Letter of recommendations. Help!

[Faefly]

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Hey, everyone
I am a senior, got a semester or two to graduate.
I am confused about the letter of recommendation process.
When I applied to universities, there was this online website where most universities had and I asked my teachers to leave me their recommendations via that website. But I don't know how the process will work for the dental school.
I know LSAT had a similar website where we can apply to all the universities and leave the letter of recommendations there.
but how would I ask my professor to send their letters to say 16 universities, kinda of embarrassing to do that.

One other thing, do I really need to get the recommendations of chemistry or biology professors, because my major is different. I feel I know the professors in my field better than pre-health professors.

 

[Toothout]

It's pretty similar to the system you used for undergrad (assuming you used commonapp). You put the info of the person recommending you (name, email...) into AADSAS and they'll contact them with instructions on how to submit their recommendation. Pretty straight forward.

It depends on the school you are applying to. Most schools have different requirements for LORs, but I think that it was said here that if you get 2 from bio, 1 from Chem, and 1 from a dentist you would be set for most (if not all) the schools.
If you think you can't get that, look up for the individual requirements of the schools you plan to apply. However, I believe all require at least 1 science professor.

Edit: you don't ask them to send the letter to individual universities. They only need to submit it once to AADSAS and AADSAS will send it to all the schools you apply.

 

[DentalAptitude]

Look into Interfolio. Professors upload letters into the site, and Interfolio stores them, and you use a code on the AADSAS which sends your letters. As far as I know, they don't even know which schools you apply to, if you're worried about them knowing which ones or how many.


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[Faefly]

It's pretty similar to the system you used for undergrad (assuming you used commonapp). You put the info of the person recommending you (name, email...) into AADSAS and they'll contact them with instructions on how to submit their recommendation. Pretty straight forward.

It depends on the school you are applying to. Most schools have different requirements for LORs, but I think that it was said here that if you get 2 from bio, 1 from Chem, and 1 from a dentist you would be set for most (if not all) the schools.
If you think you can't get that, look up for the individual requirements of the schools you plan to apply. However, I believe all require at least 1 science professor.

Edit: you don't ask them to send the letter to individual universities. They only need to submit it once to AADSAS and AADSAS will send it to all the schools you apply.

Thank you for your reply.
I checked some of the schools I am interested in. They all accept either a letter from health community or 3 to 2 letters from science professors
Math is science right? I mean does it really have to be Biology or Chemistry!
How about physics?
I really hate this LOR thing. Like last time I told my department advisor if it was ok to list him as reference, I was trying to volunteer somewhere, and this advisor, I always pop to his office; and he right away said oh I don't know you, I can't sorry!
Seriously!
I wasn't even looking for a LOR, just to put his name as a reference!
SO because of this experience, I feel like, I don't want to ask anybody about a letter, but in the end I have to, and I feel if I asked, they will refuse!

 

[Faefly]

Look into Interfolio. Professors upload letters into the site, and Interfolio stores them, and you use a code on the AADSAS which sends your letters. As far as I know, they don't even know which schools you apply to, if you're worried about them knowing which ones or how many.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

I checked this website, but can you explain more about it?
Thank you!

 

[blablabla1]

Look into Interfolio. Professors upload letters into the site, and Interfolio stores them, and you use a code on the AADSAS which sends your letters. As far as I know, they don't even know which schools you apply to, if you're worried about them knowing which ones or how many.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

Definitely use interfolio. It is made for this type of purpose

 

[DentalAptitude]

For your question regarding the types of letters, that guideline exists because some schools do strictly require certain sciences (often bio specifically). Many schools will say "science professors" and others don't even specify. That's why if you follow what he posted, you would meet the overwhelming majority of LOR requirements.

Physics will definitely count as a science letter. Math i'm not positive. On the AADSAS application, calculus and statistics fall under "other science" when you calculate GPA. But I would contact schools you intend to apply to and ask if they would take a math letter when science is specified as a requirement to be safe.

Interfolio is very easy to use. When I asked professors for a letter, they were all already familiar with the system. Hopefully that'd be your case too. Anyways, when you ask them for a letter, you enter their information into a form and they get an email that provides a secure way for your professor to upload and store the letter. It will stay there for however long you subscribe to the service. Then, when its time to apply, its as simple as following a few instructions and entering a code into your application. AADSAS updates once they receive the letters, so you aren't left in the dark.

In my personal experience, my favorite part was being able to ask professors for letters before applications were even out. I had TA'd, and asked for a letter while I was still a very familiar face. Last piece of advice, and this service helps you with this part; don't ask at the very end of spring semester. That's when a large amount of applicants go back and ask profs. They are already swamped with grading and other administrative work, on top of the fact that you are now 1 in 25 people asking. Although that depends on how big you school is, mine was quite large 🙂


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[Toothout]

Math might also be science since it's included in our science GPA. I would call some schools and ask