Letters of Rec

[RKK]

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Hello.

I have a question regarding letters of recommendation. I know that all med schools want different types of letters (i.e., letters from 3 sci profs, or 2 sci and 1 humanities, or 2 sci and 1-2 'professionals')
So I have asked 3 science profs for letters as of now, but I don't know how many letters I'll need from each of them. My question is: what do I tell these professors when they ask when I need them by? Is this made clear when I receive my secondaries or do I need to call each school and ask?

 

[DocGibby]

If your Undergrad has a pre-medical advisory committee (most do) then your life just got a whole lot easier. If this is the case have your profs submit one letter to the Pre-med committee. The committee them compiles them into one packet and submits them to your chosen schools.

If not, well, you'll be recieving secondaries around the 1st or 2nd week of august (that is if you submitted your AMCAS stuff in June and everythings running smoothly). At that point you can let them know where to send them. In all likelihood your recommenders will just write one letter for all the schools, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Let all your recommenders know now that you would like them to start. That will give them a good month to put something together.

 

[DocGibby]

Last point,

Some schools have a deadline for the secondary others do not. However, they all expect you to get your recomendations submitted in a timely manner. Most secondaries simply state, "At this time you should request recommendations from X faculty members and X doctors." In anycase, the given schools policy will be explained in the secondary application.

 

[RKK]

Thanks for your replies DocGibby. My school doesn't have a pre-med committee so I will need separate letters unfortunately. One more question though: if the school asks for letters from an english or other non-sci prof and I don't know any of them that well, will it hurt me to just get some generic letter from a prof I hardly know? And also, is it ok to get a letter from a T.A.? (one of my english classes was taught by a t.a. and we NEVER interacted with the prof)

 

[DocGibby]

Definitely pick a prof over a T.A. Which do you think looks better: Signed, Joe Shmo or Signed, Joe Shmo PhD

. Your prof, due to his/her position, makes a better case for themself.

If the school requires an English Prof (or other non-sci prof) write you a letter, then you gotta get one. It might not be the greatest letter, but you gotta follow the requirements. The reason they want a English Prof letter, is because med students are typically sci majs and therefore have a majority of recomendations from our sci instructors. However, overall, most sci prof tend to write a little dry, especially if they don't know you well and you just showed up out of the blue and asked them to write a letter. I guess adcoms believe an English Prof can write a more colorful recomendation (whatever floats the boat, I guess).

Do what I did. Put together a portfolio, make an appoitment with your english prof (or other non-sci prof) and go talk to him/her. Let him see your accomplishments. Tell the prof why you want to go into med as opposed to enlish lit

etc.. You'd be surprised how far a 10-15 min discussion and a lengthy portfolio can go towards producing a good recomendation.

good luck,

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DocGibby
MSUCOM class of 2004

[This message has been edited by DocGibby (edited 07-20-2000).]