Need advice on an LOR situation

[kirvoyant]

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For context, I want to take my chances and apply to Harvard for medical school. I read on their website that they require letters of recommendation from all research supervisors, and so I’m in a bit of a dilemma.

I started working on research last semester on resources and disparities in medical education in Africa. I was a metadata developer and now I am currently working on curating this content. I wanted to count this experience as research as it involves a lot of resource analysis and was under one of the “labs” available for a research fellowship program my school had which I was a part of last semester.

I continued my work with them this semester and began the process of doing my thesis with them. Due to my busy schedule and needing to call out sick due to a recent medical diagnosis (it’s not debilitating, but enough to make me miss some meetings with my advisor who happens to be the director of the research group), my PI essentially began to doubt my dedication to the project. They demanded I show proof of my background review every meeting which in theory sounds reasonable. The thing is, I would have been more than willing to do that. The way they worded this demand over email though sounded extremely condescending and accusatory. They counted meetings I missed due to illness (I mentioned that I was sick and not my specific diagnosis) as reasons they believed made me seem undedicated. Because of this, I made a split decision to change my thesis focus to another research project in my main lab. My former PI didn’t seem to have a problem with me switching and seemed to think it was a good idea. The only reason I opted to do my research with them initially in the first place is because I was really passionate about the work I was doing and the impact it was making on providing accessible education.

Fast forward, I decided to ask if I could continue doing research for them in the summer, but they brought up how they were hesitant to do so because of my history of missing meetings. I don’t feel comfortable using my medical issue as an excuse but at this point will doing so even change their impression of me?

Don’t get me wrong, I attend meetings whenever I am able and continue to do research for them on a regular basis and so I guess I’m not sure what to do in terms of whether or not I should ask them for an LOR.

Harvard did say LORS were up to the discretion of the applicant but that their guidelines were strongly recommended. Am I tanking my application if I don’t include an LOR or get one either way?

I also wanted to know if you guys knew of other schools that required LORS from all your research supervisors.

Edit: I could potentially categorize my work with this supervisor as something else and work on increasing my hours with my main lab to compensate for “research” hours. What do you guys think?

TLDR: One of my research supervisors has a negative impression of me due to me missing meetings due to illness. Need advice on whether or not to ask for a LOR

 

[LizzyM]

Many people would consider work related to medical education in another country as not exactly "research". Do you have a testable hypothesis? What methods are you using to test those hypotheses? See where I'm going?

Classify it as "other" or drop it and pick up something that is more along the lines of generating new knowledge through the testing of hypotheses.

 

[annabethchase]

The exact wording on the website is:

"While we strongly recommend meeting the criteria listed above, these are not strict requirements. Ultimately, the letters applicants choose to include are up to their own discretion. Applicants should choose the letters of evaluation they believe will best support their application."

I think if you don't believe it will aid your application, it would be overall better to choose letters that speak highly of you and perhaps consider classifying this as something different than research. As someone who is also thinking of applying, I have had 3 research positions, 2 before junior year during the summers and one for 2 years junior to senior. I will not be asking for the two summer research position advisors for letters since they were from over 3-4 years ago and would not be able to speak best to me now. Ultimately, you should choose the letters that speak best of you. At least in my opinion.

 

[kirvoyant]

The exact wording on the website is:

"While we strongly recommend meeting the criteria listed above, these are not strict requirements. Ultimately, the letters applicants choose to include are up to their own discretion. Applicants should choose the letters of evaluation they believe will best support their application."

I think if you don't believe it will aid your application, it would be overall better to choose letters that speak highly of you and perhaps consider classifying this as something different than research. As someone who is also thinking of applying, I have had 3 research positions, 2 before junior year during the summers and one for 2 years junior to senior. I will not be asking for the two summer research position advisors for letters since they were from over 3-4 years ago and would not be able to speak best to me now. Ultimately, you should choose the letters that speak best of you. At least in my opinion.

Thanks for this advice! I was actually wondering the same thing too regarding another research advisor I had all the way back in freshman year, and so I appreciate your advice

 

[kirvoyant]

Thank you for the advice! I think I’m definitely going to classify it as other and work on increasing my hours for my main lab whose research is indeed hypothesis driven.

Another person gave advice on not including LORs from people you’ve worked with a significant amount of time in the past. I was thinking of reaching out to my PI from freshman year which was three years ago—would you recommend excluding that LOR/not asking for it at all despite Harvard strongly recommending LORs from all your research supervisors? I know it’s up to my discretion, but I’d like to know what you think!

 

[LizzyM]

Take a look at the material that AAMC has produced for letter writers. (It is a handout you can give to a prospective writer so they know what med schools are looking for in terms of the letter's content.) Think about what the writer might remember about you... this is should be about what they saw you do and heard you say, not about what is in your personal statement or on your transcript. Can the person you are thinking of write a strong letter based on what they witnessed?

 

[kirvoyant]

Take a look at the material that AAMC has produced for letter writers. (It is a handout you can give to a prospective writer so they know what med schools are looking for in terms of the letter's content.) Think about what the writer might remember about you... this is should be about what they saw you do and heard you say, not about what is in your personal statement or on your transcript. Can the person you are thinking of write a strong letter based on what they witnessed?

Huh I guess I never thought about it like that before. I appreciate the advice!