Science Reference

[bvand086]

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I realize this may have been asked previously but in a search i did i was unable to find any answers to my question.

I have been unable to establish any real relationships with my science professors as all the classes have 400 students and three sections (total 1200 students taking the class). I am applying this summer and am only taking one science class right now. I have approached two professors the first said he would prefer not to write me a letter because he would be unable to say anything more than my transcript would say. The second said he is definitely willing to write me a letter but it will be a generic letter saying I took "this class" with "this many students" and got "this grade" as well as highlighting what the class average was.

Is a generic/cookie cutter letter like this going to be detrimental to my application? I have very solid other LORs its only the science letter that is tripping me up.

One additional point is that the school I attend (University of Ottawa) does not have a pre-med advisory committee, there is a pre-health advisor (just one woman, bit of an airhead) that may be able to write me a letter if that would help but again, she oversees everyone in the faculty and I don't know how personal the letter would be.

Basically my question comes down to this: do my strong LORs outweigh a weak generic science professor LOR?

Thanks in advance!

 

[kansaskid]

If that's all your going to get, then that's all your going to get. Otherwise I'd suggest getting to know your science professors. It's definitely possible even in huge classes. You just go to office hours as often as possible with questions, even if you don't have a real question, get clarification on something, initiate a conversation so your prof gets to know you. It's not too difficult! But if it's too late to change things, then you'll just have to accept lukewarm recs from your science professors. Hopefully your others will make up for it!