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mokhoras
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Does your undergrad have a premed committee you could ask for a letter? Most schools prefer a letter packet/committee letter, and you would be able to include all your LORs.
I have never heard that not having a physician letter would be a red flag. PIs + professors should be sufficient, though you will want to check with specific schools as to the number of letters they want from professors (and requirements for science/non-science).
I have never heard that not having a physician letter would be a red flag. PIs + professors should be sufficient, though you will want to check with specific schools as to the number of letters they want from professors (and requirements for science/non-science).
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Here is what I did and would suggest. Get letters from whomever you think you may want one from as you would rather have a letter that's not needed than not have a letter that is required.
In addition to that, you can tailor your letters to each school. So say you are applying school A which has a heavy research focus and school B which is more primary care focus. If you have choices, you can now send a whole bunch of PI letters to school A and the physician letter to school B.
What I did was send the same three letters to every school - two science professors and 1 non-science professor. After that, I learned about the school and then chose 1 or 2 additional letters to send to each, depending on their LOR requirements and their mission. In total I had six letters, but normally only sent 4-5 letters to each school.
In addition to that, you can tailor your letters to each school. So say you are applying school A which has a heavy research focus and school B which is more primary care focus. If you have choices, you can now send a whole bunch of PI letters to school A and the physician letter to school B.
What I did was send the same three letters to every school - two science professors and 1 non-science professor. After that, I learned about the school and then chose 1 or 2 additional letters to send to each, depending on their LOR requirements and their mission. In total I had six letters, but normally only sent 4-5 letters to each school.
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mokhoras
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M
mokhoras
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Bolded is great advice.
At the very least, make sure you have two science professor and one non-science professor letters. That is considered the bare minimum at almost every school. The other letters, like the PI letter or physician letter, will be considered extra in addition to the 3 professor letters mentioned above.
+1. A lot of schools are going to ask you for letters from professors that you've taken classes with - often 2 science, 1 non-science.
The research-heavy schools might ask for letters from 1 or all of your PIs (Harvard comes to mind here haha).
Then, in general, you include additional letters as you think it will fit with the particular school's mission (from specific extracurricular activities, primary care, etc.).
Not having a physician letter is definitely not a red flag (that's for MD programs, I don't know about DO).
A lot of schools will explicitly state on their website the minimum and maximum number of LORs you can send. If they didn't, I called and always got an answer from the admissions office before assigning letters to the school. A lot of them have limits of about 5-6, and even the ones who don't suggest that you don't go much more than 5-6. I don't think most adcom members are going to sit around and read 8 letters.
Anyway, good luck!
