I know a lot of the MD/PhD programs require research specific letters of rec in addition to the pre-med committee letter. My problem is, I've worked in one lab for 3 years (+ summers), so I only have one supervisor. If a school requires 2 or 3 letters, can I just ask one of the administrators of my lab (who wrote me a regular rec for the committee as well) to submit a research letter too? Does it look bad to have two (or three) letters coming from the same place?
Yo.
I'm applying this cycle in exactly the same situation, having worked in one lab since freshman year, and I've done even better than I expected in the process. In my experience, most programs are fairly flexible with the LOR requirement (in the words of Barbossa, they're more what you'd call guidelines), but I would highly recommend calling each program coordinator of the schools on your list just to make sure. Just tell them your situation and ask if your app will still be considered with less than the required number of LORs. In most cases, they'll tell you that it will in fact be considered. The only program that I had any trouble with in this regard was UCSD: the coordinator was insistent that applications were
required to be accompanied by X number of research letters, but that my application would be "considered" with less. This seemed a bit confusing and "double-talk-esque" to me for obvious reasons, so I decided that my secondary money would be better spent elsewhere.
😀
Of course, it's a little more difficult to get info out of coordinators on how having one letter vs. 2-4 letters will affect the
competitiveness of your application, but after conversations with 15+ programs, I got the impression that in most cases LORs are "good" to the extent that they inform the committee about your qualifications, and NOT to the extent to which they meet arbitrary numerical requirements (guidelines). So, it seems that as long as the letter from your only PI is proportionately more extensive, it shouldn't hurt you; and, if it's a glowing report, it'll probably help your cause. Nevertheless, if there are any other PhDs that you've worked with in the lab (post-docs, etc), you may want to consider them for letter writers.
