Lost my PI's

[Tesseract]

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I've been lurking on SDN for a couple months now. I recently ran into some trouble with letters of recommendation from principal investigators. Any advice is appreciated.

I'm planning to apply to M.D./Ph.D. programs for the 2010-2011 application cycle. I have a competitive GPA, strong volunteering and leadership experience, and over two years in biomedical research (2 summer programs, 2 presentations, and 1 poster). I will be taking the MCATs in May.

I highly doubt, however, that I will be able to secure letters of recommendation from either of the two principal investigators that I have worked with while studying at my undergraduate institution. The first PI, from my freshman year, transferred to a different university and doesn't respond to my e-mails. My second PI, from my sophomore and junior years, became seriously ill during my junior year. I do not know whether or not the 2nd PI will physically be able to write a letter for me. A team of professors from the department have stepped in for the 2nd PI to act as a collective interim PI for me.

One of the professors on the team understands my current project and predicament. The same professor has also offered to explain my situation with PI1 + PI2 in a letter of recommendation. How much of a red flag will this issue be on my application? Will this issue alone hold me back from receiving serious consideration from the ADCOMS? Outside of taking a year off to work in a different laboratory, what should I do here?

I apologize for the ambiguity. Thank you in advance for all replies.

 

[solitude]

I've been lurking on SDN for a couple months now. I recently ran into some trouble with letters of recommendation from principal investigators. Any advice is appreciated.

I'm planning to apply to M.D./Ph.D. programs for the 2010-2011 application cycle. I have a competitive GPA, strong volunteering and leadership experience, and over two years in biomedical research (2 summer programs, 2 presentations, and 1 poster). I will be taking the MCATs in May.

I highly doubt, however, that I will be able to secure letters of recommendation from either of the two principal investigators that I have worked with while studying at my undergraduate institution. The first PI, from my freshman year, transferred to a different university and doesn't respond to my e-mails. My second PI, from my sophomore and junior years, became seriously ill during my junior year. I do not know whether or not the 2nd PI will physically be able to write a letter for me. A team of professors from the department have stepped in for the 2nd PI to act as a collective interim PI for me.

One of the professors on the team understands my current project and predicament. The same professor has also offered to explain my situation with PI1 + PI2 in a letter of recommendation. How much of a red flag will this issue be on my application? Will this issue alone hold me back from receiving serious consideration from the ADCOMS? Outside of taking a year off to work in a different laboratory, what should I do here?

I apologize for the ambiguity. Thank you in advance for all replies.

I can't say for sure, of course, but I have never heard of a better excuse for not having letters from your PIs. That is a terrible situation, sorry 🙁. In general my experience was that admission committees were pretty compassionate about extenuating circumstances, and that many "application requirements" were not too hard nor fast. You have a great plan with trying another lab and getting an explanatory letter from an interim PI--seems like the best you can do at this point.

 

[Freak]

Can you call the first PI on the phone (or their secretary) ... maybe they are better with phone rather than email.

I think the Interim PI's are probably your best bet. I would hope the ADCOM would not be too disturbed by the missing letters ... if they are, you can re-apply next cycle with more research experience.

The other option I could potentially see, would be to have the Interim PI write the bulk of the letter and have the PI sign it ... I have heard about having to write your own rec. letter (would be quite hard btw), so similar line of logic.

 

[Tesseract]

You both have given me some ideas to consider. Thank you.

 

[Maebea]

You should also contact the programs you apply to with an explanation of the situation. I would do this with a concise, but complete, email. Providing a clear explanation of the situation is to your benefit. This happens to a handful of applicants every year, and those that are proactive are much better off. Unexplained anomalies in an application are like kryptonite for admissions committees. They rarely have the time or the motivation to figure out what is going on, so they just stamp "Reject" on the application, and move on to one that is easier to evaluate.

If your premed advisor provides a letter, she should explain the situation.