Letters of Recs and the PS?

[ladpm]

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When should we start getting our letters of recs in? What about the personal statement? I'm busy studying for MCATs and working at the same so I was planning to this all after the April 22nd exam. Thanks

 

[NapeSpikes]

That should be fine. Earliest you could submit the PS/amcas is June, giving you a good couple of months, and for LORs, July-ish, depending on when schools send you secondaries. Just be sure to start doing the legwork shortly after the mcat, no excuses.

 

[blee]

Remember, LORs are submitted directly to schools, not to AMCAS. This means that you probably won't have to send any until we're well into the summer -- once secondaries are sent out, basically. If I were you, I'd contact the profs you intend to write your letters relatively soon. A lot of other students will probably start to do the same around now.

Also, if you're using a college premed committee, they may have their own deadline for submitting LORs and perhaps a version of your PS to them.

 

[JimmyG]

Along these same lines I have another question...

If I have a letter from my premed advisory committee from the school I am finishing prereqs at (and it is not the school I got my BS or MS at...), do I need another letter from a professor?? I have emailed one med school to get their opinion on this and they still say to get a LOR from a professor.. I feel this is only beneficial for premed students who have not had any work experience and, thus, a professor is the only indicator of how well this student can perform for medical school. Since I have been working in the health care field for the past 4 years, I feel other physicians, therapists, nurses, administrators could write a letter to better attest to my medical "work" ethic, which I feel is what they really want to know, right? For me to ask one of my professors that I had in school 6-7 years ago (from my undergrad days..) would be counterproductive, since (1) they probably will have a hard time remembering me and my abilities as a student and (2) would they feel comfortable to write an LOR worth anything to my application? Any advice from any other non-trad in my situation would be appreciated!!

 

[medicalbound]

Along these same lines I have another question...

If I have a letter from my premed advisory committee from the school I am finishing prereqs at (and it is not the school I got my BS or MS at...), do I need another letter from a professor?? I have emailed one med school to get their opinion on this and they still say to get a LOR from a professor.. I feel this is only beneficial for premed students who have not had any work experience and, thus, a professor is the only indicator of how well this student can perform for medical school. Since I have been working in the health care field for the past 4 years, I feel other physicians, therapists, nurses, administrators could write a letter to better attest to my medical "work" ethic, which I feel is what they really want to know, right? For me to ask one of my professors that I had in school 6-7 years ago (from my undergrad days..) would be counterproductive, since (1) they probably will have a hard time remembering me and my abilities as a student and (2) would they feel comfortable to write an LOR worth anything to my application? Any advice from any other non-trad in my situation would be appreciated!!

I'm not sure I understand the dilemma. Why not get a professor to write a LOR where you are finishing your prereqs? I too got a committee letter from the university where I finished my prereqs (but not the one I earned by BS from several years before). In fact, the school would not write a committee letter without at least 2-3 LORs from their school. Their reasoning is that the letter is from their committee and is a reflection of the university's (via professors) assessment of me as a medical school candidate. I ended up getting 3 LORs from academic profs, 2 physicians, and 1 from the nonmedical firm that I work at. I think it will be necessary to have both the academic LORs as well as the recommendation from your health care coworkers.

 

[JimmyG]

Your premed advisory committee did things a little differently than my advisory committee will do for me. It sounds as if yours made a good effort to get LOR from previous professors. I think I am just frustrated because the advisory committee is comprised of professors from all of the science disciplines; however, none of my professors I have this semester are on the premed advisory committee. When I ask them how they will evaluate me, they do not elaborate well. I have to assume that the prof's LOR will be as well thought out for me as it is for any of the other 150 students in my class applying to any professional program. I just miss my university I attended for undergrad when there wasn't 100-200 students in each class, and the professors knew you individually :sigh:

I know it will work out but I wasn't sure what other options there were for us non-trads that maybe I have not come across. Thank you for your response.