LORs not considered a science

[Bell0509]

I just got an e-mail saying that LORs have been recieved but will not be accepted b/c they are not from science faculty. BUT my major was Psychobiology, so all of my upper-division science courses including
neuro-anatomy, neuroscience, psychobiology of sleep, etc. were administered through the dept. of psych. AHH!!

Has anyone else gone through this issue. My school considered them science, why not adcoms? And yes I already called, they said to follow directions

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[chopsuey]

ack. just re-read the OP's comments....with the LOR's it doesn't matter if the course is even cross-listed with the bio dept. unless the profs were bio profs or the class was joint-taught. Sorry!! i tried to do the same thing with my biopsych class (i'm a psych major with a neural sciences concentration- the conc. is shared with the bio dept.), but my pre-med advisor stopped me.

i ended up asking a random bio prof to write one for me. i took a class with him, but there were a lot of people in the class, so he barely knew me.... that's the beauty of committe letters, though...they can gloss things over a little bit, even though the letter is still there. i guess it might be too late to do that and get a science prof letter, huh?

i'm really sorry! i hope you find some kind of solution!

 

[moo]

Last year, when I applied, I had all these math letters but they counted as non-science. This actually worked out for me cuz I was lacking non-sci letters (I was a math/physics major). I think most schools only accept physics, bio, and chem as science letters, not even math counts (even though AMCAS counts math as part of the science GPA)

 

[Bell0509]

At my school psychobiology courses are listed as PSYCH, but it is known that they are sciences... only psychobio majors take them, not psych majors... And they interchange the neuroscience professors w/ the psychbio professors for some classes. I listed the classes on amcas as bios...
These professors know me REALLY well, and wrote great letters...
I really don't want to have to go ask for a generic "I don't remember this person, but my records say she did well in my class " from a "true science". Fun stuff I tell you, who would have thought that memorizing the location of hippocampus in a sagital view vs. coronal view would not be related to science.

 

[wfu2005]

back when i was applying, one school wasn't going to take my engineering school recs b/c they weren't "science", which was defined as on AMCAS to be Math, Bio, Chem, etc. I couldn't imagine engineering not being a science so instead of getting some random professor to write me a rec, I sent a letter to the dean of admissions saying this was dumb. 2 weeks later, I got a postcard "Your application is now complete. etc. etc."

So try that rather than waste your recs.

 

[Bikini Princess]

i understand that psychology isn't considered a hard science. u may find it difficult to convice someone otherwise - kind of like trying to turn philosophy into biology, etc.

it may be helpful if u get some LOR's from your chem, physics, or biology professors, since most schools require at least two letters of rec from a bonafide science faculty.

 

[Sonya]

this is just a wild idea.

You know how many profs have TAs write the letters, and then profs review and sign it?

well, couldn't you have a psych prof you know write the letter, and then have some bio prof just review and sign it? Assume both the profs would agree to such.