lor questions

[prp785]

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hey.. im beginning the application process this june. I was wondering if it was looked down upon to have a recommendation from a lab TA to fulfill one of my science faculty ones. He was my orgo lab TA and he has a phD.

For my other sci lor, I am asking my biological anthropology teacher. I asked Nova and they said it was fine (because that goes in my sci GPA according to aacom).. does anyone know how other schools would feel?

Also at UF we have a letter of rec. service. Once they recieve all of the lors they send all of them to every school. So I'm going to have 4 (2 sci, 1 nonsci, and one DO) but what about the DO schools that only require one sci and one DO.. is it bad to send more?

 

[HunterGatherer]

I used LORs from my biology lab TA and orgo prof. Got interviews at all 5 schools I applied to. Maybe I got lucky but I was worried that the LOR from my lab TA would not get accepted. He signed it as an "adjunct lecturer" which is his status given by the school. The lab TA wrote a very nice personable letter while my orgo prof wrote a brief recommendation. prof LORs are best if you can get them of course.

You are sending a committee letter so schools will understand if there are more LORs than required.

You should talk to your premed office since they may have minimum requirements to send out LORs such as 2 of the science LORs must be from profs...

I'm not sure about the Anthro LOR. You should call a few of your top choice DO schools and see what they say.

 

[prp785]

Thanks for the advice.. just a few more questions..

I made the mistake of not getting to know my teachers.. and I've heard a few horror stories from people who asked prof that they didnt get to know so I dont want to take the chance.

I am planning on applying early june.. and from what I have read on this forum secondaries come back pretty fast... Do you think I will be pressing it if i ask my microbio teacher that I will have this summer? (if i were to ask him mid june)

 

[scpod]

Thanks for the advice.. just a few more questions..

I made the mistake of not getting to know my teachers.. and I've heard a few horror stories from people who asked prof that they didnt get to know so I dont want to take the chance.

I am planning on applying early june.. and from what I have read on this forum secondaries come back pretty fast... Do you think I will be pressing it if i ask my microbio teacher that I will have this summer? (if i were to ask him mid june)

LORs are one of the notorious things that frequently hold up applications. Some schools won't give you an interview until all the LORs that they asked for are in; others will. I had two professors, that I knew very well, take 3 months to write LORs even though I "hounded" them every two weeks or so. If you are fortunate enough to have a committee letter, though, you might not have to worry about that.

A lot has been said about applying early. It is especialy important if you have marginal stats. If you have really good ones, though, rushing through it is not as important as being thorough. I didn't send in the secondary for the school I ended up choosing until January. I interviewed and was accepted in early February. But, my GPA and MCAT are both a good bit higher than the average for the school.

Back to the question...if you do well in the class, by all means ask for an LOR. June is in no way too late, but be prepared because they can still take a while sometimes.