

 

[arsmoriendi]

Update on the second part of my original post: the department chair informed me that he remembers me positively and that a committee letter can still be written for me. Alternatively, I can choose to submit individual letters according to my preference. He understands the non-trad situation puts me in a weird spot.

Since this option is available, would foregoing it bar me from applying to schools that require a committee letter for those whose schools write one? I graduated undergrad six years ago, and I have read elsewhere here that the requirement is typically waived for non-trads, but those are usually situations where the applicant cannot get a letter at all.

I simply think my individual letters will be much stronger and, since they're more recent, be a better reflection of who I am as a person now.

Best case scenario: I submit a committee letter (which is composite) and add my individual, recent letters. But that doesn't seem to be an option at some schools that require one committee letter or individual letters.

Second scenario: I submit a committee letter only to schools that require it and individual letters to everyone else.

Third scenario (preferred): I submit individual letters to every school.

Would appreciate any advice on this.

 

[LizzyM]

In my somewhat limited experience (long but from a limited number of schools), many committee letters solicit individual letters and append them in full as attachments to the committee letter. Others will solicit letters, quote from them but not attach them to the committee letter. Either way, the strong things the recommenders will say about you will make it into the committee letter. You can ask what your committee does.

 

[arsmoriendi]

In my somewhat limited experience (long but from a limited number of schools), many committee letters solicit individual letters and append them in full as attachments to the committee letter. Others will solicit letters, quote from them but not attach them to the committee letter. Either way, the strong things the recommenders will say about you will make it into the committee letter. You can ask what your committee does.

My bad, I forgot to mention this. The committee does a composite letter and only takes into consideration letters from the institution. All the individual letters I plan to use come from after my time there. So for schools that require the committee letter if available, my app won't be as strong as it could be, I think. I am willing to undergo the committee process if it means putting together the strongest application.

I guess I am just confused on the wording of some schools' requirements. There are a few that 'recommend' or 'prefer' a committee letter. Only if this is not available are individual letters accepted. It's not an this-or-that as the applicant chooses, but neither is it a straight-up requirement.

 

[LizzyM]

By requiring a committee letter if one is available, some medical schools are passively screening out people who aren't going to qualify for a letter from their undergrad committee because of a committee rule that the applicant must have a certain GPA/MCAT score and/or meet a specific deadline and/or pay a fee. That's the med school's prerogative for good or for ill. Other schools know the committee writers, value their opinions, and find comfort in the predictable templated way that information is provided about candidates from their school and thus "prefer" but don't require that applicants have a committee letter (perhaps understanding that many qualified applicants can't or won't jump through the unreasonable hoops set up by their undergrad pre-med offices.)
Given that it can take 20-30 minutes to read an application that includes a committee letter or three individual letters, you can see why some schools would not want to open the flood gates to a committee letter (that has 3 or 4 letters appended) plus five more individual letters!

This is going to be a test of your best judgment.

 

[arsmoriendi]

By requiring a committee letter if one is available, some medical schools are passively screening out people who aren't going to qualify for a letter from their undergrad committee because of a committee rule that the applicant must have a certain GPA/MCAT score and/or meet a specific deadline and/or pay a fee. That's the med school's prerogative for good or for ill. Other schools know the committee writers, value their opinions, and find comfort in the predictable templated way that information is provided about candidates from their school and thus "prefer" but don't require that applicants have a committee letter (perhaps understanding that many qualified applicants can't or won't jump through the unreasonable hoops set up by their undergrad pre-med offices.)
Given that it can take 20-30 minutes to read an application that includes a committee letter or three individual letters, you can see why some schools would not want to open the flood gates to a committee letter (that has 3 or 4 letters appended) plus five more individual letters!

This is going to be a test of your best judgment.

Immensely helpful, as always! Thank you for all the feedback.

For what it's worth, I've received confirmation that it is "one comprehensive recommendation letter written by the chair" of the committee. Hopefully it won't be too much to append one or two additional individual letters. I know some schools find the committee letter alone sufficient... time to reach out to admissions offices!

 

[LizzyM]

Ask if the committee solicits letters from people who can recommend you to the committee and ask if the committee chair quotes those letters and/or appends them in full to the committee letter.