PhD Qualifying Exam and Med School

[relentless11]

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For all you PhD's out there, and future PhD's. Just wondering if any of you got letters of recs (or planning to) from your qualifying exam committee members. I would think that doing well on your QE, and having someone write about it would make a nice statement on your academic and research knowledge. Obviously it won't hurt to get a LOR from these guys.

Just debating on getting one from a prof on my committee vs. one from a prof teaching one of my classes. Both professors will be able to write good letters since I know them both very well. One of the good things about grad school 🙂. Merely icing on the cake as I say. Thanks everyone!

Whoo hoo 8 months until QE 😀 !

 

[desertdr]

For all you PhD's out there, and future PhD's. Just wondering if any of you got letters of recs (or planning to) from your qualifying exam committee members. I would think that doing well on your QE, and having someone write about it would make a nice statement on your academic and research knowledge. Obviously it won't hurt to get a LOR from these guys.

Just debating on getting one from a prof on my committee vs. one from a prof teaching one of my classes. Both professors will be able to write good letters since I know them both very well. One of the good things about grad school 🙂. Merely icing on the cake as I say. Thanks everyone!

Whoo hoo 8 months until QE 😀 !

I only needed 1 letter from my grad school studies..from my PhD advisor. I think ADCOMS take that letter just as serious as the premed committee letter. Which by the way, I was fortunate enough to get since my undergrad advisor whom I've kept in contact with is chair of the committee and was able to send out copies of the letter even though it was 7 years old!

This process is NOT non-trad friendly...most of the schools still wanted my premed committee letter even though I had been in grad school for 6 years getting my Phd.

My $.02...make sure you have a glowing letter from your Ph.D. advisor....it will make a big difference....who else would know your capabilities better??

Good luck on qualifiers!

 

[QofQuimica]

For all you PhD's out there, and future PhD's. Just wondering if any of you got letters of recs (or planning to) from your qualifying exam committee members. I would think that doing well on your QE, and having someone write about it would make a nice statement on your academic and research knowledge. Obviously it won't hurt to get a LOR from these guys.

Just debating on getting one from a prof on my committee vs. one from a prof teaching one of my classes. Both professors will be able to write good letters since I know them both very well. One of the good things about grad school 🙂. Merely icing on the cake as I say. Thanks everyone!

Whoo hoo 8 months until QE 😀 !

I got my PI to write one, as well as one of my committee members. My other letters were from an employer and from an academic physician with whom I worked on a clinical trial. I think it's a good idea to ask both the committee member and the class professor to write a letter. You can have both letters uploaded to Interfolio, and if you don't want to use one later, you don't have to. It never hurts to have extra letters, but it does hurt to have too few.

with your QE. My defense is in three weeks. 😱

 

[relentless11]

Thanks desertdr and QofQuimica! As always your advice is most appreciated 🙂 .

Also thanks for the good luck wishes you two. Can't wait to do it, but at the same time, prolly will flip out when it gets closer..haha. Anyway good luck to QofQuimica!!! I'm sure everything will go great! 👍 🙂

 

[dr.z]

I got mine from P.I. and one from one of the committee member.

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
My committee chairman wrote one of my LORs as did the chairman of my department. I do not think that they helped or hurt my chances. I had finished my Ph.D defense when I took the MCAT and applied. Everything went so fast but I was glad to be done.
njbmd 🙂

 

[relentless11]

Yea I'll definately get one from my PI, known him for ages, even before doing grad. Some of my committee members will be DVM's so maybe I should get one from them just to make it look neat...lol. I don't think that matters aslong as they can write me a good letter.

Such an exciting process😉

As always, everybody's input is much valued and appreciated. Thanks again!

 

[CADreaming06]

yeah, i got one from my PI, my thesis committee chair and from the chair of my qualifying exam (who was also the director of my grad program). Luckily - all three of these professors have taught me in the past, so it was easy to get that covered.

 

[njbmd]

For all you PhD's out there, and future PhD's. Just wondering if any of you got letters of recs (or planning to) from your qualifying exam committee members. I would think that doing well on your QE, and having someone write about it would make a nice statement on your academic and research knowledge. Obviously it won't hurt to get a LOR from these guys.

Just debating on getting one from a prof on my committee vs. one from a prof teaching one of my classes. Both professors will be able to write good letters since I know them both very well. One of the good things about grad school 🙂. Merely icing on the cake as I say. Thanks everyone!

Whoo hoo 8 months until QE 😀 !

Hi there,
My committee chairman worte one of my LORs and that was about it from the Ph.D folks. My other letters were from my department chair (an MD) and from physicians who had worked with me while fellows and attendings.

Doing well on the qualifying exam was not much of a problem. Getting the dissertation done and defended took most of my time but it got done before MCAT.

njbmd 🙂

 

[kohalagirl79]

I asked my PI for one. Even though I did well on my comps and knew the professors on my committee, I thought one coming from my PI was more personal. He can speak more specifically to my project, knows me the best, and has had much more contact with me than other profs. Also, I think the difficulty and intensity of QEs and comps vary school to school, so a LOR might mean more coming from someone who assess your abilities on a daily basis in the lab.

I'm defending next month, and starting med school this fall, so if you have any other questions, don't hesistate to send me a message. The whole process was kind of hellish since I was trying to finish up bench work and write at the same time, but it's worth it!! Good luck with your QE and applications!

 

[relentless11]

Thanks again everyone! Yea I'm starting to feel like a butterfly or dog catcher or something. Trying to round up the qual exam professors so they can figure out an exact exam day! Hahaha. Definitely agree that some schools will vary in terms of their QE. Although that may also depend on the person taking the exam, and who they pick too.

I have to say one thing. This non-trad route ..in a way is a lot more fun than the trad route. Its kinda like high school where everyone takes the same classes, and you get the same teachers over the course of a year or two. 🙂 Of course in highschool you don't slave away to invent something new, and defend it upon completion of that invention.