Recommendations by when?

[JohnDO]

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Howdy folks! Does anyone know roughly when the letters of recommendation need to be sent to prospective schools? Is it as soon as you send in your primary application? As of now (semester before application) I only have 2 letters of recommendation (1 DO, 1 science). I'm not in a good position to ask for another one this semester, mostly because the other professors don't know me well. I hear mixed opinions about asking a professor who doesn't know you for recommendations. Some say that they'll just give you a standardized one (assuming you did well in the class), others say don't bother.

I'm taking the MCAT in april ( ), and I want to get my application in as soon as possible (I hear the sooner the better). However, I don't have any other letters at the moment. I might try to squeeze some out of the professors I have over the summer.

So do they need to be sent with your primary application, or when you fill out secondaries?

 

[Adapt]

You are supposed to send LORs out after you get your secondary from a school. The timeline is as follows:

You send in your primary app to AACOM in June. They verify and send it off to the schools you applied to around July. A couple of weeks after receiving it, each school will send you a secondary application. Then you should send in the completed secondary and have your LORs mailed to that school who sent you the secondary so this would probably be in August some time.

It is good to have an LOR service and if your school has that utilize it. That way whenever you get an LOR, the LOR writer mails it to the service, and then when you want your LORs to go out you tell that service and they make copies and send it for you.

As far as getting LORs, I had 5. Three knew me well and two didn't know me. I gave a copy of my personal statement, transcripts, MCAT score, and CV to all of them. Even though the two that didn't know me gave me a standard LOR, they at least knew something more about me that they could have talked about because I gave them that info.

My LORs didn't seem to be a problem even though I did't know 2 professors at all. I still had much success in the process.