LOR madness!

[Shake_yabooties]

man.. it really is annoying to try to fit to every single criteria for each med schools.

I've got two questions for you people. Is baylor strict on the 1 year requirement for LOR? (older ones not accepted they say.. on the website.. one of my letter is 2 years old and it's the greatest one)

As for harvard.. they want all... letters from which ever lab I've worked at. There's one lab I've worked for only semester barely w/o much contact with the PI. It would be very annoying to go back and ask her for a letter at this point.

Does anyone know the answer to these question(s)?

thanks !

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[janedoe4]

I called Harvard about the "letters from all your research supervisors" thing and, yes, they're serious about that. Like you, I have to bother a PI I haven't worked with in a while to write me a letter. *shrug* Either that or not apply to Harvard, but having already given them my money...

 

[Bubblehead-to-MD]

I called Harvard about the "letters from all your research supervisors" thing and, yes, they're serious about that. Like you, I have to bother a PI I haven't worked with in a while to write me a letter. *shrug* Either that or not apply to Harvard, but having already given them my money...

if you impose ridiculous requirements such as these, you are sure to reduce the applicant pool! i guess you can do these things with their reputation.

 

[riceman04]

man.. it really is annoying to try to fit to every single criteria for each med schools.

I've got two questions for you people. Is baylor strict on the 1 year requirement for LOR? (older ones not accepted they say.. on the website.. one of my letter is 2 years old and it's the greatest one)

As for harvard.. they want all... letters from which ever lab I've worked at. There's one lab I've worked for only semester barely w/o much contact with the PI. It would be very annoying to go back and ask her for a letter at this point.

Does anyone know the answer to these question(s)?

thanks !

two quick questions:
1. will it be a hassle to get it updated (very easy process)?
2. Do you have a premed committee letter?

I was also wondering if that rule only applies if you are not getting a committee letter

 

[SpeakLittleB]

that's rite. the committee letter takes care of all the requirements for harvard.

 

[Blue Planet]

Actually, for Harvard, they do have a limit of six LORs. In my case, if I were to submit all LORs from all of my PIs, I would go over the limit. Harvard told me to pick the most recent letters to send.

 

[knio]

I think we should start a thread listing all the requirement for LORs at each school. That way potential applicants would know which schools not to apply to if they are not able to meet the LORs requirements.

What do you guys think?

 

[alphaholic06]

Sounds good

 

[HairyCow]

Sounds good

Ditto.

Is the Harvard research LOR requirement for all applicants, not just MD/PhD? Argh!

 

[knio]

Sounds good

I'll start with the two I have received secondary from.

Penn State: 2 science, 1 non-science, 1 other (employer, community leader, etc) OR Pre-Health Committee Letter
Columbia P&S: 3 letters, no strict requirement as to who should be the writers

 

[bowser91]

excuse my ignorance: what is a LOR and PI?

thanks

 

[AMcD3]

excuse my ignorance: what is a LOR and PI?

thanks

LOR = letter of recommendation
PI = principle investigator, the researcher who heads a lab, the lab is usually in their name, i.e. the "john doe" lab.

I feel your pain, so many acronyms for us new to this place...........

 

[jackieMD2007]

You know what? It is so hard. Why don't we just all give up??

 

[supersleuthMD11]

You know what? It is so hard. Why don't we just all give up??

For all of these LOR requirements, does a committee packet count as 1 letter, even if my premed dean attached all of my individual LORs to her composite letter? I had to ask 7 professors/PI's for letters to satisfy all of the various requirements at each school, and due to limiations on virtual evals (not being able to send different sets of letters to each school), all 7 LORs were bundled with my composite and sent everywhere! I'm leaning towards the conclusion that this is OK, as the whole committe letter/packet counts as one letter, and schools can read what they choose...but can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Not sure what I'll do if I am...

 

[Shake_yabooties]

For all of these LOR requirements, does a committee packet count as 1 letter, even if my premed dean attached all of my individual LORs to her composite letter? I had to ask 7 professors/PI's for letters to satisfy all of the various requirements at each school, and due to limiations on virtual evals (not being able to send different sets of letters to each school), all 7 LORs were bundled with my composite and sent everywhere! I'm leaning towards the conclusion that this is OK, as the whole committe letter/packet counts as one letter, and schools can read what they choose...but can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

Not sure what I'll do if I am...

I think it counts as 7 different letters

 

[doxa]

I'm sending a packet of individual letters to harvard (through a letter of reference service at my school), and i asked if the packet will count as one (1) letter towards the 6 (six) letter max, or if each letter in the packet will count as one. They said the packet will count as one letter even if i have more than 6 letters in the packet. so you can actually send more than 6 letters in a packet... at least for harvard.