LOR requirement

[JLIM]

Here is my dilemma.. hope someone can help me.


I am ready with 4 LORs now: 3 from professors and 1 from my supervisor.
I believe that my professors' letters would be quite strong, but my strongest letter would be from my supervisor (I am quite sure about this, as I have worked with him for more than 2 years, and he knows me very very well personally).

The thing is, BU is on my list, and I realize that BU requires one mandatory letter from a dentist if I have shadowing experiences. I did approx. 100 hours of shadowing, so I have a dentist mentor who I can ask for one; but the thing is, I already have 4 letters.

I think I should give up the letter from my supervisor if I decide to include the dentist letter, but I am not very sure that the dentist letter would be as strong and supportive as my supervisor's letter (or my professors' letters).


All other schools that I am planning to apply do not require dentist letter, so I am not sure whether I should get a (not so strong) dentist letter for BU, or just give up applying to BU.

What do you guys think?
Thanks in advance for any advice..!

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[suarez 7]

A lot of schools want to see letters from dentists, not just BU.

What I would do is get rid of one of your professors' letters (the weakest one), keep the supervisor and have the dentist write you one. Thus, as long as you have two science LORs, one dentist LOR you will be fine for 99% of the dental schools. Your supervisor letter will just supplement that.

 

[nboogie]

You could always have the dentist send their letter directly to the school (if the school accepts more than 4 letters) so you can keep the other 4.

 

[JLIM]

A lot of schools want to see letters from dentists, not just BU.

What I would do is get rid of one of your professors' letters (the weakest one), keep the supervisor and have the dentist write you one. Thus, as long as you have two science LORs, one dentist LOR you will be fine for 99% of the dental schools. Your supervisor letter will just supplement that.

Thank you so much for your advice!
But my problem is the school that I am most (or second most) interested in requires three professors' letter.. So I can't get rid of any of the professors' letter...

I think I should contact BU if I can send one additional letter directly to the school

 

[JLIM]

You could always have the dentist send their letter directly to the school (if the school accepts more than 4 letters) so you can keep the other 4.

Thank you so much for the info!
BU website doesn't indicate whether they accept LORs sent directly to to the school, so I think I should call them to ask about it.

 

[littlemisspiggy]

Thank you so much for your advice!
But my problem is the school that I am most (or second most) interested in requires three professors' letter.. So I can't get rid of any of the professors' letter...

I think I should contact BU if I can send one additional letter directly to the school

just curious, which school?

 

[JLIM]

just curious, which school?

Columbia they require three letters from science professors

 

[RSalha17]

I've been doing a lot of research on what schools want for letters of rec and I am personally doing 2 LOR from science professors, one from a dentist I spent a week in panama with, and one from a faculty member to be used as more of a character reference. Those seem to be fitting well in most school's requirements.

Just my 2 cents! Good luck

 

[littlemisspiggy]

Columbia they require three letters from science professors

oh! haha does research PI count as science ?

 

[JLIM]

I've been doing a lot of research on what schools want for letters of rec and I am personally doing 2 LOR from science professors, one from a dentist I spent a week in panama with, and one from a faculty member to be used as more of a character reference. Those seem to be fitting well in most school's requirements.

Just my 2 cents! Good luck

Thanks for your input
I don't understand why aadsas limits LORs to 4!
Some schools on my list asks for letter from supervisor along with 2 professors' letters, while some asks for three science letters, still other wants me to get 2 professors letter with one dentist letter.

Any combination of my LORs wouldn't satisfy all schools that I am going to apply....

 

[JLIM]

oh! haha does research PI count as science ?

I am not very sure if it would satisfy the science letter requirement, as the website says
"Three CONFIDENTIAL letters of recommendation from science professors or one composite letter from a pre-health committee."

But some says that they are not too strict about their LOR requirment, so I recommend you to contact Columbia just to make sure

Best of luck!