LORS: How do they work?

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still in school

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I did a search on this topic but was unable to find the answer to all of my questions regarding LOR's. Can someone please help me clarify this portion of the application process for me? From my understanding, it is best to use interfolio to make it a lot easier for everyone. I plan on casting a wide net and applying very broadly this year so advice towards this would be great.

My concerns are:
Is there a specific guideline the writers should follow?
Is there a particular form that I am supposed to supply them?
I presume the writers will send it to interfolio and I am able to log on and send to prospective schools?
A website suggested that I included my PS, is this a good idea?
How long of a due date should I give the writers?

I work at a hospital and am close to a few MD's. I also still keep in touch with one of my radiation physics professor. I plan to shadow a DO very soon. So in all, I plan on obtaining a letter from 2 MD's, 1 professor, and 1 DO. Should this be adequate? TIA.

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Nope, just a general recommendation for medical school and/or complementing positive traits about you. Check with a few of the schools, some have general guides found on their websites which can help your writer if they dont write letters often.

The only specific thing that you would need is instructions on how to upload the letter to your Interfolio account. So basically you make an Interfolio account and then you will see an option for requesting a letter of rec. You can do either a paper or electronic request. So lets say you do a paper request. You will print out the request form (which will have your AACOMAS ID on it if you set up your interfolio correctly) and then you will give the request form to your letter writer. Once the letter is written, your letter writer will send both the request form and the letter to Interfolio (via snail mail and maybe there is a fax option). It is essentially the same thing with the electronic version except they will receive an email link instead. Electronic is significantly faster, but I had one letter writer say it was confusing.

Once the letter is sent to Interfolio, it will take a week or so to be put onto your account (unless done electronically). At that point you will have an option for sending the letter. You will click on the letter and then click an option to send it. There will be an option for picking a school or destination. You send the letter(s) to each school and it costs $6 a pop. You can send multiple letters to each school in the same $6 package.

Your personal statement and/or resume (CV) can be useful for letter writers. Some letter writers, especially if its like professors that you know well, will probably not need anything, they will whip you something up fast. Others might need some more help. For instance I had a physician who I asked for a letter from who said to send him my resume so that way he can not only comment on the good job I did shadowing or whatever, but also comment on other parts of my application as well. So I would just ask the letter writer if they would like the CV or personal statement to help them.

Preferably you want to give them a month. But at this point the cycle is revving up, so by the time you ask for the letter, get the letter, then get it to Interfolio that alone could take a good long while (accounting for letter writers which are like almost always late). So if you are comfortable with it, you can apologetically ask for it to be done within a couple of weeks (and go on about how you are trying to get your application finished soon, you werent aware that you needed it so soon blah blah). If they say they cant do that, then take what you can get.

You dont necessarily need all of those letters. How DO schools go is that most require some sort of combination of 2-3 letters:
1) A letter from a physician - some require a DO letter, whereas others say MD is fine. Either way a DO letter can definitely help, but if you have stronger MD letters, send both (without inundating them with letters haha).
2) A committee letter/letter from your pre-med adviser.
OR
(if a committee letter is not available) Some combination of letters from professors. Some schools want just 2 science professors, others want 1 science and 1 non-science, others want 2 science and 1 non science (so needless to say a committee letter is the way to go if its possible). If you do not have a committee letter its just on a school-by-school basis and its your job to check what you need.
3) Occasionally a school will want a 3rd letter which is a separate letter from some other source. So for instance MUCOM specifically asked for a physician letter, a committee letter, and a letter from a science professor who taught you. Only 2 out of the 10 schools that I applied to asked for a 3rd letter. All the other ones just wanted a committee and DO/MD letter.

So the only problem I see is that you might need to get another science or non-science letter. I would check out the schools that you are applying to to double check.
 
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I agree with Awesome Sauceome (great advice in his/her post). You have 3 physician letters and only 1 academic letter. Generally, schools require 2 academic letters and 1 physician letter (DO preferred) or a single committee letter. There are instructions in the 2015 osteopathic info book too, so you could look there.
 
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Thank you tremendously Awesome Sauceome!

A committee letter would be very difficult for me since I am a non-trad and took post bach courses at the university without the use of an advisor. A non-science letter would also be difficult since every course I have taken lately has been science courses.

Now on to creating an interfolio account and get starting on asking for those LOR's.
 
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If you have your LOR's on IF, can you technically have it sent to yourself?
 
If you have your LOR's on IF, can you technically have it sent to yourself?
Probably... but why would you breach that confidentiality? You even click a waiver at the beginning when requesting letters. I wouldn't do it. Sounds like a terrible idea.
 
Quick question regarding LORs.

I have an awesome letter from my sociology professor, and a decent one from my psychology professor, are these considered "science"? Or do social sciences fall into "non-science"?


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