LOR problems

[IL Pre Med]

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Okay so for the first time ever I got denied a LOR from a professor because he didn't know me well enough to write a strong letter. This makes no sense because I went to his office hours, asked questions during and after class, emailed him repeatedly, even saw him around campus and said hello. This was in my mind a sure shot and I was counting on this letter to be a strong one so I'm a little disappointed. I was going to ask one more professor from this year so far but I haven't had as much interaction with them as I did with the first one so I guess that's out of the question. I wanted to have a solid 5 or 6 letters when applying, most being academic, now I'm struggling to get the bare minimum. What are you guys using for letters? I have one science prof from undergrad for sure, I'm going to try and get one more undergrad science, my employer and outside of that I'm not sure I can get any more. How bad is it to have just the bare minimum LOR? I'm afraid I just won't be able to get anything above the minimum.

 

[William Hart]

Okay so for the first time ever I got denied a LOR from a professor because he didn't know me well enough to write a strong letter. This makes no sense because I went to his office hours, asked questions during and after class, emailed him repeatedly, even saw him around campus and said hello. This was in my mind a sure shot and I was counting on this letter to be a strong one so I'm a little disappointed. I was going to ask one more professor from this year so far but I haven't had as much interaction with them as I did with the first one so I guess that's out of the question. I wanted to have a solid 5 or 6 letters when applying, most being academic, now I'm struggling to get the bare minimum. What are you guys using for letters? I have one science prof from undergrad for sure, I'm going to try and get one more undergrad science, my employer and outside of that I'm not sure I can get any more. How bad is it to have just the bare minimum LOR? I'm afraid I just won't be able to get anything above the minimum.

I applied with a letter from my supervisor at work and a letter from my academic adviser from college and I got accepted.

I'd rather have 2 good letters than get 2 good letters and one or 2 OK ones...

 

[Juan Solo]

If you just have the minimum of LOR's then thats okay. What matters is quality of the LOR that can explain some of your positive characteristics. Good with the letters that you know will be good.

 

[An MD Hopeful]

As the other posters mentioned, quality trumps quantity. Even if you have only the bare minimum number of letters, as long as they are strong and positive, you will be absolutely fine!

 

[DAPI]

You are probably going to need at 2 science and 1 non-science faculty letters if you aren't using a committee letter as that's what most schools require. Some may want less and some may want more, like a character reference, but that's the place to start. So 2 science and a work supervisor may not cut it depending on your school list.