LOR Writers

[Zalligan]

I have a scenario/ question about who I should get to write a letter of recommendation, and I'm wondering what you all's opinion is. I basically have 3 choices as I see it;

1. Have my Orgo Lab (and Chem 2 Lab) prof write me a letter. He was a PhD student at the time, now has his PhD and moved to Kansas City to work an industry job (no longer teaches). He was a real cool guy and would probably still remember me...I would just have to track him down. I got an A in both of his labs. This however, was at the community college level.

2. Have my health and exercise science faculty advisor write my letter. He seems like a really cool guy, however I'm just now in my first class with him this semester. Also, the class I'm in wouldn't be considered a "science" class. I would also need to cultivate a relationship with him relatively quickly to ask him for a letter. Plus side, I have a 3.8 major GPA so he'll know I'm a solid student in the department.

3. Have my HES department chair write my letter. I am taking a science class with him, however this is also the first class I've had with him so i don't really know him, and thus would need to cultivate the relationship. Also, he has openly admitted to his dislike for computers and that he is a bad speller, so I'm slightly skeptical as to the quality of letter I would get. That being said, he is the department chair.

Who all would you have write your letter? Thanks for the advice guys.

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[ilovefeet]

I vote #2.
However, I'm not an expert but that's my two cents.

I wanted to piggy back on this question, how important are LORs?
Would it be frowned upon if the LOR was from a community college prof compared to a PhD at a university?

 

[nikkisorous]

I vote #2.
However, I'm not an expert but that's my two cents.

I wanted to piggy back on this question, how important are LORs?
Would it be frowned upon if the LOR was from a community college prof compared to a PhD at a university?

No it would not be frowned upon on.

In a perfect world the purpose of LORS are for admissions to get more feedback about you from people that have known you for a good amount of time. After all, admissions only see you for like 5-6 hours on interview day, so they use LORS as a supplement to learn more about you.

 

[ilovefeet]

thanks for the response

 

[Zalligan]

To reinforce, and sort of answer both of our questions feet, I stopped by my med-professions advisor yesterday and asked about the community college prof and she said as long as they have a PhD when they write the letter it would be fine.

I'm going to try to get ahold of my CC prof as I had two semesters of classes with him and have only had a few weeks of classes with the other two.

 

[ilovefeet]

To reinforce, and sort of answer both of our questions feet, I stopped by my med-professions advisor yesterday and asked about the community college prof and she said as long as they have a PhD when they write the letter it would be fine.

I'm going to try to get ahold of my CC prof as I had two semesters of classes with him and have only had a few weeks of classes with the other two.

Oh okay, thanks for the info. I appreciate it.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the prof at the CC has a PhD, he might have a masters though. What do you think? Should I try to get a different professor? I have two other professors in mind (with a PhD) but I didn't really build an amazing rapport with them as much as the CC prof...

Hmmmm, what do you guys think?

 

[Zalligan]

I'm in the same boat man. Nowhere on any site have I seen that your LOR writer must have a PhD, however my advisor is adamate about it and she's sending out my letters so I would feel a little disrespectful blatantly not following something she told me to do. Of course this is the same lady that told me I have to have 100 pod shadowing hours and 50-75 volunteer hours, so take that info as you like.

 

[rkmoto121]

I have an LOR problem now too. I was originally going to have my orgo professor write me one (he already did and submitted it to interfolio), my professor I did research with, and a dpm. I stopped working in the lab I was in at the beginning of this summer and I had a final meeting with the professor and without me even saying anything about it she said that she would be happy to write me a letter of recommendation and to just let her know when and she will get it done. Well now a month or two later I have tried going in to see her twice and I have tried emailing her twice with no response. I have no idea why she isn't responding and I can't find a time when she is in her office. At this point I feel like I am begging.
I am thinking about emailing and asking my biology teacher from the community college I went to because she wrote me a letter for an internship a year ago. The only problem here is that if I have my bio teacher write my letter, both my letters will be from community college teachers..

 

[Zalligan]

Check out what the schools you're applying to require. Several only require 2 from faculty (advisors, non science, science, etc.) and a dpm so you may not need to come up with two science faculty LORs.

Is the prof out of the country or anything? Odd that she's so difficult to get ahold of. If it isn't delaying your app, I'd keep trying but if it gets to a point where her LOR is the last thing you need, I'd just go with LORs from CC teachers...OR get to know one of your profs really well over the next few weeks and get one from them instead. I really don't know how admissions committees will look at CC vs 4 year prof LORs, but I'm hoping, in my case, that the CC prof having a PhD pulls some extra weight, if they do indeed look down on CC LORS (which I think would be really stingy as the purpose is to just get a sense of what kind of person you are)

 

[rkmoto121]

Check out what the schools you're applying to require. Several only require 2 from faculty (advisors, non science, science, etc.) and a dpm so you may not need to come up with two science faculty LORs.

Is the prof out of the country or anything? Odd that she's so difficult to get ahold of. If it isn't delaying your app, I'd keep trying but if it gets to a point where her LOR is the last thing you need, I'd just go with LORs from CC teachers...OR get to know one of your profs really well over the next few weeks and get one from them instead. I really don't know how admissions committees will look at CC vs 4 year prof LORs, but I'm hoping, in my case, that the CC prof having a PhD pulls some extra weight, if they do indeed look down on CC LORS (which I think would be really stingy as the purpose is to just get a sense of what kind of person you are)

She isn't out of country. She went out of country right after my first email but came back and was back for about a week before I sent her another email. I am still on the lab email list so I know she is in town because I get her emails. I don't get my mcat scores until early Oct so I am not worrying that much but everything else is done. I am applying to Western as my first choice and they require two science LORs. Plus I don't start school again from summer until next thursday because we are on a quarter system and start really late..

Has anyone has any experience having trouble getting a hold of an LOR writer? I mean I feel like there is some weird reason she isn't responding so now I am almost afraid to see her because I think she might think I am confronting her.

 

[ilovefeet]

okay so I managed to get a hold of a rep from Kent State.
They do not care as much about where the LOR is from, as long as it paints you in a way that makes you stand out, and demonstrates that you would be a great doc

... a bit generic but it answers our questions right?

 

[Zalligan]

Great! Thanks for the info!

 

[daarango]

To help you guys out, during a few of my interviews, the interviewee looked into my folder and said "Looks like you LOR isn't in your folder, thats okay" and they just moved on with the interview. I'm pretty sure they're not too important.

 

[ilovefeet]

To help you guys out, during a few of my interviews, the interviewee looked into my folder and said "Looks like you LOR isn't in your folder, thats okay" and they just moved on with the interview. I'm pretty sure they're not too important.

Yeah that's what people have been telling me too.
I'm beginning to think that if you have a good MCAT and (or) GPA, the LOR is not too important.

Thanks for the info Daarango!