Recommendations for reapplicants~~

[johnwandering]

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I heard that reapplicants can reuse their committee letters from the previous years, as long as they have a couple new recommendations to attach to them.

I currently have 4 letters of recommendations:
-MD I shadowed
-Music professor
-Biology Professor
-Biology Professor (student advisor)

I'm currently working in a research lab, and haven't embarked on any notable new volunteer activities as of late. I know that I can get a stellar letter of rec from one of the PhDs here.

So 5th letter:
-Lab PhD affiliate scientist


But I don't really have anyone else unique that can write me another letter. I can get another PhD from the lab to write me a letter, or another doctor I shadowed to write me a letter.
Would this 6th letter be redundant? or would it help my application?


Another question, I can get a letter from a doctor I shadowed. One of them is an MD and I'm not too close with them, but he is a well known dermatologist (residency at Yale and all that). The other doctor is a DO fresh out of residency.
Is it preferable to get a better letter from a less prestigious title? or a slightly more generic letter from a doctor with a more meaningful title?

 

[Suncrusher]

LORs have to all be pretty glowing and not at all hesitant, or else it is bad for you. But having more and more awesome letters isn't going to get you in if you weren't going to get in otherwise...

I reapplied and got accepted. I only had one new letter and it was from a doctor that I shadowed for ONE DAY. All my other letters were already good and didn't need to be replaced. The new letter definitely isn't what made the difference. And letters from doctors you've shadowed are probably the weakest type of LOR. I think there was a thread about the most overrated part of med school apps, and LizzyM's choice was LORs from shadowing experiences.

I guess what I'm saying is that (in my humble opinion) you should be most worried that every single letter you have is a good one. And yeah, to me, adding both shadowing ones seems redundant. There are lots of other areas of your app that you can improve to make a bigger difference. The stellar letter from the PhD will probably be a great addition--as long as you are 100% sure it will be stellar--because you already have a shadowing letter, science letters, and a nonscience letter...so a research letter seems like a good idea (?) I don't want to pretend to be an expert on any of this, haha

 

[johnwandering]

Thanks for the reply!~

Yeah, I had a suspicion that the extra shadowing letters may be redundant. The only thing I'm really concerned about is that one of the topics here noted LizzyM saying that a reapplicant should ideally have 2 new letters of recommendation with the old committee letter.

And I only have one real legitimate one~~


=(

I guess I am just worried and wanting reaffirmation from the community that just 1 new letter of recommendation will not affect my application negatively.
Seems like from your experience it wasn't~


Any other inputs?