LOR from supervising Associate Professor I TA'd for?

[clausewitz2]

This is mostly aimed at those who did some grad work before applying, but obviously general input is welcome.

I know that many, many schools require four letters of reference, and three are no problem - every member of my Ph.D. committee is going to get asked (and knows they're going to be asked). What I'm less sure about is the 4th. I have two obvious options - an academic superstar type (though not in a biomedical field) who was my advisor for the first couple years of my grad work (before he left for a better offer elsewhere). He has the name and I know he is willing to do it, but I haven't spoken to the man in three years for more than a few minutes.

The second option is the associate professor who teaches a lot of the undergrad courses in our department. I have TA'd for her several times now, and we have a good working relationship. She knows very little about my research (totally different subfields), but could speak to work ethic and teaching ability. Is this is a side of applicants that is attractive for a committee?

Major problem asking this associate prof is that I haven't told her I'm applying to med schools yet. I have a poor sense of how open a secret this is in my department (advisors know, and i've 'come out' as it were to a few friends, but I don't know how much they've talked/anybody has cared). I'm still not super eager to make it go from an open secret to non-secret just yet. I will, though, if she would be a good LOR candidate.

Know I'm jumping the gun a bit on the timing of these letters, but it seems like the courteous thing to do to give fair warning before asking for them for real in a couple months.

Any advice appreciated,

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[hopefuldoc97239]

You're asking which additional grad mentor should write you a letter. I don't think you're asking the right question.

If you already have three members of your dissertation committee writing your letter, what do you think a fourth person is going to say about you that hasn't already been said?

The goal of your letters should bigger than to have four people just agreeing with each other. They should all have pretty different letters. How much overlap do you think three letters are going to have among your committee members? They're all going to talk about pretty much the same things, right?!

I only had one person from my committee write me a letter. My other five letters were all from different people. I'd estimate no more than 5% - 10% overlap among them.

Good luck!

 

[clausewitz2]

Thanks for the best wishes.

I obviously didn't make it clear - the guy who was my adviser isn't part of this committee. I expect my three different committee members to talk about different things, as they're all from different departments and/or other institutions (one is actually an MD in a non-university setting). I have worked on very different things with different members, so I am hoping they will not emphasize exactly the same things.

However, it is sounding like I should be asking this prof I worked with on teaching. Is that what I should take away from what you said?

 

[QofQuimica]

What s/he is saying is to get a variety of people to write you letters from different perspectives, not only people who know you in one context (i.e. as a researcher). Medical schools aren't only (or even primarily) evaluating your academic skills when they solicit letters. They want to evaluate the softer stuff: are you emotionally, socially, ethically, psychologically, and realistically a good candidate for medical school/being a physician?

In my case, I got letters from my PI, one committee member, a physician I volunteered for, an employer, and one of my former students whom I had taught for three different classes. This showed off many more aspects of my character and personality than would have been available solely by polling all of my committee members.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

Thanks for the best wishes.

I obviously didn't make it clear - the guy who was my adviser isn't part of this committee. I expect my three different committee members to talk about different things, as they're all from different departments and/or other institutions (one is actually an MD in a non-university setting). I have worked on very different things with different members, so I am hoping they will not emphasize exactly the same things.

However, it is sounding like I should be asking this prof I worked with on teaching. Is that what I should take away from what you said?

Well I'm not on your committee obviously but I would still be curious to ask how "different" the things are that you worked on with the different members. I still suggest that you try for another letter outside your committee.

But, yes, I think that the prof you TA'd for would be better than a former research advisor.