LOR from voice teacher?

[D816V]

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I'm trying to decide who to get my non-science LOR from. At my school, for well-prepared musicians, students can take music lessons for credit. Most take them with graduate students at the school of music but I was lucky enough to be assigned the head of the voice lessons program who is an assistant professor. Obviously I recognize that her perspective on me would be very different than someone who taught me in a more traditional "classroom" setting, but I think I have spent valuable time with her and have put serious work into my lessons. Would med schools take this sort of LOR seriously? I will have taken lessons with this professor for a year, and have been taking lessons throughout college.

 

[esoomssab]

I was a music major, and chose my private lesson instructor as one of my LORs - we worked together for 3.5 years every semester. I think it's a great extra dimension to your application, but I would be certain to outline to your instructor why you are asking them to do it. Emphasize that you appreciate the relationship you've built and think that they have a great perspective on your work ethic, passion, maturity, etc. - things that are going to look really good and round out the rest of your application.

Music is something that you can't fake or cram for - if you've not been practicing and getting better, then you're doing something wrong. If you have a good relationship and feel that you've shown improvement and skill development based on those lessons, I think that a private lesson instructor can be one of the best LORs to show how you deal with a lot of things that med schools value - self-development, discipline, focus, etc. - all those things it takes to be good at music!