Letters of Recommendation for Career-Changer Programs

[Faeleia]

Hey all! I have been lurking around these forums for awhile as I prepare to finish up my undergraduate work. I am a traditional student who will graduate with a 3.5 GPA bachelors in psychology in Fall 2013. I decided this last semester that I want to pursue a medical degree instead of a Ph.D, so I plan to apply to some post bacc programs for career changers who haven't taken any required science courses.I know I could just take these courses now and extend my undergrad, but I am attending a small town commuter campus that awards degrees from Purdue University, so I really want to move to a larger city for a post bacc program in which I can receive more test prep, internship opportunities, and I would also like to have a strong graduate GPA established.
My question is: it seems that these programs require 1 to 2 letters of recommendation on average, but who should I seek them from? I have been a TA for one of my professors who is a clinical psychologist, and am also doing practicum work with him this semester, but will a LOR from him be relevant to a post bacc program? I haven't taken any science courses besides BIO 100 and Astronomy, and I took those online so I don't know the professors at all. I have also been working in my dad's office throughout my undergrad as a sort of nurse's assistant, as he is an MD with a family practice, but obviously I can't include a LOR from him...would it be sufficient to have one from his head nurse?
Aside from working in the office and shadowing him for years while he does rounds at a couple local hospitals, I don't have any other healthcare related experience from which I can get a LOR, so I'm wondering if I need to spend my last year working on that.

Anyone have any advice for me?

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[SeverusSnape]

Hi, hopefully I can share some insight.

The first professor you mentioned is an obvious choice, assuming you believe he'll write a strong letter. I'm not sure you really need to be worrying if a letter is going to be relevant to the program as long as the person writing it can speak to your ability, experiences, and potential. If I remember correctly, the Hopkins application asks specifically for one letter to be from a faculty member in your major area of study and the other to be from either another faculty member who taught you OR someone who supervised you during employment.

I would concentrate on having two strong letters from professors rather than maybe getting one from a nurse because you hope it's more relevant. I personally asked for letters from my undergrad thesis advisor and then my graduate thesis advisor, neither have any real tie to medicine but could speak at length about me as a student, researcher, and individual.

I hope this is somewhat helpful! My main point is that in my opinion you don't need to struggle to find medically related LOR as long as you have good ones from professors/past boss. Best of luck to you.

 

[campti01]

Go with who can speak most compellingly about your strengths. Don't worry about how 'scientific' the prof's background is. These are career changer post-bac programs, they KNOW you don't know any science profs.