Recommendation from Premed Advisor?

[dajimmers]

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OK, I've tried searching, but to no avail...

My school (Michigan State) has no premed committee. I do, however have premed advisors, but I've barely met them, and usually only to make sure I'll graduate with some sort of degree next year. Anyways, I've collected letters from profs and such, and should have plenty to meet any school's requirements...

But I found on the Johns Hopkins requirements, that if there is no committee, but are individual advisors, the letter should be submitted from them. The specific instructions are:

A recommendation from your college Premedical Committee. (This is required if your college has such a committee.)
OR
A recommendation from your Premedical Advisor. (This is required if your college has an officially designated Premedical Advisor rather than a Premedical Committee.)
OR
Two letters of recommendation from senior faculty members in science departments who have taught you. (This is to be used only if neither of the above is provided by your college.) The Committee on Admission will make final determination as to whether an applicant’s recommendations have come from the appropriate source. Information supplied by the colleges is generally
used to make this determination.

So, should I panic and try to get a letter written by an advisor that barely knows me (even if I give her my current letters, etc.), or just send in what I have and see what happens?

 

[Code Brown]

OK, I've tried searching, but to no avail...

My school (Michigan State) has no premed committee. I do, however have premed advisors, but I've barely met them, and usually only to make sure I'll graduate with some sort of degree next year. Anyways, I've collected letters from profs and such, and should have plenty to meet any school's requirements...

But I found on the Johns Hopkins requirements, that if there is no committee, but are individual advisors, the letter should be submitted from them. The specific instructions are:


So, should I panic and try to get a letter written by an advisor that barely knows me (even if I give her my current letters, etc.), or just send in what I have and see what happens?

If I didn't know them very well, I probably wouldn't ask them to do it. Didn't any of your profs (who are writing the letters) act as advisors in some form? If you are worried, you can always ask them to include a line about being your advisor in the LOR. Just because they aren't "official" advisors doesn't mean that they can't be advisors. Good luck!

 

[dajimmers]

If I didn't know them very well, I probably wouldn't ask them to do it. Didn't any of your profs (who are writing the letters) act as advisors in some form? If you are worried, you can always ask them to include a line about being your advisor in the LOR. Just because they aren't "official" advisors doesn't mean that they can't be advisors. Good luck!

I think that may suffice- these profs have done far more "advising" for me than have my "official" premed advisors. Hopefully it will work. If Hopkins complains, I guess I'll worry about that later. I could just say my advisor was gone for the summer, which is true for one of them 🙂

 

[dr.z]

Did you try talking to the advisor? They should be able to write a composite letter from the letters you have.

 

[PhotoMD]

If your premed advisor is anything like mine, they hate that stuff. You're better off getting faculty letters. As an admissions committee member, I'd prefer faculty letters to advisor or committee letters. Who needs a rehash of your extracurriculars? Why base your decision off of someone else's interview before you've had a chance to interview?